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PM Modi asks India's youth to help bring about an end to the leakage of public funds that end up illegally in private hands when these funds are desperately needed to build roads, bridges, housing, logistics centers for exports, airports and ports on a scale similar to the United States and EU nations. Only by doing this and focussing every penny for building infrastructure and international trade under Made in India can India meet the aspirations of 1.2 billion people and set the pace for the 0.5 billion people in other parts of south and south east Asia including neighboring Indonesia- 1.7 billion people. The US and European Union would be grateful that this happens as it secures the future also of the US and the EU nations through a new manufacturing supply chain. With this effort India would integrate efforts for renewable energy and combating climate change with the US, European Union, and the nations of Latin America and Africa on a new scale that is needed. Jobs come with infrastructure and Made in India manufacturing, it is the foundations that have to be put in just as for a house being built. See the pledge and how significant it is in Lyrarc Insights (see left side front page menu) under India - The Way Forward, Bharat and Cina in Sanskrit - the heritage of Vedanta and the Buddha that the Asian people identify with. ...

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Bridget Phillipson and Keir Starmer are politicians who would like to get things done and take ideas from all sides in the effort to improve life for British parents and children. See the article alongside on the changes proposed by Phillipson and Starmer to bring better education to all schools, and keeping the best of the Academy system- just spreading the best to all parts of the country.  Zoe Wiliiams had this interview with Bridget Philipson in The Guardian, March 21, 2023, when she was UK Shadow Education Secretary with big plans to revive childcare and children's education in UK schools. Phillipson is now Education Secretary and is getting a bill passed in Parliament to improve some aspects of the British education system keeping the infrastructure and foundations that are delivering well. Phillipson grew up in a dilapidated northeast England neighborhood in Tyne and Wear. She describes this as a place with an air of decline with a railroad track and idled chemical plant in the area, high youth unemployment. He mother and her grandparents provided a caring home and signed her up for drama lessons on Saturdays. She attended Catholic school and went on to study at Oxford University in Modern Languages and Modern History, returning to work for Sunderland City Council for 2 years instead of going to London. She is seen as self-effacing but vigorous in putting forward ideas on better childcare and children's education for British children.   ...

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Most people are not aware that EU had 10% tariff on US car imports into the European Union over many decades. US tariff was only 2.5%. The US tariff of 15% on EU car imports into the US in 2025 comes after EU recalcitrance for decades in lowering its tariffs on US car imports.  German carmakers have prepared for the higher tariff and EU car stocks were up as this is a lower tariff than the initial tariff of 25%. German car makers export luxury cars with higher margins which offers some offset as well as increasing efficiency in car making so that only a small part of this will be passed on to the US car buyer. An offset to the US car buyer is in the One Big Beautiful Act of 2025 which lets car buyers deduct the interest costs of leasing a car. The result is that US car industry will have the advantage it has long been deprived of and American car buyers will not be affected in the way the media has presented, or not at all. Over time German car industry will also do well with its access to the growing American market. Germany will lower its tariff on US car imports to 2.5% from 10% which makes it profitable for BMW and Mercedes to make SUV's in the US to export to Germany and EU, making this a win-win for US and EU. ...

