Mig 35 is a twin engine full-fledged multirole fighter, definitely not a trainer/light-attack plane.
Pakistanis say that the competition is between JF-17 and Korean T-50. 50-50
Indians say that Malaysians are fed-up of hard to maintain Russian jet engines. So the fight is between Tejas and T-50. 20-80
Koreans say T-50 will win. 100-0
Chinese say T-50 will win but JF-17 has a slim chance. 70-30.
Malaysians say T-50 will win but JF-17 has slim chance. 80-20
All kinds of theories going around. My odds are 70-25-5 for T-50, JF-17 and Tejas, because (a) India is no China in defense sales and (b) India-Malaysia sometimes don’t get along.
One of the real “Baniya/Lala” vs “Lohar” battles shaping up in Indian EV business – Ola Electric vs Ather.
Tarun and Swapnil have made their baby from scratch with IIT Madras incubation from 2013 onwards – doing everything from suspension design to electrical engineering to motors. They went through several redesign loops. Finally they started with a market prototype (which has now been discontinued) before settling with a final market proof design – Ather 450X. They are on their way to selling 20000 vehicles this year – they have localised 99% of the vehicle components, built up a supplier network and created distribution channels. They have rationalised models and prices and done a full round of commerical evaluation as well.
Bhavish Aggarwal has been a late entrant – he has bought out the full stake in the Dutch startup – Etergo – based at Amsterdam. Etergo was self funded with the public before Covid hit. Bhavish and Masayoshi Son (Japanese Baniya) clearly did their homework before deciding to go with Etergo. Yes Bank brings a different level of capital to the game – they plumped enough money for the group to start building a massive factory in Krishnagiri, Tamilnadu even before the vehicle went through its localisation trials in India. Again this is literally a Baniya game – through and through.
I don’t think that Ola and Ather are going to be head-on competitors – they are actually competing with the ICE two-wheelers. The market is large enough for these two players to fight comfortably without hurting each other. Still – an interesting case study between Lohar and Lala/Baniya mentalities (@Bhimrao’s words). I personally think that Ather has a leg up here – they are confident about their product and have thoroughly mastered the tradeoff between engineering risk and the Indian commercial sweet spot.
Indian two wheelers guzzle about 60% of India’s total petrol sales (Swarajyamag report) – that is about 45 billion USD per year. Even if 10% of that amount is switched to EV, it represents a positive tailwind for the rupee’s appreciation vs the dollar. I think that we might even get to switching 50% of Indian two wheelers to EVs before 2030. Given the Indian middle class proclivities for penny pinching and rising fuel prices.
Sidenote – India’s first battery Gigafactory is coming up in either Chennai or Hosur. LucasTVS along with 24M are the backers of the project. The size is going to be 10GWH. I suspect that TVS Motors will actually have a lead over either Ather or Ola in terms of vertical integration of components due to battery production.
Narasingha Deva
3 years ago
@Ugra, @Bhimrao, @Prats
I know that they haven’t released a lot of data yet but based on what we know, what are your thoughts on form energy’s iron air battery
Don’t take their claims too seriously till they publish in Nature. NSF and American industry has been throwing away money like water for battery break throughs. If it happens it will be here.
Iron-air is at a pretty experimental stage. It’s more likely that we’ll see Aluminium-air batteries in the field first.
Even so their impact is not going to be as significant as lithium-ion batteries over the next 10 years. Hope to see hydrogen gain more traction from the second half of the decade for marine, heavy road vehicles, and probably long haul aviation.
Search for ‘The Clean Hydrogen Ladder’ in case you wish to read up more on it.
Invest India organised a Green Hydrogen Summit last week. You should check out some of the talks there in case you want to delve deeper into it from a policy perspective.
I expect Okinawa and Ampere won’t last. I suspect they are rebadged Chinese maal anyways.
It would be interesting indeed. I love Aether, their founders have inspired a generation of Indian engineers. I personally know people who have were their employee # single digits. They have Hero(world’s largest two wheeler manufacturer) behind them, they have already annihilated Bajaj’s (world’s most valuable two wheeler company) electric Chetak.
So my money is still on Ather+Hero. Most Indians are very sensible when it comes to buying two-wheelers. Everyone knows that Honda Activa is much better than a TVS Jupiter, TVS Apache is objectively superior to Bajaj Pulsar. Every niche is taken Hero Dawn then Bajaj Platina then Hero Splendor. Resale value to maintenance cost have all been figured and accounted for, companies barely make any money on the bikes, exactly same components go into different brands. I don’t think this is a market where Jio can happen. But I am a biased Lohar and Ola already has 100,000 bookings for team Bania.
Makes me happy that Indian 2-wheeler industry would remain vibrant and cutting-edge.
Bhavish has been playing the classic Ambani game of “hype and sell” to both investors and customers alike. Tarun/Swapnil have been playing like Sachin, “…..let my batting speak for me….”. Somewhere I find myself rooting for Bhavish because we need a Virat in Indian business. For too long, we have been treated to sober, conservative Indian men telling us that we are good by showing us graphs and numbers. Bhavish clearly has a core, I cannot imagine Masayoshi making a bet on no evidence. I liked it when Bhavish challenged the Govt’s proposal to relax import duties for Tesla when the rest – Tatas, Mahindras, TVS – were silent. Also the reality is that Ola’s main vehicle – the aggregator – hasn’t made any money so far, like all other unicorns.
@Prats
The trade imbalance is primarily due to the excessive hydrocarbon import bill. I have seen calculations that the EV boom in India will put India on a path to rupee appreciation via trade surplus. There is appreciation of this context in both BJP and Congress. We could see the rupee settling in the 50-55 zone vs USD if we cut even 30% of our fuel imports. A lot of institutional investors know the outsized impact of the EV revolution in India.
Bhai, I get this wrong almost all the time. But at the moment, Ather Energy is gareebi-Tesla, their engineering seems very solid. I don’t know if they will go public.
Ola electric is the challenger with huge money from Softbank behind them. They are raising money but not through IPO. They will sell their scooter in the US too, maybe even Europe.
Among top dogs Hero reigns supreme for now as Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha have not been serious. Bajaj is in tatters, TVS is trying to build electric batteries first.
Expect many more to try their luck, maybe Mahindra and RE. The auto parts manufacturing and ancillaries market is so good in India that ~ 10 years ago I knew someone who started a full tractor making company by just assembling the parts from Mahindra or Sonalika suppliers.
Bhai, what do you think the impact of the EV revolution would be on the auto parts manufacturing sector (as EVs require less parts than conventional vehicles), is there any niche that these manufacturers would be easily able to shift to
I had read an article that had said that auto ancillaries can be shifted to military production. While this can work in India, what about the countries that already have a defence industry
The engine and transmission people might get hurt. In India I remember Force motors makes BMW and Merc engines and Bharat forge makes axles. I am guessing that by the time IC engines get replaced a lot of the production machinery would be old and amortized, no new R&D expenditure on IC would have happened for many years so it would be a quiet death. These people will have ample time to find other ways of making money. In the medium term (25-ish years) IC automobile will still be around in a big way.
