After Pak, It's Bangladesh, Myanmar: China plans new corridor that runs roughly 1,700 km from Kunming to Myanmar's coast. This is China building Indian Ocean access on India's eastern flank, mirroring what CPEC and Gwadar do on the western flank via Pakistan. Beijing intends to extend the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor to Bangladesh as part of its larger Maritime Belt and Road Initiative to boost its Indian Ocean presence.
China's Teesta Move: Why India should be very, very alarmed about China's Teesta move in Bangladesh. The firm involved in the project is PowerChina is also part of the strategic works with the People's Liberation Army. Pakistan, in the meanwhile, reportedly proposed a 'Joint Military Command' that comes alongside offers of 16-48 JF-17 Block III fighters - together with a simulator already delivered two months ago. That's the first piece of Pakistani military equipment to enter the country since 1971
Hundreds vs Zero: If war were to break out between India and China tomorrow, one side could send hundreds of stealth fighter jets into battle, while the other may not be able to send even one. China may already have around 500 operational J-20 Mighty Dragon stealth fighters, its most advanced jet. Delhi's operational stealth fighter inventory today stands at exactly zero.
Kaveri To J-20: How China Overtook India In A 40-Year-Old Race To Build Fighter Jets. China's early efforts were disastrous. Many countries would have cancelled the programme. But China doubled down.
Between 2010 and 2020, Beijing invested approximately USD 42 billion under its "Two Engines" initiative, pouring unprecedented resources into superalloy metallurgy, manufacturing technologies, testing infrastructure, and specialised research institutes. Failures were treated not as embarrassments but as engineering data.
Security nightmare: Anthropic’s powerful Mythos AI reportedly breached ‘almost all’ NSA classified systems within a few hours during red-team test — report sheds more light on the U.S. government's sudden ban on the flagship models
China Has Matched Anthropic in Cybersecurity, Resetting AI Race: Chinese cybersecurity company 360 Security Technology released a new bug-finding tool called Tulongfeng. The company said it was comparable to Mythos in finding bugs. Those capabilities have alarmed many national-security officials and CEOs.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei stated in a Bloomberg interview that the India AI Summit was "extremely disorganised".
About the chaos on stage: "There was Narendra Modi up there suddenly telling everyone to hold hands..." (collapses with laughter). pic.twitter.com/24lnmtCw17
Putin in trouble? Over 40% of refining capacity hit: Expert warns Russia could ‘disintegrate’ over fuel shortage. . . China's Great Betrayal? Has Russia's biggest energy gamble just collapsed?
Low cost killing machines: “The average life expectancy of a Russian recruit right now arriving on the battlefield in Ukraine is estimated to be between 20 and 30 minutes”
Someone Else Owns India's Off Switch: Around 70 per cent of our cloud runs on three American hyperscalers, every byte reachable under the US CLOUD Act.
We do not operate a single DNS root server, so every query from Indian soil is resolved on infrastructure we neither own nor can audit.
And since a breach in 2014, we have had no trusted sovereign Root Certificate Authority, which means foreign corporations decide what the Indian internet is allowed to trust.
Nayara Energy, July 2025. Microsoft suspended services to an Indian refinery that handles 8 per cent of the country's refining capacity, to comply with European Union sanctions over its Russian shareholding. It was a kill switch, and we had no override.
The cloud, the certificates, the DNS, the navigation, the silicon. We rent all of it.
Dear Indian Corporates, dump Microsoft 365, embrace Zoho One to support and preserve tech Sovereignity.
MBA era is over: India has historically placed greater value on academic credentials while overlooking vocational professions and skilled trades. Countries such as Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Korea and China have traditionally shown greater respect for occupations involving practical skills.
"The globalising world gave a certain advantage to software, computer science and MBA education, but that era is over". Young people should focus on developing skills that remain valuable even as technology transforms industries.
CBSE has made vocational education mandatory for Class IX and Class X. It was one of the most sensible reform recommendations under NEP.
The rollout may still need work (report below), but the idea is unquestionably the right one. pic.twitter.com/ubsdiw9C2w
— Prasanna Viswanathan (@prasannavishy) June 26, 2026
India's Biggest Economic Challenge is not inflation, oil, or war - It is an unskilled population addicted to distraction.
It is a generation that spends more time consuming content than creating value.
