Arvind's Newsletter

1.This article in the Economist captures well the debate about development versus environmental sustainability at Joshimath town in Uttarkhand which has been sinking. Some excerpts from this article:

"India’s government wants to develop the country’s remotest corners. Problems around Joshimath underline the difficulty of doing that in the Himalayas. The town is a jumping-off point for hikers and people going to sacred sites at loftier altitudes. Its usefulness to pilgrims—and the recent collapse, due to subsidence, of at least one local temple—makes its travails a particular challenge for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, which likes to show off its piety.Satellite imagery suggests the area sank by more than 5cm (2 inches) in 12 days during the New year period, having already subsided by 9cm between April and November last year. The district stopped all construction, declared hundreds of houses unsafe and moved their inhabitants.Joshimath’s most recent drop may have resulted from the bursting of a groundwater reservoir. What caused that is under investigation. But a high risk of subsidence in the area was recognised in the 1970s, when a government commission concluded that Joshimath’s location—built atop sand and stone deposited by an old landslide—made it a poor venue for large-scale development. Melting glaciers have since left behind more loose material which has pushed up the dangers, says Sarswati Prakash Sati, a geologist from Uttarakhand.

Nearby towns and villages are affected by similar issues. Yet in recent years there has been little opposition to big construction projects designed to attract tourists. Many locals blame Joshimath’s most recent descent on a road built between Hindu pilgrimage sites and on a hydropower project, both of which the central government supports.

 The head of a local Hindu monastery told reporters that “the planned destruction of the Himalayan region” through development risked Joshimath’s survival as a religious and cultural centre. The government denies that its development projects are to blame. But it is worried about public opinion.

 In mid-January the National Disaster Management Authority told officials and scientists in Uttarakhand to stop speaking to the media. A study detailing the extent of the subsidence has disappeared from the website that published it. Some fear the government plans to paper over the cracks. 

2.As many debt markets slammed shut last year, cash became king — and the Middle East’s sovereign wealth funds have plenty. Surging energy prices found funds from Saudi Arabia to Qatar and Abu Dhabi managing more than $3.5 trillion, an amount that exceeds the UK’s GDP. They’re now bankrolling some of the world’s biggest rescue packages, investments and acquisitions — and show no signs of pulling back in 2023, according to a story in Bloomberg by Dinesh Nair, Matthew Martin, Nicolas Parasie and Archana Narayanan. Some excerpts:

"Mubadala Investment Co.’s First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC, one of the Middle East’s biggest lenders, said it had explored a bid for Standard Chartered Plc, the British financial giant that’s worth more than $20 billion. That follows last year’s flurry of deal activity in the region. Saudi Arabia’s largest bank, partly owned by the kingdom’s sovereign fund, became Credit Suisse’s biggest shareholder. Bankman-Fried visited the United Arab Emirates in a last-ditch effort to secure funds before the spectacular collapse of his crypto exchange FTX.

Meanwhile, Indian billionaire Gautam Adani — the richest person in Asia — has been courting Middle East sovereign wealth funds as he attempts to raise roughly $5 billion in equity across his sprawling business empire and reduce leverage, according to people familiar with the matter. Mukesh Ambani is also said to be approaching Middle Eastern funds seeking investment in his energy businesses

Officials at Saudi Arabia’s $620 billion Public Investment Fund are under intense pressure to deploy money as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman accelerates efforts to wean the kingdom off its reliance on crude, according to people familiar with the matter. In Doha, the $450 billion Qatar Investment Authority is on the hunt for more overseas deals after last month’s soccer World Cup.

Hungry for cash, companies and banks from around the world are dispatching large teams to cities like Riyadh and Abu Dhabi to pitch investment ideas.But dealmakers can face a complex world, where the biggest decisions often require a nod from the ruling sheikhs, blurring the line between pure investment vehicles and politics, other people said."

3. ChatGPT, the generative AI juggernaut, is getting a lot smarter when it comes to health care. A lot of clinical diagnoses and decisions could someday be made by machines, rather than by human doctors. ChatGPT recently passed all three parts of the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination, although just barely, as part of a recent research experiment.As the researchers note, first-year medical students often spend hundreds of hours preparing for Part 1, while Part 3 usually is taken by medical school graduates.

4. King Solomon is synonymous with wisdom and great advice. But in his personal affairs, he was incredibly shortsighted. His story has given rise to the concept of Solomon's paradox. Studies have proven that we are much better at giving rational and useful advice to other people rather than ourselves — we're much more expert when we're distanced from a situation. Here we offer three tricks to harness the wisdom of Solomon's paradox. Read on

5.The National Payments Corp. of India (NPCI) has allowed Indians abroad to use fast payments network UPI, if their domestic bank accounts are linked to their foreign mobile numbers. So far, only Indian phone numbers were allowed on UPI, leaving out non-resident bank accounts linked to their phone numbers abroad. In the first phase, phone numbers from 10 countries including Singapore, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar, the US, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and the UK have been allowed to be used on UPI. NPCI said it could extend this to other nations as well.Once the systems are in place by 30 April, non-resident Indians will be able to transact using UPI, irrespective of whether they are in India or abroad. To use UPI, non-residents need to have either a non-resident external (NRE) account or a non-resident ordinary (NRO) account in India. While abroad, they can use UPI to transfer funds to families in India and use it on e-commerce portals that allow such payments. UPI is almost synonymous with digital payments in India, clocking over ₹12.8 trillion worth of transactions in December.