Defense is not one industry. The volumes are far lower than automobile. Also India barely does any capital acquisitions as all the defense budget gets spent on salaries and pensions.
Most likely people will move on to different products. Look at the tail light sub assemblies in American cars and then look at the transparent lunch boxes of Indian cars. Someone will do all these fancy complicated stuff too.
Pakistanis drive shit bikes costing 25K INR, in India even the cheapest (and better) bikes cost 40K INR. I am guessing these ancillaries people will move to higher value sub assemblies for electric vehicles.
Finally, these MSME lala-ji people are very-very bright and thia is all they do. They will find a way.
Excellent piece. It echoes so many of the same sentiments I have previously expressed. Bravo.
H. M. Brough
3 years ago
Just touched down in India. Lol what is it with this place and political ads. I saw 6 massive Modi pictures before I’d even left the Delhi airport. Once outside I saw more Kejriwals, and a few BJP ones as well, but seriously what’s going on, it’s not even an election year.
The air is palpably cleaner than it used to be. Less street dogs as well. Overall an improvement from my last trip a few years back.
The architecture is as chaotic as ever, everything is crammed together in a way that would never be seen in America.
Absolute fake news. Infact so much fake news has been circulating recently by Indian media on Afghanistan that anything they are reporting should be taken with a truckload of Himalayan salt. They were still reporting pro NRF claims on hundreds of dead Taliban fighters while TB fighters this morning are having breakfast in the capital after the capital was conquered last night.
So any news on mainstream Indian news Channel that claims a NRF or ex Afg govt twitter handle as it’s source should simply be discarded.
This is basically the Taliban pleading for money. Best case for China, the Taliban get the money they need from the Gulf (Iran will be furious), worst case, the plea becomes a threat.
Treason is a valid reason for the death penalty in many nations…
Sumit
3 years ago
Found something to settle the great Gangu vs Indus “debate”…
…the first one along the Caucasus is India, a great and populous kingdom, inhabited by many Indian nations, of which the greatest is that of the Gandaridae, against whom Alexander did not make a campaign because of the multitude of their elephants. The river Ganges, which is the deepest of the region and has a width of thirty stades, separates this land from the neighbouring part of India. Adjacent to this is the rest of India, which Alexander conquered, irrigated by water from the rivers and most conspicuous for its prosperity. Here were the dominions of Porus and Taxiles, together with many other kingdoms, and through it flows the Indus River, from which the country received its name.
The author runs a sourcing firm so he should know. He notes that while big Indian firms can compete, the quality drops off a cliff once you reach into the MSME-sector, wheras for China they could find hundreds of firms that met strict Western quality control standards.
This tallies nicely with my argument that China sequenced its reform correctly – it focused on basic education first and basic manufacturing first – whereas India foolishly tried to be high-end despite being very poor. An artifact of caste politics and misguided Soviet economic influence, with its emphasis on heavy industry.
The kind of workers a big Indian firm can pull is nearly limitless, it’s different for small manufacturers. They can’t often recruit the very best and must rely more on local talent, where the *average* skill level matters much more rather than the top. If your education system is insanely biased towards the top – as India’s still is – then small manufactures will quickly find it difficult. So none of these findings shouldn’t surprise us.
This skill-biased development model is India’s original sin. Modi did a few promising initiatives like ‘Skill India’ but the guy who was running it was talking openly that they can’t fix 16 years of poor public education with a 1 year programme. Rest assured, the scheme got quietly buried.
Some of my family members and family-friends now(late 2000s onwards) run manufacturing and construction MSMEs. Every good (high IQ, organized, motivated) 18yo welder or painter or machine operator leaves for Dubai within 2 years or starts their own business. The owners who started out just like these young apprentices i.e. learning at a bigger company and then going on their own consider this a personal insult. So owners go into petty mentality and start acting like Arab army officers i.e., withholding skills and not giving promotions or managing experience etc to keep the young employees from UP, Bihar from ever leaving.
Specially true for Marwari businesses, they micromanage so much that they end up not hiring any decent engineers.
Another Indian MSME obsession is diversification, even the pettiest of manufacturer focuses on doing 5 different side businesses and not owning what they know best. Leads to crazy cost saving methods, aversion to taking loans etc.
These people are sons/grandsons of subsistence farmers. Growing balls and facing the world head-on will take time.
Salaries are already ~ USD200/month for even low skill labor in U.P. cities. All the decent people now get life insurance for employees, set up PF-gratuity, so things are definitely changing.
Thanks for your personal anecdote. I think your point about the skilled blue-collar worker shortage reinforces the argument: it’s harder to find such skilled people in India for the reasons I mentioned in OP, so these workers have many more options and fiercer competition among firms. This leads to the paranoia that you outlined among businessmen.
One probably can’t stop some amount of emigration, but if the labour pool of skilled blue-collar workers were much larger (as it is in China due to better basic education), then this problem would less hurtful for Indian firms as they could recover turnover far better.
More speculatively, I think there could also be greater cultural aversion to manual labour in India than in China, although this is not my expert area so I’d be happy to be corrected (I think this is heavily dependent on specific caste and SES, but again, that’s just my outsider’s perspective). At any rate, I’ve been reading news lately that Chinese firms are finding it harder to recruit teenagers and youngsters to factories as young Chinese increasingly prefer air-conditioned office work. Losing the edge – and an opportunity for India?
At any rate, I’ve been reading news lately that Chinese firms are finding it harder to recruit teenagers and youngsters to factories as young Chinese increasingly prefer air-conditioned office work. Losing the edge – and an opportunity for India?
One of the problems is that the areas of the country where labour is aplenty do not have the right law&order and infra to attract industries. On the other hand, areas with these qualities have pretty expensive labour.
For instance, my company has a factory in the outskirts of Greater Noida. We have had a pretty bad experience with hiring local Jaat, Gurjar, Muslim boys.
Most of them have decent family wealth through farm lands. So they work only to kill time. The motivation to learn and grow is lacking.
Often, they are a source of nuisance. Just the other day, one of these guys beat up a vegetable vendor. There was a huge commotion and an FIR was registered against him. Then a couple of days later, another guy turned up on the factory floor drunk.
Stuff like this keeps happening all the time. The people in-charge of production are pushing to hire more non-locals. But that would require arranging for transport to-and-from Noida where migrant workers mostly stay. So it’s slower. It will happen eventually.
We have also considered having all-women shifts. Women are generally more diligent and less disruptive. The problem there is again of law&order and arranging for transportation, especially in evenings.
We do have an air-conditioned factory btw.
I think this will slowly change as some industry starts to tickle into Eastern UP and Bihar. I am not really sure what the governments are doing to fix this.
For Industry job, clear pagaar chart:
Isse Kam mein India nai aaunga: Teen laakh/Mahina
Seriously sochunga: Chaar laakh/Mahina
Maa ch@$@ye Amreeka, main jaa raha apne desh: panch laakh/mahina
Also yeh sab product manager, data scientist, type sab chutiyaap kaam nai karna hai apne ko.