The biggest theft today is not of money. It is of attention. Every notification fragments concentration. Every endless scroll delays mastery.
Modern economies reward deep work, specialized knowledge, creativity, and disciplined execution. Algorithms reward emotional reactions. Unfortunately, millions choose the algorithm.
Own goal - Rupee's Pain Is Self-Inflicted: Indian firms investing abroad contributed roughly $30 billion to the capital outflow. Why would a country that requires close to $90B in net foreign capital annually to sustain rapid growth permit $30B of capital to flow abroad, thereby contributing to pressure on the rupee?
End to Rafale mess? Only 40-50 Rafales will be bought, if at all; rest MRFA Su-57E. This is because two other offers are on the table — Russia’s complete with tech-transfer, including source codes, for its 5th generation fighter — Su-57E, and Sweden’s for its Saab 4.5 gen Gripen E.
‘The future isn’t manned vs unmanned’: If Pakistan does induct the J-35, it would change the regional air power equation. The Su-57 is one platform that comes into the conversation, given its operational status and India’s familiarity with Russian-origin systems.
It is worth remembering that fifth-generation capability goes well beyond the airframe. Sensors, mission systems, weapons integration and networking define it as much as stealth does. An aircraft without that ecosystem solves only half the problem. Importantly, AMCA is and must remain India’s long-term answer.
Ashtavakra Gita: One small shift in understanding can dissolve a lifetime of inner struggle.
Mohammed's Own Country: Deaths outpace births among Kerala’s Hindus and Christians as population growth turns negative
BikAss: Over 2.8 million trees on forest land were approved for felling or recorded as felled in less than three years. . . .India's worst air pollution crisis isn't in its megacities.
Over 2.8 million trees on forest land were approved for felling or recorded as felled in less than three years, a Down To Earth analysis of official records has found.
Between July 2023 and May 2026, the environment ministry’s Advisory Committee considered 288 unique forest… pic.twitter.com/37jHJqaJt7
Iran deal - back to square one:
“Over the three-month trajectory, what Iran showed is that, yes, they were the underdog, attacked by two nuclear powers with military supremacy. But they also had their own cards to play.
The defining point in this war is the strategic geographic advantage that Iran has over the Strait of Hormuz. And it seems like President Trump and the US just couldn't get them to reopen the strait with force. This brought [the US] to the negotiating table and, essentially, back to square one, because the Strait of Hormuz wasn't even a problem before the war.”
"We're back to the original sin of Trump: out of obsession or jealousy of Barack Obama, tearing down an agreement that was much better negotiated.”
Advantage China: CEO of Chinese Anthropic rival tells Elon Musk that China will have a Fable 5-class AI model before next year
Cheaper AI: Microsoft abandoning costly OpenAI, Anthropic models for China-based DeepSeek’s V4 Model for enterprise workloads. Soaring token costs are driving enterprise customers away from OpenAI and Anthropic and right into the lap of China's DeepSeek
Nation run by engineers: China drafts $295 billion plan to build national AI data center grid running on 80% homemade silicon.
NEET 2026 is a case study in institutional failure. Almost farcical
NEET 2026 is no longer an examination. It’s such a case study in institutional failure. Almost farcical
First the paper leak. Then cancellation. Then a nationwide re-exam for 22+ lakh students. Then portal. glitches. Now reports of portal itself is being exploited, admit cards… pic.twitter.com/qs1KwMhlBV
— Prasanna Viswanathan (@prasannavishy) June 16, 2026
Trump's comment that he would revisit arms sales to Taiwan has stirred anxiety across Asia and prompted questions about U.S. security commitments. Indian leaders are among those with concerns.
Trump-Xi Bonhomie: Should India Be Uneasy?: A former Indian foreign secretary, a leading China hawk until recently, has advised the Modi govt that a reassessment of Quad is overdue. But it is easier said than done, given the mindset of the Indian elite.
Xi Is Truly Done Falling For The Great American Bluff: China kept the upper hand during Trump's visit by, amongst other things, Xi Jinping retaining his poise and distance while Trump tried to ingratiate himself with flattery and body language.
At the opening of the formal delegation-level talks, the lining up of the top-most American corporate leaders behind Trump suggested a homage being paid to Xi's China, reminiscent of the kowtowing to the Chinese emperor in the past. Trump was messaging a willingness to explore possibilities of renewed economic interdependence with China.