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Hitachi's conversion to a leaner, more profit conscious company, learning from rivals, GE, Siemens, IBM and large Korean companies. CEO, Nakanishi, graduated from Stanford with a computer science degree in 1979, during a break from Hitachi. He takes a hands on approach to management and brings this approach to tough assignments to learn what is going wrong. He moved to San Jose, to figure out why the hard disk drive business Hitachi bought from IBM for $2.05 billion was losing money. There he found quality problems were causing 60% of the hard drives coming off the production line with defects. After fixing the problems and achieving 10% profit margins Nakanishi put the company up for sale. Western Digital bought the company for $4.8 billion. His hands on approach includes meeting directly with public officials and ministers in governments around the world that buy its nuclear plants, high speed trains and large machinery. To maintain its preferred bidder status Nakanishi met with Britain's transport minister during the switch in government to the Conservative party in 2010. In his approach he is part of a new breed of Japanese executives, some with education in the U.S., such as Toyota's new CEO, Akio Toyoda, and others such as Toshiba's CEO, Norio Sasaki, who are eager to break away from the mold. Like Toshiba, Hitachi has shifted away from its consumer product lines. Hitachi consumer products are expected to make up only 10% of sales in the coming fiscal year. Emphasis is on the industrial products from nuclear plants to power plant equipment and high speed trains that powered Hitachi from its early beginnings as a maker of mining equipment in the 1920's. These executives are vigilant about a "Not Invented Here Syndrome" typical of large Japanese companies. Nakanishi says there is a lot Japanese companies can learn from rivals about cost and strategies. The experience came with hard knocks. In March 2009, Hitachi announced the biggest loss for a Japanese company upto that time of $9.9 billion. As head of the power and industrial business Nakanishi lost a contract to build a power plant in the Unted Arab Emirates to Korean companies. Compared to Hitachi, Toshiba's strategy is to emphasize industrial products such as nuclear reactors but also keep a presence in consumer products because Sasaki's view is that consumer products require smaller investments and generate cash flow. Jurio Osawa, WSJ, April 9, 2012, Toshiba's Chief Takes Stock....

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A senior Indian diplomat, and former ambassador to China, Gautam Bambawale, says China's action in the June 15 clash at Galwan Valley was the worst violence since 1967. He sees it as a premeditated and well thought out action. His view is that India's relations with China will deteriorate further. That this was an action by the PLA to take territory to what it sees as the LAC or border. For small tactical gains he says "China has strategically lost India." This will impact trade and other relations going forward in his view.  Nothing of this sort was expected says Bambawale. All the agreements put in place since 1993, everything for tranquillity at the border, all the mechanisms, have now collapsed. Bambawale has provided a very lucid and clear account of the relations and the border issues. He goes on to say that Chinese observers have given reasons for the Galwan clash with PLA- that India should stay away from the US and other democracies such as the European Union. Some reflection shows that the opposite has happened. And further reflection would show that the same situation was repeated in the period of transfer from British Empire to Republican India, and from Nationalist China to Communist China from the period 1947 onwards. Different perceptions and different leaderships that gave the perception of gaps between the two countries. In the 1950's after the Korean War Chinese perceptions about India could have led to the incursions that brought China to the borders of India in 1950, similar perceptions of gaps in development and capabilities could have led to the conflict in 1962. From 1993 peace prevailed with India after China entered the World Trade Organization under president Clinton in 2001 following a 10 year effort. Because the focus in China was on development after a series of crises, internal sense of a widening technological gap with the US and Europe, disagreements with the Soviet Union, and the experiments with market economy, internal struggles for democracy. With that period coming to a close as the new trading relationship has led to working class losses in factory jobs in the US, China is faced with protecting its economy as it and the US look at changing supply channels and how it affects both countries. It is a critical time for China as it faces governments in US, France, UK and Canada determined to protect their own interests in manufacturing jobs, renewing supply channels, and in technological advancement. The response is similar to that in 1962 when seen from the Communist party perspective as a gap has opened up with India following China's progress in the 30 year trading relationship with the US and Europe. That gap and the difficult situation China faces today with the US and EU in trade and technology has brought forward the Galwan clash and future clashes in Ladakh and at the border.  As Mr. Jaishnkar, India's Minister of External Affairs as well as former ambassador to China,  has pointed out this is a very different aspirational India that China faces. The same kind of grassroots development that happened in China and rapid pooling of capital, human resources and technology inputs for development is taking place in India, and will continue for the next two decades, quickly bridging any gaps in modernization between the two countries. The difference between a youthful population in India and aging population in China and Japan, is likely to add another dimension. China's Buddhist culture that came from India is not likely to go away, more likely is that China will see a revival of Buddhist ideas of wellness and living more as culture than religion. The experience with British colonialism that prevailed both in India and China, and which from its base in India caused so much grief to China during the Opium wars will recede from memory. Extending borders from historical memory of Japanese incursions into border areas in Manchuria could have led leaders after 1950 in China to extend borders to remote areas in the Arunachal region of India and communist theory books may have created the perception of defensive moves. In the context of an aspirational India similar to China, and no real intention on the part of India to extend itself in any way to China's provinces in Sichuan, this extending of borders as a defensive move will be seen as stemming from memories of Japanese incursions in the 1930's, but simply costly and not relevant in any way to China's own aspirational development and progress. ...