Bhai ek OCR company hai Gurgaon mein, Prats tumhare old startup type kuch karti hai. 40 lakh de rahi hai naye employees ko. Founder idhar se padh ke gaya ek bakchod launda hai, aur Standard Charter bank ko phansa rakha hai as client. Billion dollar valuation hone wala hai sun rahe hain uska.
The author is pretty clear that the lack of quality is more a lack of standards and expectations than a lack of skilled labor. You only reach the standards you either aspired to or were forced to.
Computer Science education in India is not all that great, we still export more software and IT services than most developed countries.
I’m not going to lie but a very sensible argument you have made. What’s more laughable is the current “Hindu” regime is trying to bring Information revolution in Indian agriculture. I kid you not, they have launched a scheme to integrate digital India and Indian agriculture to ” increase farmer’s income by information dissemination”. It’s still not changing its stupid policies on Indian agriculture. They haven’t achieved sufficient mechanisation to upgrade for information revolution. Infact the policy is very clear- we will “leapfrog” into the information age.
principia
3 years ago
For all the talk about the ascendancy of the right in India… in terms of media and cultural influence at the elite level, there is still a very, very long way to go.
Iyerval is cherry-picking. The same businesses contribute multiple times the same amount to BJP leaning and BJP proxies. Have you ever wondered how is BJP mopping up those electoral bonds??
One wonders if European and North American opposition to the CAA is based on the fear that Muslim migrants (especially Bangladeshis) who would have otherwise intruded into India will end up on their shores. There is a general feeling here that India is a bit of a free rider and doesnt do enough for the free world.
“The brahminparishad.telangana.gov.in announces proudly that “BRAHMIN stands for Broad and Brilliant in Thinking, Righteous and Religious in Livelihood, Adroit and Adventurous in Personality, Honesty and Humanity in Quality, Modesty and Morality in Character, Innovation and Industry in Performance and Nobility and Novelty in Approach.” The form available for issuing a Brahmin caste certificate in Telangana asks for Gothram details, as if the state were some pandit in Haridwar. There is, of course, a colossal irony, or perhaps deep historical ignorance, in the Andhra Scheme being named after Veda Vyasa. Veda Vyasa would not have counted as a Brahmin eligible under this scheme.”
I see the Modi-Naidu acronym virus has caught up to state govts
The author of the post is the person whose father got the Senior Administrative post based on his caste affiliation and in the emergency era administered the stringent temporary laws to stifle dissent. And the newspaper belongs to the editor who got arrested but released much earlier than the rest of the journalists because he belonged to the “same caste” as the person who administered the law on him. It’s so entertaining to read the Pratap Mehta’s works in the Goenka’s “Indian Express”. And I want to clarify that the person is misleading the argument that 1993 SC judgement upheld ” historical injustices”. SC rejected the argument. It upheld the counter view that “any class not caste who can demonstrate that social and educational backwardness through data that such people are NOT adequately represented in the public services shall be in the opinion of this court eligible for such action”. This was the argument that led to Pasmanda Muslim getting reservation in the OBC category. Even though personally I disagree with the view of ” any class” argument and support “historical injustices to certain class/caste” Mehta and his friend’s newspaper is doing intellectual prostitution and attacking a scheme just because it has a term “brahmin” attached to it. The author has no problem when a similar scheme is being sponsored by state government of Telangana for “muslims” and secularism goes out for a toss. Then the intellectual prostitutes defend the scheme by showing “adequate data” why such scheme is justified.
Unreserved , unrestricted and unquestioning support for “caste reservations” in education and jobs by “progressives” and leftists and liberals has backfired. Reservations on caste basis as the only and major path to ‘social justice’ has been turned upside down by Indian politics
During a recent visit to poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, Baghel senior called for a “boycott” of Brahmins and described them as “foreigners”. He urged people not to let Brahmins enter their villages.
“Brahmins will be sent from the river Ganga to Volga. They are foreigners. They consider us untouchables and are snatching all our rights. I will urge villagers to not let Brahmins enter their village,” Baghel senior had said.
Baghel senior is known for his anti-Brahmin views, in line with the ‘Aryan racial theory’. His book on the theme was banned in 2000 by the Congress government at the time.
This opinion post is what I call follows the confirmation bias. We need to be absolutely clear that 29% of Kerala and 28% of Bengal will always vote for “one party” no matter what you do or NOT. This has been demonstrated by the voting patterns observed in 2021 elections and 2019 elections. Ex Ante surveys whether you will vote for ‘x’ or not are false as the post facto results data released by Election commission correlated with the census data. The study didn’t speak on the census data and the population demographics at all while addressing the basic question “why Y state votes for X party”? Infact I see zero math and statistical account which tries to map on the curve the voting pattern. Pew polls are the closest to such analysis being carried on the Indian demographics. Somehow we are told from the study that literacy is a “factor” in voting behaviour. I see zero correlation of such a thing any of the constituencies be it Mumbai Delhi or Kerala. An example is Hyderabad constituency which has 53% of ‘X’ people, whether literate or NOT the total number of votes polled and the “winner” is always known to the local populace because such analysts don’t bother to see the demographic of the Hyderabad constituency. Same goes for Varanasi, Calcutta, Wayanad etc. Never trust such stupid opinions
Roy
3 years ago
George Floyd’s face and the LGBT flag are the symbols of American Imperialism in the 21st century
Quote Tweet
Just Delhi Things:
Found out at an office party today that the wife of a senior colleague of mine is a very famous Twitter academic.
She was asking for my Twitter handle. Lol. Had to make an excuse to avoid that line of conversation.
I wonder what all cancelable material she would have found over there.
Long have I noted the utter folly of India’s embrace of the US. The US Deep State viscerally resents Hindu nationalism. Unlike China, its fangs cut deep into the Indian elite and can shape its opinion, taste and even loyalty.
I understand the military and geographic anxieties, but the long-term threat to India’s internal balance isn’t coming from Beijing, but from the halls of elite power in America.
S Qureishi
3 years ago
side question, why do you guys substitute the PH to F, and the F to PH? Should it not be:
@S Qureishi
‘ फुर्ती’
I think it’s unusual for a pakistani to know how to write hindi , so I’m curious to know how you learned it or did you use something like google translate ?
I learnt Devanagari. Although I have not yet put any effort in practising reading it past elementary school level. But I know the letters.
Interesting though is that the F is a foriegn sound like Z, x, ɣ etc.. not part of any other Indian languages except Urdu.. and usually these words are omitted in favor of J, kh, g etc in Hindi.. because the dots beneath the letter are not used..
but in case of Ph to F, its peculiar because F is the foreign sound denoted with a dot and it replaces the native sound Ph and it’s definitely not because of Urdu influence. So I presumed it would be due to some other local language.
Whenever something like this happens i am reminded of the whole Kulbhushan Jadhav incident. For the longest time Pak channels called him Kulbhushan Yadav because they hadnt come across surname called Jadhav.
Well J and O both exist in Urdu and correctly pronounced… so Jhadav to Yadav may just be a mistake, while Modi to Mudi may be an intentional slight.