Addressing Trump at the formal talks, Xi was sententious and demanding. He called on the US to be "partners, not rivals" with China. . . . amusing to see Trump kissing Xi's ass.
Christian nationalist push: Trump administration pushes narrative of Christian founding at Rally. . One Nation under Yeshu.
China Boosts Indian Ocean Ambitions: China despatches thousands of fishing boats to the region for illegal fishing, thus depleting the fish stock of the region.
During Operation Sindoor, hundreds of such boats appeared, possibly to harass the Indian Navy.
Such 'grey zone' activities are conducted to indicate China's intention to enter the region, gather intelligence, create civil-military confusion, exploit lack of preparedness by adversaries or treated as a stop-gap arrangement before full-fledged naval deployments.
Even though China had commissioned the Djibouti naval base in 2017, initially as a logistical support facility at the chokepoint of the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, it is now being expanded to include submarine docking facilities.
China also initiated a number of dual-use ports or maritime facilities -- estimated to be more than a hundred across 46 countries in the region. These are considered to be a counter to the US-led maritime world order as well as to marginalise India in the region.
What Chinese Distant Water Fishing Vessels are doing inside the Exclusive Economic Zones of Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Panama and other South American nations, is surely not industrial fishing. This is a well organised plunder of marine resources, funded and facilitated by… pic.twitter.com/TZR5IRUzzc
India’s compliance, China’s defiance: As New Delhi petitions Washington to renew the sanctions waiver expiring today so it can keep importing Russian oil, Trump says he is considering lifting U.S. sanctions on Chinese refiners buying Iranian crude. China defies American sanctions…
Supreme Court of India: 'If Parents Are IAS Officers, Why Reservation For Their Children?'
Beyond just assembling phones: Lava's ₹1,100 Cr bet is to build what's inside. Aims to shift from mere assembly to producing key components domestically. . . a lot can be done even before domestic fabs go live.
Three Charts:
India Oil Consumption: 2013 to 2024: 5.621M bbl/d for 2024
USD to Indian Rupee - 2013 to 2026
Brent Crude Price - 2010 to 2026
Uber-ize gold: For national necessity & personal prosperity. How a National Gold Library could transform household jewellery into productive capital, strengthen the rupee, and cut imports.
For Korean companies, India is a lucrative cash cow: LG India reported revenue of Rs 24,366 crore and a net profit of Rs 2,203 crore last year. Royalty payments to its Korean parent reached Rs 454.61 crore. But the real headline came with its 2025 IPO: In one stroke, LG India’s market capitalisation surpassed that of its global headquarters’. And it was purely due to generous policy environment.
Hyundai Motor India and its sibling Kia tell a similar tale of extraction masked as investment. Royalty payments stand at 3.5% of sales revenue, translating into thousands of crores annually repatriated to Seoul. Such an anomaly has left Tata Motors and Mahindra to fight an uphill battle against what many term subsidized Korean pricing power.
Samsung India completes the triumvirate of value extractors. Its revenue for the first time crossed Rs 1.11 lakh crore during 2025, making it the only consumer-electronics firm in India to cross the trillion-rupee mark. During 2024, royalty remittances to the Korean parent hit Rs 3,322 crore, roughly 40% of that year’s net profit. Retained earnings have ballooned and been diverted to Vietnam.
Profits earned from Indian consumers through high royalties, IPO cash-outs and dividend flows are effectively subsidizing Vietnamese factories that then export finished goods back into India. Why? Should Korean conglomerates plough cash extracted from India into manufacturing facilities in a smaller neighbor that then undercuts Indian industry? The optics is toxic: India as a lucrative cash cow, Vietnam as the preferred factory floor.
Decades of liberalization were sold on the promise that FDI would catalyze domestic industry, transfer technology and create balanced growth. Instead, the policy has tilted towards foreign giants who repatriate profits, royalties, special dividends and IPO proceeds liberally.
On the other hand, Indian firms struggle with higher compliance costs, delayed approvals, and a royalty burden that starves local innovation.
Part of what pushed this into the open is what Korean firms did here in the last year.
Hyundai and LG listed their Indian arms and between them sent about $4.7 billion back to Seoul through IPOs and special dividends. Samsung's royalty payments to its parent tripled. All within… pic.twitter.com/e2Nbsuxew6
Korean loot: The proof is in the math: In just the last 12 months, Hyundai and LG repatriated $4.7 billion in royalties and profits. That is nearly ₹40,000 crore leaving our economy.