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A study of the economies of the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. by the Brookings Institution suggests that states in the South may be facing a harder time recovering from high unemployment than the northeast and midwestern states. Of the ten states with the highest unemployment six are in the West and the South, including Nevada, California, and S. Carolina. Unemployment in S. Carolina is 11.1%. A researcher at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, says the better performance of the South in earlier years was driven by development and in-migration. This has abruptly ended. A Brookings Fellow, Howard Wial, suggests the possibility of California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida being depressed for a long time, while states in the Great Lakes region see a rebound. States and regions that are dependent on education, healthcare and energy, are doing better than others. In Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh region with its emphasis on education and healthcare is doing better than Philadelphia. In New York, Buffalo and Rochester in the upstate region are doing better than the New York City metropolitan area. Areas around Akron and Youngstown in the rustbelt part of Ohio are recovering better than Tucson and Colorado Springs....

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Changes Republican Governor Sam Brownback is making in the state of Kansas, which focus on conservative values, lower taxes, and major cuts to spending to reduce the footprint of government in the state. Kansas has a large Republican majority in the House of Representatives and strong tea party fervor, giving Brownback an opportunity to remake government in the state. Yet there is some skepticism about how lasting these changes can be with the cuts in government services. Some Republicans say the question is how much in government services do the people of Kansas want- if the cuts are too steep the people of Kansas may find too many services have been cut. Over the the last century Kansas has usually voted for moderate Republican governors, making this a major change.

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The higher US tariffs ranging from 41% to 345% on Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia will make it difficult for China to use these countries for factories that then dump highly subsidized product  (solar panels, other product) in US markets, at prices that are below production cost. India and the US are nearing a trade deal that gives India a chance to become a major manufacturing center for fair trade supplying the US. India will plan a partnership with US in which US goals and manufacturing are supported while at the same time making some parts at cost competitive with China.

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This article by Gerald Seib in the WSJ says not enough was done to attract white working class voters- critical for Trump in industrial swing states- at the Democratic National Convention. He says only on the last night of the convention did a factory worker, a home care provider and a laid off restaurant worker, appear on the stage. These are the voters who have drifted away from the Democratic Party. The convention draws ironically on Republican themes, defense foreign policy as in the speeches by Leon Panetta and retired General Allen, and in efforts to portray Hillary as more human with frailties but a 40 year public service record that includes exceptional work for children. Actually the appeal to traditional Democratic white working class voters was there always in the background with most of the speakers, as it colored most speakers comments including Biden and Kane, who have the colloquial language and style to appeal to this group. The appeal to traditionally white working class voters is in the party platform with the $15 minimum wage for service industry workers, and in the promise to provide college free tution for people making less than $125,000. The Democrats simply painted this with a different brush. Contrasting the callous attitude to the poor and struggling of billionaires like Trump with those who have fought for pushing people up the ladder since FDR- with the lapses in recent years from the tech boom which left some workers short now being addressed. This was expressed by Hillary Clinton saying to Bernie Sanders voters- "your cause is our cause." For Democrats it was more effective to tackle the traditionally Democratic working class voters first, before shifting to working class voters who are border line Republican because of social issues or those who are so disaffected so as to be beyond reach. ...

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October 1 is a national holiday in China  and the 75th anniversary of the founding of People's Republic of China in 1949. Youth and students in China travel across the country to visit historic sites in the Chinese Revolution in what is called Red Tourism. The perceptions of young people and students on Mao in 2024 is shown in this video in FR24. This is how China wants to remember its past- a century of conflict with European powers and the British Empire after European Powers tried to breakup China following the Opium Wars in the 1850's. This was followed by the Japanese Empire staking its claims over parts of northern China in 1900-1945, and the period in which the US under General Joe Stilwell struggled with the dilemma of China knowing the corruption and failure of leaders to modernize China.  Then followed the decades when hunger and inadequate healthcare was banished from China, yet the industrial revolution that happened in western Europe and the US was elusive. Efforts in the 1960's to do this failed. Only when China showed the spirit of humility to work with Europeans and Americans and the Japanese and opened up its thinking to adopt markets in its own context of state run operations was the industrial revolution accomplished and modernization made to happen in the 1990's onwards. Three decades of rapid industrialization transformed an ancient nation in the heart of Asia. ...