The only confusion Urdu speakers have are for Hindi words ending in V because this is denoted by the same letter when written so unfamiliarity with the pronounciation can lead to mistake.. for example Pulav becomes Pulao and now it’s standard Pulao.. and Dev can sometimes be pronounced as Deo.
“side question, why do you guys substitute the PH to F, and the F to PH”
it’s an example of phonological shift in progress. mostly the change is from /ph/ -> /f/. /ph/ phoneme is pretty much going extinct in spoken hindi, at least in urban, delhi veriety.
i have no explanation for this, but i have a feeling that this is due to the influence of english, where only /f/ sound exists. more exposure to /f/ sound due to the prevalence of english has made it the dominant phoneme. at least that is what i tend to think.
most urban indians now pronounce devanagri letter फ, incorrectly of course, as /f/. so they would wrongly pronounce phool (flower) as fool, and phir (again) as fir. it sounds jarring to my ears. most will even be surprised if you point it out to them that correct pronunciation of फूल is /phool/, and not /fool/. since the difference between /f/ and /ph/ is only that of a nuqta in devanagri, the error gets compounded as the nuqta is often overlooked in print media.
interestingly the problem doesnt occur in urdu. /f/ and /ph/ are represented by very different looking letters ( ف vs پھ , as you must be aware). so i have observed that urdu-speakers tend to speak these sounds more accurately.
I have never heard this same shift from /ph/ to /f/ in even the most English immersed elites in Pakistan, as they tend to retain this distinction.. so I don’t think it has to do with English. It’s interesting because usually the F to ph shift is understandable in India, the Z to J shift is also understandable, but the Ph to F shift is very interesting because its going the opposite way
No, most English medium schools are UK based Cambridge system offering GCE O and A levels.
US may have some cultural influence though but not in foundational English education
S Qureishi
3 years ago
I just asked coz I see a lot of times the ph is interchanged with f. Like phir becomes fir. etc. I thought this is due to some local language influencing the change
“I thought this is due to some local language influencing the change“
Could be, but the more likely reason is thar it’s shorter to write it with a ‘f’ ( now that I think of it, I’ve heard it being said both ways. So, who knows, maybe the dialect thing is true)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSKDI1ckMmk
Beautiful walk along the Western Ghats, at the border of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
The Western Ghats are stunning in general. Needs to continue to be protected.
Good design change ?
Anyone here with a good understanding of macro-economics?
Central banking, effect of demography on monetary policy etc. That sort of thing.
Wanted some input for a science fiction story idea I’ve been working on. Let me know if we could chat sometime.
Be careful to accept the usual neoliberal theories on this. Inequality is in fact a bigger driver.
https://twitter.com/michaelxpettis/status/1431888025265393664
https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/economy/india-uk-agree-on-1-2-billion-investment-in-green-projects-and-renewable-energy-7423131.html/amp
India, UK agree on $1.2 billion investment in green projects and renewable energy
https://eurasiantimes.com/russian-heavyweight-mig-35-to-compete-with-indias-hal-tejas-paks-jf-17-for-malaysian-fighter-jet-contract/?amp
Russian Heavyweight MiG-35 To Compete With India’s HAL Tejas, Pak’s JF-17 For Malaysian Fighter Jet Contract
Mig 35 is a twin engine full-fledged multirole fighter, definitely not a trainer/light-attack plane.
Pakistanis say that the competition is between JF-17 and Korean T-50. 50-50
Indians say that Malaysians are fed-up of hard to maintain Russian jet engines. So the fight is between Tejas and T-50. 20-80
Koreans say T-50 will win. 100-0
Chinese say T-50 will win but JF-17 has a slim chance. 70-30.
Malaysians say T-50 will win but JF-17 has slim chance. 80-20
All kinds of theories going around. My odds are 70-25-5 for T-50, JF-17 and Tejas, because (a) India is no China in defense sales and (b) India-Malaysia sometimes don’t get along.
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/100-districts-in-india-most-vulnerable-to-climate-change-study-2529121?amp=1&akamai-rum=off
100 Districts In India Most Vulnerable To Climate Change: Study
https://twitter.com/VikasSaraswat/status/1362473759127465985?s=20
@Saurav
https://www.hindustantimes.com/punjab/punjab-after-jat-sikh-kills-self-after-discovering-wife-is-dalit-his-brother-refuses-to-marry-her/story-KOMdFiGGEeHAvq8aYCJz6K.html
Wow the casteism is intense
https://gal-dem.com/global-jatt-bhangra-casteism-bups-saggu/
good read. by Jatt origin woman
One of the real “Baniya/Lala” vs “Lohar” battles shaping up in Indian EV business – Ola Electric vs Ather.
Tarun and Swapnil have made their baby from scratch with IIT Madras incubation from 2013 onwards – doing everything from suspension design to electrical engineering to motors. They went through several redesign loops. Finally they started with a market prototype (which has now been discontinued) before settling with a final market proof design – Ather 450X. They are on their way to selling 20000 vehicles this year – they have localised 99% of the vehicle components, built up a supplier network and created distribution channels. They have rationalised models and prices and done a full round of commerical evaluation as well.
Bhavish Aggarwal has been a late entrant – he has bought out the full stake in the Dutch startup – Etergo – based at Amsterdam. Etergo was self funded with the public before Covid hit. Bhavish and Masayoshi Son (Japanese Baniya) clearly did their homework before deciding to go with Etergo. Yes Bank brings a different level of capital to the game – they plumped enough money for the group to start building a massive factory in Krishnagiri, Tamilnadu even before the vehicle went through its localisation trials in India. Again this is literally a Baniya game – through and through.
I don’t think that Ola and Ather are going to be head-on competitors – they are actually competing with the ICE two-wheelers. The market is large enough for these two players to fight comfortably without hurting each other. Still – an interesting case study between Lohar and Lala/Baniya mentalities (@Bhimrao’s words). I personally think that Ather has a leg up here – they are confident about their product and have thoroughly mastered the tradeoff between engineering risk and the Indian commercial sweet spot.
Indian two wheelers guzzle about 60% of India’s total petrol sales (Swarajyamag report) – that is about 45 billion USD per year. Even if 10% of that amount is switched to EV, it represents a positive tailwind for the rupee’s appreciation vs the dollar. I think that we might even get to switching 50% of Indian two wheelers to EVs before 2030. Given the Indian middle class proclivities for penny pinching and rising fuel prices.
Sidenote – India’s first battery Gigafactory is coming up in either Chennai or Hosur. LucasTVS along with 24M are the backers of the project. The size is going to be 10GWH. I suspect that TVS Motors will actually have a lead over either Ather or Ola in terms of vertical integration of components due to battery production.
@Ugra, @Bhimrao, @Prats
I know that they haven’t released a lot of data yet but based on what we know, what are your thoughts on form energy’s iron air battery
Bhai woh IIT M waale?
Don’t take their claims too seriously till they publish in Nature. NSF and American industry has been throwing away money like water for battery break throughs. If it happens it will be here.
