LyrArc Article Gist
A discussion on higher education and the liberal arts. Efforts to revive the liberal arts and humanities studies in colleges and universities, something that is seen as neglected in the last three decades.

LyrArc Article Gist
India's WPI, the Wholesale Price Index, is up 1.3% in March 2023, the lowest in 29 months. This is likely to continue for the next 3 months and remain below 1%.

LyrArc Article Gist
Planting tiny forests in cities is a great idea says this report in DW.com. This would make cities more livable after the pandemic and reduce the impact urban areas have on the climate.

LyrArc Article Gist
India's plan is to restore 26 million hectares of degraded land into good forest cover by 2030. This should enable carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tons of carbon dioxide.

LyrArc Article Gist
What does a second term for Ursula Von der Leyen mean for the European Union. DW.com looks at what this means for China, other parts of Europe, and the rest of the world.

LyrArc Article Gist
A small rural prairie town population 5206 people looks to solar and wind energy to meet is needs because it saves money. Other rural towns follow its example. The town is Morris, Minnesota.

LyrArc Article Gist
Economic growth drops to 0.4% in the eurozone and Germany avoids a recession with slight increase in growth to 0.2% in the 3rd quarter of 2024. Energy cost have hit German industry hard.

LyrArc Article Gist
Australia seeks to reduce migration to pre-pandemic levels by putting a cap on foreign students. The cap is set at 270,000 for 2025. Each college or university will be given a restriction.

LyrArc Article Gist
A test for South Korean democracy as president Yoon goes on trial. For the outside world too many South Korean leaders are being prosecuted after leaving office with stormy politics in South Korea.

LyrArc Article Gist
In reality the 25% tariffs are fentanyl tariffs to stop flow of fentanyl across borders of Mexico and Canada after a decade of inaction and 490,000 deaths in the US over 12 years.

LyrArc Article Gist
Thirty percent of children 6-11 years had private tutoring in the UK, in London fifty percent. This is also the situation in India where getting into good secondary schools makes a difference.