Localization of parts is not the same as localization of value. You can source 85% of a car’s weight (steel, rubber, glass) in India, but if the Intellectual Property (IP), engine architecture, and software ownership sit in Seoul, the wealth generated by Indian labor and…
Funding the Adversary: India cannot counter an expansionist rival, which lays claim to vast Indian territories including an entire state, while simultaneously bankrolling its rise.
Trump kissing Xi Jinping's ass: A quiet U.S. favor for Xi Jinping.. A U.S. quota increase at the IMF would rescue China’s bad loans.
President Trump is scheduled to visit Beijing in May for a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and he will come bearing at least one surprising gift: A budget request to Congress to hand more money to Mr. Xi’s friends at the IMF.
Chinese satellites over Mideast battlefield put US on edge: Chinese AI company MizarVision claimed on social media to have tracked the movements of American aircraft carriers, F-22 stealth fighters and B-52 bombers by using AI to analyze satellite data.
Microwave weapon: 20-gigawatt Chinese microwave weapon touted as ‘Starlink’s worst nightmare’ by country's media — portable 5-ton device can deliver full-minute destructive bursts
Lesson for India, the GREAT consumer of imported tech: Iran claims US exploited networking equipment backdoors during strikes — says devices from Cisco and others failed despite blackout in attack that 'indicates deep sabotage'
Privacy risk: Google Chrome lacks protection against one of the most basic and common ways to track users online
Watching India pitch itself as a “rule-setter” in AI is a reminder that geopolitics now includes a new category: Countries whose technological progress occurs primarily in keynote presentations.
India doesn’t have an AI industry, but they have an AI narrative: “If we can’t build… pic.twitter.com/XnhLmwu2yk
R&D poor nation: The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) proposed Rs 28,169 crore but received Rs 21,632 crore at the budget estimates stage — a reduction of nearly Rs 6,500 crore. The ministry proposed Rs 13,000 crore for the semiconductor programme but received Rs 8,000 crore at the budget estimates stage.
A giant leap for our energy sector: India is now only the second country after Russia to operate a commercial-scale FBR. Parallel development of the third stage to leverage India’s vast thorium resources, a vision conceived by Dr Homi Bhabha.
16/
China has been trying to build a Fast Breeder Reactor for 20 years.
Meta must face youth addiction lawsuit: "...designing a social media platform that capitalizes on the developmental vulnerabilities of children or by affirmatively misleading consumers about the safety of the Instagram platform"
Akkala Rami Reddy found that a parcel of his family land, which had been temporarily given to a distant relative for use as a cattle shed, had allegedly been converted into a Christian prayer hall. The relative had converted to Christianity and changed the site into a place of worship.
Solar is winning the energy race: The world's cheapest power source is scaling at warp speed, pushing coal, gas and nuclear aside. In 2015, Pakistan and South Africa each produced less than 1% of their electricity from solar. Ten years later, that has risen to 20% and 10% respectively.
India the big loser in the US-Iran War: At the core the issue is of India being strung out between strategic subservience to the US — that has led to its Gulf policy ending in a cul de sac, and economic dependence on China, with both Washington and Beijing now hanging Modi-Jaishankar and India out to dry.
"Washington will strive to keep India down, preferably under its thumb, economically and in the technology sphere, prop up Pakistan as its main agent in the region, but will expect Delhi to help the US counterpoise China in the Indo-Pacific! The Indian govt is sufficiently spooked by the China threat to want to rely on the US strategically and to do so on American terms. And sure India should arm itself with American weapons, and reproduce any US military goods it wants but under license, thus lighting fire to the atmnirbharta pyre".
🇫🇷🇮🇳 France just drew a hard line… and it hits India’s airpower strategy directly.
Paris is refusing to give India access to Rafale’s core source codes, which means New Delhi cannot independently modify the jet’s most critical systems, including its radar, mission computer, and… https://t.co/YJ3H46rst0pic.twitter.com/0Nl22cWZa7
The UAE has withdrawn from funding the development of the new Rafale F5 after France refused to transfer advanced technology. The message is clear: Real partnership with genuine technology transfer — or no deal. pic.twitter.com/MUTheN8DHB
— سيف الدرعي| Saif alderei (@saif_aldareei) April 3, 2026
🇨🇳 Chinese civilians with technical backgrounds are increasingly posting detailed military analysis online aimed at helping Iran counter U.S. forces, in a growing grassroots trend across Chinese social media, according to the South China Morning Post.