Nhi bhai ye wala- https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/27/iron-air-batteries-huge-green-energy-breakthrough-or-just-lot-hype/
Iron-air is at a pretty experimental stage. It’s more likely that we’ll see Aluminium-air batteries in the field first.
Even so their impact is not going to be as significant as lithium-ion batteries over the next 10 years. Hope to see hydrogen gain more traction from the second half of the decade for marine, heavy road vehicles, and probably long haul aviation.
Search for ‘The Clean Hydrogen Ladder’ in case you wish to read up more on it.
Invest India organised a Green Hydrogen Summit last week. You should check out some of the talks there in case you want to delve deeper into it from a policy perspective.
https://e-vehicleinfo.com/leading-electric-two-wheeler-companies-in-india-by-market-share/
I expect Okinawa and Ampere won’t last. I suspect they are rebadged Chinese maal anyways.
It would be interesting indeed. I love Aether, their founders have inspired a generation of Indian engineers. I personally know people who have were their employee # single digits. They have Hero(world’s largest two wheeler manufacturer) behind them, they have already annihilated Bajaj’s (world’s most valuable two wheeler company) electric Chetak.
So my money is still on Ather+Hero. Most Indians are very sensible when it comes to buying two-wheelers. Everyone knows that Honda Activa is much better than a TVS Jupiter, TVS Apache is objectively superior to Bajaj Pulsar. Every niche is taken Hero Dawn then Bajaj Platina then Hero Splendor. Resale value to maintenance cost have all been figured and accounted for, companies barely make any money on the bikes, exactly same components go into different brands. I don’t think this is a market where Jio can happen. But I am a biased Lohar and Ola already has 100,000 bookings for team Bania.
Makes me happy that Indian 2-wheeler industry would remain vibrant and cutting-edge.
Bhavish has been playing the classic Ambani game of “hype and sell” to both investors and customers alike. Tarun/Swapnil have been playing like Sachin, “…..let my batting speak for me….”. Somewhere I find myself rooting for Bhavish because we need a Virat in Indian business. For too long, we have been treated to sober, conservative Indian men telling us that we are good by showing us graphs and numbers. Bhavish clearly has a core, I cannot imagine Masayoshi making a bet on no evidence. I liked it when Bhavish challenged the Govt’s proposal to relax import duties for Tesla when the rest – Tatas, Mahindras, TVS – were silent. Also the reality is that Ola’s main vehicle – the aggregator – hasn’t made any money so far, like all other unicorns.
@Prats
The trade imbalance is primarily due to the excessive hydrocarbon import bill. I have seen calculations that the EV boom in India will put India on a path to rupee appreciation via trade surplus. There is appreciation of this context in both BJP and Congress. We could see the rupee settling in the 50-55 zone vs USD if we cut even 30% of our fuel imports. A lot of institutional investors know the outsized impact of the EV revolution in India.
Baniyas of the world unite !!!
Gora people are in full-on self-destruct mode. Would BBC ever have done this in defense of India?
https://twitter.com/dhume/status/1434360085971615748
https://theprint.in/world/how-sri-lankas-overnight-flip-to-total-organic-farming-has-led-to-an-economic-disaster/728414/
How Sri Lanka’s overnight flip to total organic farming has led to an economic disaster
Bhim. Just tell me which one of the lot is india”s tesla so that I can invest in their stocks after ipo. Can’t keep track of all this baniyas.
Bhai, I get this wrong almost all the time. But at the moment, Ather Energy is gareebi-Tesla, their engineering seems very solid. I don’t know if they will go public.
Ola electric is the challenger with huge money from Softbank behind them. They are raising money but not through IPO. They will sell their scooter in the US too, maybe even Europe.
Among top dogs Hero reigns supreme for now as Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha have not been serious. Bajaj is in tatters, TVS is trying to build electric batteries first.
Expect many more to try their luck, maybe Mahindra and RE. The auto parts manufacturing and ancillaries market is so good in India that ~ 10 years ago I knew someone who started a full tractor making company by just assembling the parts from Mahindra or Sonalika suppliers.
Bhai, what do you think the impact of the EV revolution would be on the auto parts manufacturing sector (as EVs require less parts than conventional vehicles), is there any niche that these manufacturers would be easily able to shift to
I had read an article that had said that auto ancillaries can be shifted to military production. While this can work in India, what about the countries that already have a defence industry
The engine and transmission people might get hurt. In India I remember Force motors makes BMW and Merc engines and Bharat forge makes axles. I am guessing that by the time IC engines get replaced a lot of the production machinery would be old and amortized, no new R&D expenditure on IC would have happened for many years so it would be a quiet death. These people will have ample time to find other ways of making money. In the medium term (25-ish years) IC automobile will still be around in a big way.
Defense is not one industry. The volumes are far lower than automobile. Also India barely does any capital acquisitions as all the defense budget gets spent on salaries and pensions.
Most likely people will move on to different products. Look at the tail light sub assemblies in American cars and then look at the transparent lunch boxes of Indian cars. Someone will do all these fancy complicated stuff too.
Pakistanis drive shit bikes costing 25K INR, in India even the cheapest (and better) bikes cost 40K INR. I am guessing these ancillaries people will move to higher value sub assemblies for electric vehicles.
Finally, these MSME lala-ji people are very-very bright and thia is all they do. They will find a way.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.indiatoday.in/amp/india-today-insight/story/why-india-is-leasing-a-second-nuclear-powered-attack-submarine-from-russia-1849277-2021-09-04
Why India could be leasing a second nuclear powered attack submarine from Russia
https://m.economictimes.com/industry/transportation/airlines-/-aviation/india-looks-to-cut-flying-rights-of-uae-by-a-third/amp_articleshow/85783322.cms
India looks to cut flying rights of UAE by a third
https://amp.scroll.in/article/1004500/explained-how-india-registered-as-many-trademarks-in-four-years-as-it-did-in-the-previous-75-years
Explained: How India registered as many trademarks in four years as it did in the previous 75 years
IIT Kharagpur are coming up with a multi continent assessment of archaeological finds of Swastika. Giacomo Benedetti tweeted an article about it.
There is no word for the symbol in Dravidian or Austro-Asiatic languages. The IE loan Swastika is used for it.
The Indus Valley Civilization presents numerous examples of the Swastika on terracotta, seals, jewellery and pottery.
The earliest recorded attestation in textual tradition for the Swastika occurs in Panini, who details its meaning and significance.
Restored and colorized footage of Berlin from 1927, prior to its full destruction in WWII.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YSDgruADlE
It’s shocking to see how advanced the Europeans were even 100 years ago. In many measures more advanced than many parts of the world today.
https://medium.com/@Dhritarashtra108/dismantling-pakistani-nationalism-766689b08e7
Dismantling Pakistani Nationalism.
Used Razib’s posts in this.
Got a 30% read ratio on a 21 minute piece.
Excellent piece. It echoes so many of the same sentiments I have previously expressed. Bravo.
Just touched down in India. Lol what is it with this place and political ads. I saw 6 massive Modi pictures before I’d even left the Delhi airport. Once outside I saw more Kejriwals, and a few BJP ones as well, but seriously what’s going on, it’s not even an election year.
