Arvind’s Newsletter

1.India has inaugurated the first stage of its longest expressway, a route linking Delhi and Mumbai, as it makes a concerted infrastructure push to catch up with its geopolitical rival China.

The $13bn (£10.8bn) project will eventually cut the road travel time between the country’s two biggest cities in half, to 12 hours. The 246km first stage links the capital with the tourist city of Jaipur in Rajasthan.

2.Geetanjali Shree’s prizewinning novel “Tomb of Sand” pushed the boundaries of experimental writing in Hindi and spotlighted the wealth of Indian literature in languages other than English.

Excerpts from a recent article in New York Times:

‘When Geetanjali Shree’s novel “Tomb of Sand” was released in India five years ago, many didn’t know what to make of it. The story — about an 80-year-old woman who refuses to get out of bed — shifts perspective without warning, gives voice to birds and inanimate objects and includes invented words and gibberish.

Some declared it an experimental masterpiece. Others found it impenetrable. Sales in India were modest. So Shree was stunned when the book, in an English translation, captivated readers, critics and literary prize committees in the West — a rare, and perhaps unparalleled, feat for a book written in Hindi.

For Shree, who is 65 and lives in Delhi, writing in Hindi isn’t a political or literary statement, but an organic creative choice. “Hindi chose me,” she said. “That’s my mother tongue.”

Her decision, however, and her novel’s success, are having an impact in India and beyond, bringing attention to the wealth and diversity of the Indian literary landscape, often overlooked by the West, with its focus on English-language writing.” Read on.

3.SpaceX revealed the company has taken active steps to prevent Ukrainian forces from using the critical Starlink satellite technology with Ukrainian drones that are a key component of their fight against Russia.“We know the military is using them for comms, and that’s OK,” the President of Space X said. “But our intent was never to have them use it for offensive purposes.”

“It was never intended to be weaponized,” the President told an audience at a space conference. “However, Ukrainians have leveraged it in ways that were unintentional and not part of any agreement.”

4.We have always been distracted. Fears of attention spans and focus are as old as writing itself. If you suspect that 21st-century technology has broken your brain, it will be reassuring to know that attention spans have never been what they used to be. Even the ancient Roman philosopher Seneca the Younger was worried about new technologies degrading his ability to focus. Sometime during the 1st century CE, he complained that ‘The multitude of books is a distraction’. The concern appeared again and again in the next millennia. And in 14th-century Italy, the scholar and poet Petrarch made even stronger claims about the effects of accumulating books:

Long Read

5.HBO started as an experiment. It was a way to get people to switch from getting TV over broadcast antennas to cable by offering events you’d otherwise need tickets to see: sports, plays, movies. That’s where the name Home Box Office comes from.

But it grew from there in surprising ways: HBO was a major innovator in satellite distribution, in working with cable operators around the country, and of course in programming. The company’s taste and style have influenced and shaped culture for a generation now. And importantly, HBO did it without any real data: the cable companies owned all the subscribers, so HBO made decisions through instinct and experience.

The amazing thing about HBO is that it has stayed true to itself through an absolutely tumultuous set of ownership changes and strategy shifts. Nilay Patel of The Verge interview Felix Gillette and John Koblin, authors of the terrific book “It’s Not TV: The Spectacular Rise, Revolution, and Future of HBO.” to discuss the rise of HBO in spite of the turmoil due to its ownership changes. This interview is also available for listening as a podcast as Decoder (with Nilay Patel) available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.