Showing some spine: Malaysia exits US reciprocal trade deal. Becomes the first country to abandon a pact negotiated under Washington’s reciprocal tariff strategy after a court ruling removed the legal basis for the policy.
Protein myths: “There is no evidence that habitual exercise increases protein requirements; indeed protein metabolism may become more efficient as a result of training.” ..just because it’s post workout, doesn’t mean you need oodles of whey
Bike Bus: "One of the benefits of the bike bus is that when you're cycling as a group you feel a bit safer.
"There's been a lovely buzz watching the bike bus arrive each week and the children who participated have been really happy, enthusiastic, really energised by their bike ride here to school".
"I think it's great for kids mental health as well as their physical health plus I think it's great for parents too.
"I think for the community more broadly too because there's less cars on the road, less congestion, it's better air quality, so there's a lot of benefits."
'The myth about SIPs': At the end of the day, in order for me to win, someone else must lose. Now, in order to create that population of losers, you need the millions of retail investors, the millions of SIP participants, for their capital to flow somewhere.
End of Bitcoin? Google research suggests encryption technique used by Bitcoin will be cracked by quantum computers around 2029 — search giant says quantum attacks need to be prepared for now
Google unveils TurboQuant, a new AI memory compression algorithm — and yes, the internet is calling it 'Pied Piper'. . . A simple explanation of the key idea behind TurboQuant
Pakistan’s military "success" over India in its four-day clash showcased Chinese weaponry. While characterization of this conflict as
a “proxy war” may overstate China’s role as an instigator, Beijing
opportunistically leveraged the conflict to test and advertise the
sophistication of its weapons, useful in the contexts of its ongoing
border tensions with India and its expanding defense industry goals.
As Pakistan’s largest defense supplier, China provided approximately 82 percent of the country’s arms imports from 2019 to 2023.204
This clash was the first time China’s modern weapons systems,
including the HQ-9 air defense system, PL-15 air-to-air missiles,
and J-10 fighter aircraft were used in active combat, serving as a
real-world field experiment.205 China reportedly offered to sell 40
J-35 fifth-generation fighter jets, KJ-500 aircraft, and ballistic missile defense systems to Pakistan in June 2025.206 That same month,
Pakistan announced a 20 percent increase in its 2025–2026 defense
budget, raising planned expenditures to $9 billion despite an overall
budget decrease.
In the weeks after the conflict, Chinese embassies hailed the successes of its systems in the India-Pakistan clash, seeking to bolster
weapons sales. Pakistan’s use of Chinese weapons to down French
Rafale fighter jets used by India also became a particular selling
point for Chinese Embassy defense sales efforts despite the fact that
only three jets flown by India’s military were reportedly downed and
all may not have been Rafales.
According to French intelligence,
China initiated a disinformation campaign to hinder sales of French
Rafales in favor of its own J-35s, and it used fake social media accounts to propagate AI and video game images of supposed “debris”
from the planes China’s weaponry destroyed. Chinese Embassy
officials convinced Indonesia to halt a purchase of Rafale jets already in process, furthering China’s inroads into other regional actors’ military procurements.
China Opportunistically Used Pakistan’s Military Crisis to Test and Promote Its Own Defense Capabilities
The Indian Army claimed China helped Pakistan with “live inputs” on Indian military
positions throughout the crisis and effectively used the conflict as
a testing ground for its own military capabilities.
The Jeruselam post: How Pakistan shot down India's cutting-edge fighter using Chinese gear
Prof Bharat Karnad: In retrospect, Modi made the gravest strategic error by calling the White House after the Indian missiles had been fired at the terrorist facilities in Muridke and Bahawalpur on May 7 to inform the US President that the Indian strikes were limited retaliation for the Pahalgam massacre.
Modi was telling him nothing he did not already know. But the act of Modi telling him is what marked India out in the pecking order as a subsidiary power trying to preempt Trump from lashing out. It did not work.