LyrArc Article Gist
The UN badge and logo for sustainable development goals is becoming highly popular in Japan. It has 17 colors for the 17 Sustainable Development goals set by the UN- ending poverty, reducing inequality, improving education, other aspirations of the people of the world. It is something India, the US, Canada, Britain ,Germany, France and other nations should adopt in the way Japan has done. India has taken up specific goals, clean India, clean water, electrification, and made it available to all 1.2 billion people, in its own version of SDG. Introduced into Japan by 2016, this badge is now so popular that there it is everywhere says this report in NYT. In children's playgrounds, in comic books, on NHK broadcaster's video with about 1 million views, on Buddhist temple websites, and used by businesses. In 2016 it was made official national policy by Mr Abe's government and a task force established on them by the government. In 2017 it was adopted to its charter by Keidanren, the business federation.  In the US very few know about S.D.G.'s but in community oriented Japan it has been taken up with zeal. It is part of the conversation and one survey shows 40% of Japanese business were working towards the goals in 2021. It has been adopted by Education Canada Network and it is a good way to bring this idea in education to schools and colleges in North America, Britain, EU, India and China, as well as Africa and Latin America, other parts of Asia. In India some of the SDG's are already the focus of campaigns by the Modi government Goal 0  Clean Nation one that has not been coined yet one that is called Clean India or Swacch Bharat Goal 1 Zero Hunger was taken up during the vaccination for covid campaign to get free foodgrains and vegetables to all 1.2 billion people. Goal 2  Clean Water and Sanitation or Har Ghar Jal getting clean tap water to all rural homes by 2024. Goal 3 Infrastructure, Industry, Exports Goal 4 Renewable Energy The sequence is different from the UN SDG's. The difference is it is a goal set for universal meaning everyone and delivery meaning by a specific date, and the priorities are set in the numbering. The Indian SDG campaigns under the Modi government and at federal and state levels are unprecedented in history for a population of this size, and now present a model for all nations in Asia, Africa, Latin America on how to go about doing the SDG's in practice. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Nikki Haley is doing what has happened before, fighting for principles in her party and showing that a fully significant 40 percentage points of her party believe in the old conservative ideas, of the Republican party. That of the country club type, the everyman who happens to be conservative the core of the party, small and large business owners. The situation is analogous to the intraparty struggles that beset the Democratic party after the abrupt end after 1000 days of the John F. Kennedy presidency and administration. Since the 1920's and two periods of rising inequality accompanied by technological change from the 1870's that ended with the Great Depression, the US had experienced a great revival under Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Eisenhower. In 1960 a new future was articulated by Kennedy of the new world that lay ahead, one he had seen upfront in Asia before, during and after the war. How would we bring the post colonial world of billions of people into the modern world. Since then both a modern China and now modern India are part of this change. "Today our concern must be with that future. For the world is changing. The old era is ending. The old ways will not do." Acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination for President, July 15, 1960. It was interrupted after the intraparty disputes that began in 1968, Robert Kennedy challenging LBJ, leading to Richard Nixon, and Edward Kennedy challenging Jimmy Carter leading to Ronald Reagan. John F. Kennedy had articulated a vision that still is alive today based on an understanding of how America's needs fit into all humanity's needs.  In some ways the situation after 2024 or 2028 still goes back to the vision of a new order of the world with emerging nations in Asia with 3 billion people, and additional billions of people in Africa, Latin America. The Arms buildup promised by Reagan in 1980 has yielded little about 50 years later, not even the fall of the Berlin Wall which today has been replaced by another struggle in Eastern Europe in 2024. Truman tackled the Berlin Blockade,  Eisenhower had faced upto Soviet tanks in Budapest, Kennedy had faced the Berlin crisis in 1963 his ich bin ein Berliner (I am Berliner). What purpose would an orbital weapons program serve- and could the US ever be or even want to be  "only one superpower in a safe world," with an orbital weapons program as Reagan and Weinberger went out to do and failed completely. America faces a situation analogous to 1920's with increasing inequality and weakness in the social fabric, as a result of four decades of rising inequality accompanied by technological changes, and misguided Reagan programs that diverted from John Kennedy's vision that the "old era is ending, the old ways will not do."  The vision put forward by John F. Kennedy has more relevance today for the future. That vision he articulated in the First Inaugural Address in which he also said that this work may not be accomplished "in our lifetime on the planet." It is important to remember that John F. Kennedy connected his vision to FDR when he said in his State of the Union Address to Congress in Jan. 1961- In the name of a great President whose birthday we honor today, closing his final State of the Union Message sixteen years ago. "We pray that we may be worthy of the unlimited opportunities that God has given us." This is the vision that stands before America even today in 2024.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Leaders of France, Germany and Italy are shown on a train ride from Poland to Kviv as they visit Irpin and Kviv to show solidarity with Ukraine, in this story in The Guardian.

LyrArc Article Gist
Hardeep Puri describes his experience planning for the city of New Delhi during a period of rapid growth in this video from Indian Express. He says getting stakeholders involved was critical for good results.

LyrArc Article Gist
90,000 people are evacuated in Canada's most costly fire with a million acres on fire in Alberta. The fires make it Canada's most costly disaster at 4 billion Canadian dollars.

LyrArc Article Gist
The private sector gets a chance to build a lunar lander for the Artemis V Mission. The purpose NASA says is to create competition and create new vendors for this technology to choose from.

LyrArc Article Gist
With the cost of food soaring in Canada there is a sense that there is "greedflation" in grocery stores. A recent bread price fixing scandal has raised public awareness about this problem.

LyrArc Article Gist
Neelakurinji deep blue flowers on India's western ghats mountains in western India, this time of the year, as shown in The Hindu. A UNESCO Heritage site since 2012. 

LyrArc Article Gist
Ukraine leader Zelensky is expected to be in Washington to meet president Biden and to address the US Congress on December 21, 2022. A bill in Congress includes $44 billion for aid to Ukraine.

LyrArc Article Gist
Marc Santora in NYT shows how Ukraine survived a winter with few lights on and 40% of its electricity grid destroyed. By April Ukraine had survived and was exporting electricity- something of a miracle.

LyrArc Article Gist
Japanese people have waited for a long time for this moment. A time to relax viewing the cherry blossom trees that are now in full bloom after two years of the pandemic.  

LyrArc Article Gist
US Trade Representative Katherine Tai and India's Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal relaunch the US India Trade Forum for a winning partnership as Tai visits New Delhi in November 2021. 

LyrArc Article Gist
Coronavirus cases reach a daily high of 53,000 in the UK, December 28, 2020. London has twice the rate as England. There are calls for a nationwide lockdown as the NHS faces a crisis.