The air is palpably cleaner than it used to be. Less street dogs as well. Overall an improvement from my last trip a few years back.
The architecture is as chaotic as ever, everything is crammed together in a way that would never be seen in America.
@ H.M. Brough
Your anecdotal observation confirms the widely held view that BJP is top dog in the marketing and attention persistence game.
The first time I visited Mumbai I saw giant cut outs of NCP. I didn’t even know that there was a party called NCP
https://m.timesofindia.com/world/south-asia/talibans-mullah-baradar-hurt-in-clash-with-haqqanis-report/amp_articleshow/85960477.cms
Taliban’s Mullah Baradar hurt in clash with Haqqanis: Report
Absolute fake news. Infact so much fake news has been circulating recently by Indian media on Afghanistan that anything they are reporting should be taken with a truckload of Himalayan salt. They were still reporting pro NRF claims on hundreds of dead Taliban fighters while TB fighters this morning are having breakfast in the capital after the capital was conquered last night.
So any news on mainstream Indian news Channel that claims a NRF or ex Afg govt twitter handle as it’s source should simply be discarded.
So we should trust Pakistani journalism? Or DG ISPR? Washington Post? New York Times? Al Jazeera? What are your sources please tell us.
https://swarajyamag.com/culture/the-great-loot-of-chandraketugarh-artefacts
The Great Loot Of Chandraketugarh Artefacts
https://www.livemint.com/opinion/online-views/millets-could-help-india-mitigate-malnutrition-and-climate-change/amp-11630861353572.html
Millets could help India mitigate malnutrition and climate change
https://wap.business-standard.com/article-amp/companies/made-in-india-iphones-make-apple-s-70-domestic-market-sales-121090600008_1.html
‘Made in India’ iPhones make Apple’s 70% domestic market sales
https://www.opindia.com/2021/09/jharkhand-villages-torture-hindu-family-to-convert-to-christianity/
Sad
https://twitter.com/AyazGul64/status/1434779962318508035?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1434779962318508035%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=
CCP is biggest winner, like I have said
This is basically the Taliban pleading for money. Best case for China, the Taliban get the money they need from the Gulf (Iran will be furious), worst case, the plea becomes a threat.
https://mobile.twitter.com/pakistan_untold?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1434568455529943040%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=
https://www.opindia.com/2021/09/family-members-of-geelani-booked-for-wrapping-his-body-in-pakistan-flag/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
Treason is a valid reason for the death penalty in many nations…
Found something to settle the great Gangu vs Indus “debate”…
…the first one along the Caucasus is India, a great and populous kingdom, inhabited by many Indian nations, of which the greatest is that of the Gandaridae, against whom Alexander did not make a campaign because of the multitude of their elephants. The river Ganges, which is the deepest of the region and has a width of thirty stades, separates this land from the neighbouring part of India. Adjacent to this is the rest of India, which Alexander conquered, irrigated by water from the rivers and most conspicuous for its prosperity. Here were the dominions of Porus and Taxiles, together with many other kingdoms, and through it flows the Indus River, from which the country received its name.
Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica 18.6.1-2
Source:
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/18A*.html
So the Greeks called India + Pakistan + Bangladesh = India
But recognized the Ganges people as a distinct nation. And the largest / greatest (most Indian if you will) of the Indian nations.
And recognized the Indus people conquered by Alexander as smaller “Indian nations”.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/make-in-india-needs-a-quality-revolution-7435661.html/amp
‘Make in India’ needs a quality revolution
@Narasingha Deva
The author runs a sourcing firm so he should know. He notes that while big Indian firms can compete, the quality drops off a cliff once you reach into the MSME-sector, wheras for China they could find hundreds of firms that met strict Western quality control standards.
This tallies nicely with my argument that China sequenced its reform correctly – it focused on basic education first and basic manufacturing first – whereas India foolishly tried to be high-end despite being very poor. An artifact of caste politics and misguided Soviet economic influence, with its emphasis on heavy industry.
The kind of workers a big Indian firm can pull is nearly limitless, it’s different for small manufacturers. They can’t often recruit the very best and must rely more on local talent, where the *average* skill level matters much more rather than the top. If your education system is insanely biased towards the top – as India’s still is – then small manufactures will quickly find it difficult. So none of these findings shouldn’t surprise us.
This skill-biased development model is India’s original sin. Modi did a few promising initiatives like ‘Skill India’ but the guy who was running it was talking openly that they can’t fix 16 years of poor public education with a 1 year programme. Rest assured, the scheme got quietly buried.
Why Apprentice-ship never works in India?
Some of my family members and family-friends now(late 2000s onwards) run manufacturing and construction MSMEs. Every good (high IQ, organized, motivated) 18yo welder or painter or machine operator leaves for Dubai within 2 years or starts their own business. The owners who started out just like these young apprentices i.e. learning at a bigger company and then going on their own consider this a personal insult. So owners go into petty mentality and start acting like Arab army officers i.e., withholding skills and not giving promotions or managing experience etc to keep the young employees from UP, Bihar from ever leaving.
Specially true for Marwari businesses, they micromanage so much that they end up not hiring any decent engineers.
Another Indian MSME obsession is diversification, even the pettiest of manufacturer focuses on doing 5 different side businesses and not owning what they know best. Leads to crazy cost saving methods, aversion to taking loans etc.
These people are sons/grandsons of subsistence farmers. Growing balls and facing the world head-on will take time.
Salaries are already ~ USD200/month for even low skill labor in U.P. cities. All the decent people now get life insurance for employees, set up PF-gratuity, so things are definitely changing.
@Bhimrao
Thanks for your personal anecdote. I think your point about the skilled blue-collar worker shortage reinforces the argument: it’s harder to find such skilled people in India for the reasons I mentioned in OP, so these workers have many more options and fiercer competition among firms. This leads to the paranoia that you outlined among businessmen.
One probably can’t stop some amount of emigration, but if the labour pool of skilled blue-collar workers were much larger (as it is in China due to better basic education), then this problem would less hurtful for Indian firms as they could recover turnover far better.
More speculatively, I think there could also be greater cultural aversion to manual labour in India than in China, although this is not my expert area so I’d be happy to be corrected (I think this is heavily dependent on specific caste and SES, but again, that’s just my outsider’s perspective). At any rate, I’ve been reading news lately that Chinese firms are finding it harder to recruit teenagers and youngsters to factories as young Chinese increasingly prefer air-conditioned office work. Losing the edge – and an opportunity for India?
At any rate, I’ve been reading news lately that Chinese firms are finding it harder to recruit teenagers and youngsters to factories as young Chinese increasingly prefer air-conditioned office work. Losing the edge – and an opportunity for India?
One of the problems is that the areas of the country where labour is aplenty do not have the right law&order and infra to attract industries. On the other hand, areas with these qualities have pretty expensive labour.
For instance, my company has a factory in the outskirts of Greater Noida. We have had a pretty bad experience with hiring local Jaat, Gurjar, Muslim boys.