Not sure why Modi feels it imperative to please the US President, when Trump insults and humiliates in return. Because going strictly by his transactionalist tilt, it is Trump’s America that will be hard put strategically to replace India in the Indo-Pacific, to economically find a market as vast as India’s to sell to.
Prof Bharat Karnad: Modi’s atmnirbharta policies are cementing India’s reputation as a classic sucker.
“In a move that could severely undercut India’s domestic defence industry, the Modi govt is considering allowing wholly owned local subsidiaries of foreign original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to qualify as ‘Indian vendors’ in defence procurement. This long-pending demand of multinational arms makers threatens to hand the lucrative defence market to global giants while sidelining homegrown firms.”
That Modi cannot distinguish between “Made in India” — where the entire weapon system is designed, developed, and produced in the country, and “Make in India” where any foreign goods can be imported in disaggregated kit-form and screw-drivered, was pointed out by me when the PM first started talking about atmnirbharta. 11 years later we know what that means.
Modi publicly disclosed what he meant by atm nirbhar — his “Make in India” policy, he said, involves “Indian toil”. So, for the PM it is enough that Indians employed in these Indian factories of foreign arms companies, being set up here in the hope of getting the exact bonanza they are getting now, will be screwdrivering vintage second rate military hardware. But, this policy wrinkle will simplify procurement by bypassing the “jhanjat” of tech transfer. Welcome to India — the dumping ground for antique Western weaponry!
But this development seems in the mainstream of the Modi government’s recent initiatives that see nothing wrong in signing Free Trade Agreements left and right drawn up by that shortsighted commerce minister, Piyush Goel, and his bunch of babus, with provisions in them to permit British and European companies to bid for all Indian govt procurement contracts at the central, state and local levels worth $750 billion annually, which will void the Indian industry.
There are other provisions in them that will bar Indian entities from demanding the transfer of source codes as part of sales deals to enable the re-engineering, say, of weapons and other systems for retrofitment on imported hardware and weapons platforms, to fit India’s needs and requirements.
Hence, Dassault Avions’ refusal to part with source codes for the Rafale aircraft means that DRDO cannot integrate Indian designed and produced missiles and ordnance into the IAF Rafales. And even for the most minor modifications the IAF will have to go to the French company — an endless revenue stream for Dassult! Apparently Paris had alerted the French defence industry to New Delhi’s agreeing to such provisions in the soon to be formalised FTA with EU (and also with the UK and the US).
India and China, a study in contrast: MNCs forced to do JV with locals in return for market access is at the heart of China model.
In India, not only do we surrender our markets to MNCs, we also put up with their transfer pricing/royalty shenanigans
MNCs forced to do JV with locals in return for market access is at the heart of China model. It allows domestic firms to "absorb" tech and move up value chain In India, not only do we surrender our markets to MNCs, we also put up with their transfer pricing/royalty shenanigans pic.twitter.com/49Uqi7bjul
IAF and the French Defence industry: Recently, we learnt from defence minister Rajnath Singh that the French jet engine maker, Safran would help India design and develop its own jet engine — no, not by building on the Kaveri 35VS engine that produced 81 kiloNewtons (kN) of thrust in a dry test — which, incidentally, is some 9kN more than the 73kN thrust developed by the engines on the Rafales flying with the IAF currently. And, notwithstanding some Rupees 20 BILLION the country has sunk into the Kaveri project, including setting up the impressive jet engine facility at the GTRE, Bengaluru. But rather by forking over $10 BILLION to Safran for passing off the Snecma M88-4 engine with some tinkering, as some new fangled power plant for the Tejas 1A and Mk2.
Except, the M88 is a design product of the 1970s, that is, it is an over 50 year OLD jet engine!
The defence minister very proudly declared that the indigenous twin-engined advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA) would be powered by this engine. Sure its power is going to be increased to 120kN but on the same old design. In other words, by the time the AMCA — a supposedly 5th generation aircraft is airborne realistically no earlier than 2040, the engine it will be outfitted with will already be 70+ years old!!!
The Free Trade Agreement the Piyush Goel-led commerce ministry negotiated with the UK and is negotiating with the EU and the US, permits Western supplier firms to deny transfer of source codes for their wares!
Blundering again: It takes a special talent in our politicians to make Leh’s Tibetan Buddhists so belligerent
GOP versus scholars: America is in danger of experiencing an academic brain drain. Other countries may benefit.
