Arvind's Newsletter

1.Climate change is leading to mudslides in North India

At least 48 people have died in northern India's Himalayan region amid mudslides and flash floods induced by severe rains since the weekend. Rescue operations continued yesterday at the site of a collapsed Hindu temple in Shimla, 200 miles north of New Delhi, where nine people were killed and dozens more feared trapped.

The southern Himalayan region, which cuts across northern India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Bhutan, typically sees dangerous mudslides (watch overview) during its June to September monsoon season, when the bulk of the region's precipitation falls. Sudden bursts of substantial rainfall—known as cloudbursts—can dump 4 inches of rain per hour. The Himalayas are also vulnerable to flash flooding from the region's 2,000 glacial lakes, 200 of which are at risk of bursting as rising temperatures cause glaciers to melt more rapidly.

2.NRIs and PIOs knock on RBI’s doors to transfer inheritance reports Economic Times

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has reportedly rejected requests from Indians abroad to move money from banks and sell inherited assets above the $1 million allowed limit per financial year. This tightening of regulations has impacted non-resident Indians and those of Indian origin, causing hardship and limiting inheritance planning for some.

3.Russia’s ruble fell below 100 to the dollar, its lowest level since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Earlier today Russia’s Central Bank raised interest rates by 3.5% to 12% to halt the collapse of the ruble.

A growing reliance on imports, falling exports, and surging military spending pushed the currency down, a long-running drop that has accelerated in recent weeks reported the Wall Street Journal. The ruble plummeted following the February 2022 invasion, but recovered thanks to a spike in prices for Russia’s energy exports. Goldman Sachs economists warned that the combination of factors driving the ruble lower would also constrain Russian economic growth,while the economist Joseph Politano wrote in his newsletter that the country had “survived the initial wave of sanctions, but as the war continues it is becoming a larger draw on Russia’s limited pool of resources.”

4.Even as we saw last week California opened the floodgates for Autonomous Vehicles, the MIT Technology Review reports on “The race to lead China’s autonomous driving market”

Chinese car companies all seem fixated on one goal: launching their own autonomous navigation services in more and more cities as quickly as possible. In just the past six months, nearly a dozen Chinese car companies have announced ambitious plans to roll out Navigation on Autopilot products to multiple cities across the country.

But many of these features remain hard to access for those who don’t live in the pilot cities or own the high-end models. And the fierce competition the major players find themselves in is also having unintended side effects—confusing some customers and arguably putting other drivers at risk.

5.Netflix begins first public test of streaming video game service

Netflix is kicking off the first public tests of its cloud-streamed games. Beginning Monday, some Netflix subscribers in Canada and the UK will be able to check out Netflix games streamed to select TVs, connected TV devices, and on the web from Netflix.com.