Most of them have decent family wealth through farm lands. So they work only to kill time. The motivation to learn and grow is lacking.
Often, they are a source of nuisance. Just the other day, one of these guys beat up a vegetable vendor. There was a huge commotion and an FIR was registered against him. Then a couple of days later, another guy turned up on the factory floor drunk.
Stuff like this keeps happening all the time. The people in-charge of production are pushing to hire more non-locals. But that would require arranging for transport to-and-from Noida where migrant workers mostly stay. So it’s slower. It will happen eventually.
We have also considered having all-women shifts. Women are generally more diligent and less disruptive. The problem there is again of law&order and arranging for transportation, especially in evenings.
We do have an air-conditioned factory btw.
I think this will slowly change as some industry starts to tickle into Eastern UP and Bihar. I am not really sure what the governments are doing to fix this.
Prats , why dont u hire me? Bhim can provide the muscle (if needed)
For Industry job, clear pagaar chart:
Isse Kam mein India nai aaunga: Teen laakh/Mahina
Seriously sochunga: Chaar laakh/Mahina
Maa ch@$@ye Amreeka, main jaa raha apne desh: panch laakh/mahina
Also yeh sab product manager, data scientist, type sab chutiyaap kaam nai karna hai apne ko.
Bhai ek OCR company hai Gurgaon mein, Prats tumhare old startup type kuch karti hai. 40 lakh de rahi hai naye employees ko. Founder idhar se padh ke gaya ek bakchod launda hai, aur Standard Charter bank ko phansa rakha hai as client. Billion dollar valuation hone wala hai sun rahe hain uska.
The author is pretty clear that the lack of quality is more a lack of standards and expectations than a lack of skilled labor. You only reach the standards you either aspired to or were forced to.
Computer Science education in India is not all that great, we still export more software and IT services than most developed countries.
I’m not going to lie but a very sensible argument you have made. What’s more laughable is the current “Hindu” regime is trying to bring Information revolution in Indian agriculture. I kid you not, they have launched a scheme to integrate digital India and Indian agriculture to ” increase farmer’s income by information dissemination”. It’s still not changing its stupid policies on Indian agriculture. They haven’t achieved sufficient mechanisation to upgrade for information revolution. Infact the policy is very clear- we will “leapfrog” into the information age.
For all the talk about the ascendancy of the right in India… in terms of media and cultural influence at the elite level, there is still a very, very long way to go.
https://twitter.com/Iyervval/status/1434948423686373379
Iyerval is cherry-picking. The same businesses contribute multiple times the same amount to BJP leaning and BJP proxies. Have you ever wondered how is BJP mopping up those electoral bonds??
https://unherd.com/2021/07/the-walls-are-going-up-across-europe/
One wonders if European and North American opposition to the CAA is based on the fear that Muslim migrants (especially Bangladeshis) who would have otherwise intruded into India will end up on their shores. There is a general feeling here that India is a bit of a free rider and doesnt do enough for the free world.
https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/environment/industry-group-backs-global-carbon-price-for-large-ships-7437381.html/amp
Industry group backs global carbon price for large ships
bhumra did well, hope rehane will find form. ironically, hardly any south indians, inspite of having lots of talent.
As i have said b4, India is mostly N-India with others somewhat chipping in (in terms of culture as well as religion)
https://amp.scroll.in/article/1004550/price-rise-is-driving-delhis-food-vendors-to-financial-collapse-and-their-customers-to-hunger
Price rise is driving Delhi’s food vendors to financial collapse – and their customers to hunger
https://scroll.in/magazine/1004348/an-indian-business-community-had-thrived-in-xinjiang-before-the-communists-took-over-in-china
An Indian business community had thrived in Xinjiang before the Communists took over in China
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/7/us-academic-conference-dismantling-global-hindutva-hindu-right-wing-groups
US academic conference on ‘Hindutva’ targeted by Hindu groups
https://www.ft.com/content/dab5f894-b914-4978-b962-a1a9c1cee985
After Angela Merkel: how one woman shaped a generation — and Europe
https://theprint.in/opinion/not-taliban-talks-india-must-stand-up-for-afghan-resistance-despite-panjshir-fall/728875/
Instead of Taliban talks, India must stand up for Afghan resistance despite Panjshir fall
Are baap re baap, mallu menon should learn to first stand up to commies in his own state before giving lectures.
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/brahmin-welfare-schemes-social-justice-7495186/
“The brahminparishad.telangana.gov.in announces proudly that “BRAHMIN stands for Broad and Brilliant in Thinking, Righteous and Religious in Livelihood, Adroit and Adventurous in Personality, Honesty and Humanity in Quality, Modesty and Morality in Character, Innovation and Industry in Performance and Nobility and Novelty in Approach.” The form available for issuing a Brahmin caste certificate in Telangana asks for Gothram details, as if the state were some pandit in Haridwar. There is, of course, a colossal irony, or perhaps deep historical ignorance, in the Andhra Scheme being named after Veda Vyasa. Veda Vyasa would not have counted as a Brahmin eligible under this scheme.”
I see the Modi-Naidu acronym virus has caught up to state govts
The author of the post is the person whose father got the Senior Administrative post based on his caste affiliation and in the emergency era administered the stringent temporary laws to stifle dissent. And the newspaper belongs to the editor who got arrested but released much earlier than the rest of the journalists because he belonged to the “same caste” as the person who administered the law on him. It’s so entertaining to read the Pratap Mehta’s works in the Goenka’s “Indian Express”. And I want to clarify that the person is misleading the argument that 1993 SC judgement upheld ” historical injustices”. SC rejected the argument. It upheld the counter view that “any class not caste who can demonstrate that social and educational backwardness through data that such people are NOT adequately represented in the public services shall be in the opinion of this court eligible for such action”. This was the argument that led to Pasmanda Muslim getting reservation in the OBC category. Even though personally I disagree with the view of ” any class” argument and support “historical injustices to certain class/caste” Mehta and his friend’s newspaper is doing intellectual prostitution and attacking a scheme just because it has a term “brahmin” attached to it. The author has no problem when a similar scheme is being sponsored by state government of Telangana for “muslims” and secularism goes out for a toss. Then the intellectual prostitutes defend the scheme by showing “adequate data” why such scheme is justified.
Unreserved , unrestricted and unquestioning support for “caste reservations” in education and jobs by “progressives” and leftists and liberals has backfired. Reservations on caste basis as the only and major path to ‘social justice’ has been turned upside down by Indian politics
https://swarajyamag.com/news-brief/what-baghel-seniors-derogatory-diatribe-against-brahmins-and-subsequent-arrest-reveals-about-bhupesh-baghels-politics
During a recent visit to poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, Baghel senior called for a “boycott” of Brahmins and described them as “foreigners”. He urged people not to let Brahmins enter their villages.
“Brahmins will be sent from the river Ganga to Volga. They are foreigners. They consider us untouchables and are snatching all our rights. I will urge villagers to not let Brahmins enter their village,” Baghel senior had said.
Baghel senior is known for his anti-Brahmin views, in line with the ‘Aryan racial theory’. His book on the theme was banned in 2000 by the Congress government at the time.