India must decide if it’s ready to welcome back scholars: A perceived threat to academic freedom is prompting many academicians to consider relocating. Countries in Europe have taken swift action on the perceived brain drain from the US. Emmanuel Macron extended an open invitation to the best brains to relocate to France.
Deep tech, shallow pockets: Indian deep tech startups raised only about 3.2% of the total funds funneled into Indian startups since 2014. Unlike e-commerce, ride-hailing or financial services, where revenues kick in from the beginning, startups focusing on deep tech take years to develop and commercialize their products. While Silicon Valley might have become obsessed with startups dealing in robotics, rockets, chips and other complex technologies, such deep tech companies are having a much harder time fundraising in India. . . Frugal tech.
Bharat Karnad: "The trouble lies in Modi’s inordinate desire to please America, to be in Trump’s good books, and that’s the joker in the pack".
Remittance Tax: Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill' proposes 5% remittance tax, may cost India $1.65 billion
Tenacity: Xi defiance pays off as Trump meets most China trade demands
Stand tough: China-US trade truce prompts nations to consider tougher tactics
Al-Bakistan: Afghanistan plans to build dams to cut water flow to Pakistan.. . . Pak always wished to turn into Arabia.. their wish is getting fulfilled :)
#FundKaveriEngine trending: Many called on PM Modi to allocate more funds and resources for the Kavera engine, emphasising its importance in the nation's interest. The goal is to end India's dependence on foreign engines for building fighter jets, promoting self-reliance in defence technology.
US DIA Report: China still India's 'primary adversary', Pakistan mere security problem.
Prepare for China conflict: "If India really did lose between two and five aircraft, as most outside analysts believe is the case, the explanation for that appeared to be the superior radar of the Chinese aircraft. I hope Indians are really reflecting upon what does this mean for a potential China-India conflict, not just what does this mean for future India-Pakistan conflicts".
AI Is Coming for India’s Famous Tech Hub: AI might accelerate trends that have already made the industry less labor-intensive. About a decade ago, companies needed about 27 employees to earn $1 million in annual revenue. That number has now fallen to 21 employees ..The industry added 60,000 jobs in the year ended in March, the lowest annual increase in more than a decade.
China Expert: “India must copy this from China to stay ahead!” Manoj Kewalramani -- MUST WATCH!
Japan's chipmaking revival? Rapidus to use AI and robots to automate back end chipmaking processes.. claims automation can slash delivery times by 66% versus TSMC and Samsung.
More white elephants? "India's dream to host Olympics 2036, we are preparing"... Is it to foster sporting culture, or to leverage national pride that borders on jingoism?.... Hosting Olympics is NOT a great investment:
The world is but a show, glittering and empty. It is, and yet is not. It
is there as long as I want to see it and take part in it. When I cease
caring, it dissolves, It has no cause and serves no purpose. It just
happens when we are absent-minded. It appears exactly as it looks, but
there is no depth in it, nor meaning. Only the onlooker is real, call
him Self or Atma. To the Self the world is but a colourful show, which
he enjoys as long as it lasts and forgets when it is over. Whatever
happens on the stage makes him shudder in terror or roll with laughter,
yet all the time he is aware that it is but a show. Without desire or
fear he enjoys it, as it happens.
I am a dream that can wake you up.
‘Abject capitulation’ by Indian govt: Military veterans fear that the creation of non-militarised “buffer zones" inside the India-claimed lines at multiple transgression points in eastern Ladakh
may help the Chinese Army to force India to agree to its
reinterpretation of the LAC.
Phone Addicts: Indians spend more time on their smartphones daily than the rest of the world. More than 881 million Indians are 'always on' -- those who can't do without their phones.
Tower proposes $8B Indian wafer fab: Israeli foundry Tower Semiconductor has submitted a proposal to the Indian government to build a 65/40nm wafer fab in India at a cost of US$8 billion
A Curious Business Model: India will pay 70% of cost but Micron will own 100% of plant.. Micron will hold 100% ownership of a plant that costs $2.75 billion after having invested only $0.825 billion!
If chip-making is India’s goal, the Micron deal won’t deliver it. What we are getting—assembling and testing chips made elsewhere—is the lowest end of the chip-making technology. We are not competing with the US, China, South Korea, or Japan on chip-making but with, for example, Malaysia, which is already streets ahead of us in this sector
Stay in touch with the earth: For spiritual seekers, the time around new moon is particularly significant to stay in touch with the earth.
