- Arvind's Newsletter
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- Arvind's Newsletter
1.Why it costs India so little to reach the Moon and Mars
India recently announced a host of ambitious space projects and approved 227bn rupees ($2.7bn; £2.1bn) for them.
The plans include the next phase of India’s historic mission to the Moon, sending an orbiter to Venus, building of the first phase of the country’s maiden space station and development of a new reusable heavy-lifting rocket to launch satellites.
It's the single largest allocation of funds ever for space projects in India, but considering the scale and complexity of the projects, they are far from lavish and have once again brought into focus the cost-effectiveness of India’s space programme.
Experts around the world have marvelled at how little Indian Space Research Organisation’s (Isro) Moon, Mars and solar missions have cost. India spent $74m on the Mars orbiter Mangalyaan and $75m on last year’s historic Chandrayaan-3 – less than the $100m spent on the sci-fi thriller Gravity.
Nasa’s Maven orbiter had cost $582m and Russia’s Luna-25, which crashed on to the Moon’s surface two days before Chandrayaan-3’s landing, had cost 12.6bn roubles ($133m).
Despite the low cost, scientists say India is punching much above its weight by aiming to do valuable work.
Chandrayaan-1 was the first to confirm the presence of water in lunar soil and Mangalyaan carried a payload to study methane in the atmosphere of Mars. Images and data sent by Chandrayaan-3 are being looked at with great interest by space enthusiasts around the world.
So how does India keep the costs so low? Read on
2.Tata’s Indian Hotels gets the keys to the iconic The Claridges in Delhi
Indian Hotels Co. Ltd has signed a deal to run the historic The Claridges hotel in New Delhi under a 25-year management contract beginning in April, as part of the Tata group company’s strategy to strengthen its presence in key metro cities with similar iconic properties.
Indian Hotels will retain the The Claridges brand even as it renovates the property that was opened in 1952 in the heart of India’s capital.
“The hotel is a prominent landmark located in Lutyens Delhi and is an opportunity to grow our brandscape here," said Indian Hotels managing director and chief executive Puneet Chhatwal, speaking exclusively with Mint.
3.Apple to build hostel facilities for 100,000 women workers across India
Apple is executing a mega plan with its vendors to provide hostel facilities to 100,000 women employees across its factories, the largest ever for any company in the country.
Being built under public-private partnership (PPP) mode, these residential facilities are expected to be ready by the end of this financial year. Similar housing models in China and Vietnam have given good results as it not just improves efficiency but also ensures safety of women workers.
To make this project a reality, companies in the Apple ecosystem have been working with state governments and with private sector players. By all accounts, this will be the largest set of hostel facilities built or leased either at individual factory sites or by an ecosystem across multiple factories in India’s industrial history.
The Apple ecosystem -- which has become the largest blue-collar job creator in the country -- will directly employ 200,000 workers (currently it is at 175,000) by the end of this financial year. Over 70 per cent of them are likely to be women in the age group of 18-24 years.
Meanwhile, last week, Apple Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tim Cook announced an all-time revenue record in India yet again for the September quarter, driven by high demand for its latest iPhone models and strong iPad sales.
As the iPhone continues to witness increasing adoption, especially among Gen Z buyers, Apple’s market share in India is growing in strong double digits much ahead of the broader market. The smartphone major has now cemented itself as the top dog in the premium segment, despite India being a largely Android market.
4.Will Donald Trump 2.0 bring a paradigm shift in the existing global order? Vivek Kelkar in Moneycontrol
Highlights of post:
If Trump was to be taken at face value, his administration would compel not just a complete reorientation of US support to Ukraine, but also of wider European defence
Persuading Netanyahu to end the war would require something like the carrot of an Abraham Accords redux, with wider Arab commitment
Trump’s combination of hard-hitting language, ostensibly transactional, and sometimes impulsive, decision making is going to lead to a difficult four years ahead, as China asserts its power in the Indo Pacific region
It's likely that the Trump administration will want to make the Indo-Pacific a priority by shifting military resources to the region, but that would leave the question of NATO and the Middle East open
Trump’s unwillingness to work with multilateral institutions like the WTO, or provide much support to the IMF and the World Bank, will become challenging factors, perhaps even leaving gaps open that China could exploit
5.Pollsters were blindsided by breadth of Trump win; Wall Street Journal
Pollsters as a group had prepared Americans for a very close presidential race, and that is the way it turned out in several battleground states. But the polling performance was a big miss in another way: The pervasiveness of Donald Trump’s popularity wasn’t fully telegraphed to the public.
Trump appears to have won Wisconsin over Kamala Harris by a single percentage point, compared with a final FiveThirtyEight.com average of a 1-point Harris edge. Trump won Georgia by 2 points, compared with a final average finding of a 0.8-point Trump lead. He won North Carolina by 3 points, compared with his 1-point edge in the final polling average. That is within the ballpark of what polls can offer.
Yet many surveys didn’t signal that Trump would end up making such broad gains compared with 2020, including his improved margins among both college-educated and working-class voters, in exurbs as well as rural communities.
6.Trump’s win is a tragic loss for climate progress;James Temple, MIT Technology Review
Donald Trump’s decisive victory is a stunning setback for the fight against climate change.
The Republican president-elect’s return to the White House means the US is going to squander precious momentum, unraveling hard-won policy progress that was just beginning to pay off, all for the second time in less than a decade.
It comes at a moment when the world can’t afford to waste time, with nations far off track from any emissions trajectories that would keep our ecosystems stable and our communities safe.
Trump could push the globe into even more dangerous terrain, by defanging President Joe Biden’s signature climate laws, exacerbating the dangers of heat waves, floods, wildfires, droughts, and famine and increase deaths and disease from air pollution. And this time round, I fear it will be far worse. Read the full story.
7. Australia’s proposed ban on social media for under 16s but can’t say how TikTok, Instagram and others will enforce it
The Australian government has pledged to legislate an age limit of 16 years for social media access, with penalties for online platforms that do not comply.
But the Labor government has not spelled out how it expects Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and others to actually enforce that age limit. Anthony Albanese is facing pressure from the Coalition opposition to rush the bill through parliament in the next three weeks, although a federal trial into age assurance technology has not yet commenced.
Albanese and the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, did not rule out the potential for social media users to have their faces subject to biometric scanning, for online platforms to verify users’ ages using a government database, or for all social media users – regardless of age – being subject to age checks, only saying it would be up to tech companies to set their own processes.
8.Christopher Kirchhoff on Military Innovation and the Future of War
Christopher Kirchhoff is an expert in emerging technology who founded the Pentagon’s Silicon Valley office. He’s led teams for President Obama, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and CEO of Google. He’s worked in worlds as far apart as weapons development and philanthropy. His pioneering efforts to link Silicon Valley technology and startups to Washington has made him responsible for $70 billion in technology acquisition by the Department of Defense. He’s penned many landmark reports, and he is the author of Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley are Transforming the Future of War. The book has been shortlisted by The Financial Times among the best 5 business books of 2024. I have not read it yet but have ordered it. Christopher has been interviewed by Tyler Cowen in his well known podcast Conversations with Tyler. The transcripts of this interview is provided below as well as link to the podcast. Strongly recommended.