Jai Volga Mata
Going from India to Russia is going to be a pretty big boost for Brahmins.
https://theprint.in/opinion/new-study-how-kerala-bengal-decided-who-to-vote-for-between-centre-state-in-2019/728820/
New study finds how Kerala-Bengal decided who to vote for between Centre and state in 2019
This opinion post is what I call follows the confirmation bias. We need to be absolutely clear that 29% of Kerala and 28% of Bengal will always vote for “one party” no matter what you do or NOT. This has been demonstrated by the voting patterns observed in 2021 elections and 2019 elections. Ex Ante surveys whether you will vote for ‘x’ or not are false as the post facto results data released by Election commission correlated with the census data. The study didn’t speak on the census data and the population demographics at all while addressing the basic question “why Y state votes for X party”? Infact I see zero math and statistical account which tries to map on the curve the voting pattern. Pew polls are the closest to such analysis being carried on the Indian demographics. Somehow we are told from the study that literacy is a “factor” in voting behaviour. I see zero correlation of such a thing any of the constituencies be it Mumbai Delhi or Kerala. An example is Hyderabad constituency which has 53% of ‘X’ people, whether literate or NOT the total number of votes polled and the “winner” is always known to the local populace because such analysts don’t bother to see the demographic of the Hyderabad constituency. Same goes for Varanasi, Calcutta, Wayanad etc. Never trust such stupid opinions
George Floyd’s face and the LGBT flag are the symbols of American Imperialism in the 21st century
Quote Tweet
https://twitter.com/KeithWoodsYT/status/1435411998087524352
Just Delhi Things:
Found out at an office party today that the wife of a senior colleague of mine is a very famous Twitter academic.
She was asking for my Twitter handle. Lol. Had to make an excuse to avoid that line of conversation.
I wonder what all cancelable material she would have found over there.
On the scale of Barkha Dutt to Audrey where would she fall?
Haha. Definitely not Audrey. More Ganga-Jamuni style person.
It’s fun to talk to such people even if you disagree with them. Speaking in pretty chaste Hindustani with old idioms and all.
‘Woh mujhe topi pehnani ki koshi kar raha tha’ – referring to someone trying to bluff her.
https://swarajyamag.com/defence/how-the-c295-aircraft-deal-with-airbus-will-bring-relief-for-iaf-and-indian-defence-industry-2
How The C295 Aircraft Deal With Airbus Will Bring Relief For IAF And Indian Defence Industry
2013 mein rfp hua tha 2015 mein jeete the, ab 2021 mein order hua hai! Subhanallah! kya furti hai…
btw abhi dekhna yeh 100+ aur order honge to replace An-32s.
https://theprint.in/opinion/hinduphobia-is-a-reality-scholars-at-dismantling-global-hindutva-conference-must-know/728983/
Long have I noted the utter folly of India’s embrace of the US. The US Deep State viscerally resents Hindu nationalism. Unlike China, its fangs cut deep into the Indian elite and can shape its opinion, taste and even loyalty.
I understand the military and geographic anxieties, but the long-term threat to India’s internal balance isn’t coming from Beijing, but from the halls of elite power in America.
side question, why do you guys substitute the PH to F, and the F to PH? Should it not be:
फुर्ती = phurti
and not furti
what dialect is this
I misspelled it, it should be phurti, that is how it is usually spoken.
@S Qureishi
‘ फुर्ती’
I think it’s unusual for a pakistani to know how to write hindi , so I’m curious to know how you learned it or did you use something like google translate ?
I learnt Devanagari. Although I have not yet put any effort in practising reading it past elementary school level. But I know the letters.
Interesting though is that the F is a foriegn sound like Z, x, ɣ etc.. not part of any other Indian languages except Urdu.. and usually these words are omitted in favor of J, kh, g etc in Hindi.. because the dots beneath the letter are not used..
but in case of Ph to F, its peculiar because F is the foreign sound denoted with a dot and it replaces the native sound Ph and it’s definitely not because of Urdu influence. So I presumed it would be due to some other local language.
Whenever something like this happens i am reminded of the whole Kulbhushan Jadhav incident. For the longest time Pak channels called him Kulbhushan Yadav because they hadnt come across surname called Jadhav.
Also whats up with calling Modi, Narinder Mudi?
Well J and O both exist in Urdu and correctly pronounced… so Jhadav to Yadav may just be a mistake, while Modi to Mudi may be an intentional slight.
The only confusion Urdu speakers have are for Hindi words ending in V because this is denoted by the same letter when written so unfamiliarity with the pronounciation can lead to mistake.. for example Pulav becomes Pulao and now it’s standard Pulao.. and Dev can sometimes be pronounced as Deo.
@ S Qureishi
Could it be due to english. It has ‘ph’ sounds but I feel they are not strong and are similar to f
“side question, why do you guys substitute the PH to F, and the F to PH”
it’s an example of phonological shift in progress. mostly the change is from /ph/ -> /f/. /ph/ phoneme is pretty much going extinct in spoken hindi, at least in urban, delhi veriety.
i have no explanation for this, but i have a feeling that this is due to the influence of english, where only /f/ sound exists. more exposure to /f/ sound due to the prevalence of english has made it the dominant phoneme. at least that is what i tend to think.
most urban indians now pronounce devanagri letter फ, incorrectly of course, as /f/. so they would wrongly pronounce phool (flower) as fool, and phir (again) as fir. it sounds jarring to my ears. most will even be surprised if you point it out to them that correct pronunciation of फूल is /phool/, and not /fool/. since the difference between /f/ and /ph/ is only that of a nuqta in devanagri, the error gets compounded as the nuqta is often overlooked in print media.
interestingly the problem doesnt occur in urdu. /f/ and /ph/ are represented by very different looking letters ( ف vs پھ , as you must be aware). so i have observed that urdu-speakers tend to speak these sounds more accurately.
I have never heard this same shift from /ph/ to /f/ in even the most English immersed elites in Pakistan, as they tend to retain this distinction.. so I don’t think it has to do with English. It’s interesting because usually the F to ph shift is understandable in India, the Z to J shift is also understandable, but the Ph to F shift is very interesting because its going the opposite way
Do Pak elites speak more American influenced English because of USA cold war alliance?
No, most English medium schools are UK based Cambridge system offering GCE O and A levels.
US may have some cultural influence though but not in foundational English education
I just asked coz I see a lot of times the ph is interchanged with f. Like phir becomes fir. etc. I thought this is due to some local language influencing the change
“I thought this is due to some local language influencing the change“
Could be, but the more likely reason is thar it’s shorter to write it with a ‘f’ ( now that I think of it, I’ve heard it being said both ways. So, who knows, maybe the dialect thing is true)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_utK6JqPJi8&ab_channel=IAMCOfficialChannel
Hindu Supremacist Choke Academic freedom: Audrey Truschke, Thomas Hansen, Deepa Kumar, Apoorvanand
Alternate Video Title:“Leftoids Seethe for 1 hour over the fact that India is putting its foot down and cracking down on Maoist&Jihadi Supporters”