How China Miscalculated Its Way to a Baby Bust: China’s baby bust is happening faster than many expected, raising fears of a demographic collapse. And coping with the fallout may now be complicated by miscalculations made more than 40 years ago. A Moscow-trained missile scientist led the push for China’s policy, based on tables of calculations that applied mathematical models used to calculate rocket trajectories to population growth.
China cheating? Who knew! /s: Taiwan accuses China of 'cheating' and 'stealing' chipmaking technologies. "They do not really follow the rules. They cheat and they copy, etc. They steal technology."
Germany’s Days as an Industrial Superpower Are Coming to an End: China is becoming a bigger rival and is no longer an insatiable buyer of German goods. The US is drifting away from Europe and is seeking to compete with its transatlantic allies for climate investment. The final blow for some heavy manufacturers was the end of huge volumes of cheap Russian natural gas.
Most charitable person: Jamsetji Tata, the founder of Tata Group, has been recognized as the most charitable person of the past century, having donated a staggering Rs 829,734 crore. This surpasses contributions from other global philanthropists, including Bill Gates, who secured the second position.
Thorium hope: New Fuel Powers Up India's Green Nuclear Future
Indian Navy Flexes Its Muscles In Red Sea: India is deploying a growing number of warships to counter rebel attacks on commercial ships plying around the Middle East, while steering clear of joining the official U.S.-led force in the Red Sea, as it looks to protect its ties with Iran.
A jobs crisis in India is driving workers to Israel: Government data shows a declining trend in joblessness. This is due to the inclusion of unpaid work as jobs in government data. "It's not that jobs are not happening. It's just that organised jobs are barely growing and at the same time, the number of young people looking for jobs is increasing".
BJP rule under NaMo a dark age for the ASI: Archaeologist KK Muhammed: "The ASI has become a dead organisation and 10 years of BJP rule is a dark age of the organisation. I had undertaken the renovation of 80 temples that were destroyed in the earthquake in the Chambal area. We expected they (BJP) would be in the forefront of the renovation efforts. But not a single temple has been renovated in the last nine years".
Chinese guy compares China and India: I'm Chinese, I've worked in India for a while, I've been to some of the cities and villages in India. Personally, I think the gap between India and China will only get bigger, not smaller, in the next 10 to 20 years.
Foreign investment in India is aimed at capturing the domestic demand of India. Foreign investment in China, the purpose is not only to occupy the Chinese market, but to meet the needs of the world!
Second, India may miss out on a fourth industrial revolution Many people call breakthroughs in high-speed communications, new energy, new materials, life sciences, artificial intelligence and other fields the fourth industrial revolution. But Indians are still keen on IT and have invested little in the fourth industrial revolution.
Third, India's environmental crisis. As a Chinese, I have witnessed the destruction of China's environment by industrialization. It is easy to destroy the environment, but difficult to repair it. Today, the annual investment in environmental protection in China far exceeds the sum of education and military expenditure. But it will take generations to repair the environment, and some will never be. Unfortunately, I saw similar environmental damage in India, which has a higher population density and a lower environmental carrying capacity than China. India must solve its environmental problems, which may cause social instability and unrest.
Fourth, India's education crisis. In particular, inequality in education. Personally, 20% of people in India get a good education, but the quality and environment of education for the other 80% is really bad. Inequality in education leads to inequality in life development.
Undergrad textbooks in 12 Indian languages soon: The 12 Indian languages for which EoI has been invited are Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. NEP recommends teaching of Indian languages with English and other foreign languages. It envisages the promotion of Indian languages through regular use, preparation of pedagogical materials and training of teachers.
When in Karnataka, learn to speak Kannada: Learning Kannada was a struggle, but inspired by my senior, I, as a non-Kannadiga then, decided to go to the hilt to learn the language. The ideal way to learn to speak a new language is to speak with the locals — shopkeepers, vendors, helpers and even strangers with whom you can strike up small conversations. Let them know you are learning Kannada, and making an effort at it. You will instantly get support. I am now fairly fluent and continuing to improve day after day…and loving it!
Aanandaa Farms: Using permaculture to convert degraded land into a beautiful food forest.
White man drooling: How Guyana's big oil boom turned it into the world's fastest-growing economy
