Arvind's Newsletter

1. Chips down on India: From Foxconn to TSMC, semiconductor giants are betting big on India

Foxconn and Vedanta are already setting up their semiconductor fabricating plant in India and will invest $19.5 billion. However, other chip giants like TSMC, PSMC, Renesas Electronics, Intel and AMD are also looking for ways to set up factories in India.

2.Maybe the next 2 articles I chose because of confirmation bias, as I love my coffee. I have all the usual indulgences that coffee lovers have: Bialetti Moka coffee percolator, French Press, Nespresso coffee machine and pods, and a regular supply my favourite Blue Tokai coffee.

3.Is US’s cold-war with China impacting its trade with China? The answer to that is not really at least based recent data. U.S.-China trade hit record in 2022 despite tensions.

Imports and exports of goods between the countries hit $690.6 billion, a U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis report shows. The U.S. imported more toys and other consumer products, with China increasing imports of soybeans and other foods. The robust figures run counter to talk that the world's two largest economies are on track to decouple.

Whether U.S.-China trade will continue to grow remains uncertain. Diplomatic relations have been strained further by the suspected Chinese spy balloon that flew over American airspace and was shot down by the U.S. military the over the Atlantic Ocean. In a report released last month, Boston Consulting Group forecast that bilateral trade will decline about 10% through 2031.

4.Gait Recognition for Security
There is a lot of attention be paid to facial recognition. It’s been part of science fiction forever. It’s also being used to unlock your phone as well. You have one face and no one else has it. But if an organisation wanted information on an individual without intrusive measurements like a face scan, fingerprint, or iris scan, they would just record your gait from afar.
Individual humans do not have the same gait. Each person's gait is unique. And walking patterns can provide more than a simple identification, like health issues. With facial identification people need to look into a camera. Cooperation is not needed for gait recognition.
Now, (who else did you think ?), the Chinese are piloting gait tracking system in Chinese cities

5.Search Wars hots up: Google and Microsoft are racing to put artificial intelligence behind their search engines.

Google plans to detail new search features powered by AI during an event today in Paris. This comes a day after Microsoft said it would integrate ChatGPT technology into its Bing search engine, allowing users to pose questions in natural language and receive direct responses. Google said it plans to show how it’s making the way people search for information “more natural and intuitive than ever before.”