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Yuka Hayashi's interview with Gen. Shigeru Iwasaki, Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Japan's Self Defence Forces. Iwasaki says Japan will improve its defense capabilities in the southwestern part of Japan and protect Japanese airspace. Japan will increase defense spending under the government of LDP leader Shinzo Abe.

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Starbucks introduction of hot breakfast sandwiches may not have been such a good idea, especially since Mr Schultz did not like the smell from the sandwiches in some stores. And the smell, the aroma of strong flavorful coffees is what was a big part of the Starbucks cafe experience.

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The South Ferry station, terminus for the No1 trainopens January 2009 with artists work by Doug and Mike Starn commissioned by the rts for transit Program of the Metropolitan Transit Authority. It includes curved floor to ceilin glass walls with silhouettes of trees, a marble mosaic of a vintage topographic map of Manhattan, and other imagery drawn from nearby Battery Park. Says Mike about the artwork, the brothers have been working with the idea of the splitting and changing of the trees and branches of the subway system, something that happens in time as well as in space. Its also rooted in their preoccupation with time and natural bonds part of their continuing project on the "Structure of Thought." The Starns proposal was selected in 2004 because of its imagery and its melding of technology for materials and of organix and urban history, and is part of the rebuilding of lower Manhattan after the 9/11 attacks.

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Investments made by president Biden and Congress of $1 trillion in manufacturing and infrastructure will take time to go into effect. It is wrong to say this shows limits of this policy of investing in America as it has increased growth, maintained employment levels, and helped America recover from the pandemic. Biden did this for the National good not for Democrats and it was designed to benefit red and blue states like. Its effects will be felt long after the next election cycle in just 3 years January 2028, so that to say that president Trump or Republicans would get credit is an erroneous notion. The next president could come from the opposite party and the long term effects of this could benefit all parties, giving everyone a stake in making it work. The narrow view also overlooks the great benefits from this investment of $1 trillion for America's trading partners and allies in Asia and Europe, the American leadership role in CHIPS and Science as a result, and the respect of the world in the way America has handled its economic affairs. ...

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The increase in the Nasdaq Composite Index to 4000 by November 2013. In contrast to the period in 1999 the Nasdaq Index now has companies in the Index in a broader number of tech fields including medical technology, pharmaceuticals and consumer. Tech companies in the Index now have reliable tested products and generate significant revenues and profits. Apple has 8.02% representation in the Nasdaq Composite Index. Other companies are Microsoft with 5.15%, Google 4.80%, Amazon 2.88%, Intel 1.95%, Qualcomm 2.09%, Gilead, 1.88%, Amgen 1.42%. The Index is more diversified in 2013. B/E Aerospace and First Solar are part of the Index. About 13.5% are in Health Care technologies, including Celgene and Myriad Genetics. And 7.1% in Telecom, including SBA Communications. Priceline, Amazon are part of consumer internet companies in the Index. Tech based companies make up only 45% on the Index Composite compared to 66% in 1999, with these companies on stronger revenue and profit footing and not bid up speculatively as they were in 1999....

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In a response to Mark Cuban about intelligent women around DJT Susie Wiles his co-campaign manager shares that she and Linda McMahon are two she can think of "Well, here we are." Very disciplined and to the point using just the right words, and getting her message across, Susie Wiles is a remarkable addition to DJT's team from the outset. She once worked for Reagan's political campaigns. Susie Wiles says- "You don’t have to shout to get noticed. I don’t want to be in the spotlight. I think it hampers your ability to be effective.” She comes from Florida and was introduced to DJT by a Republican lobbyist in 2015. She has handled Rick Scott's transition with Matt Gaetz, and also worked on the De Santis campaign in Florida. In 2016 and 2020 she has the remarkable achievement of turning Florida once a swing state into a core part of the Republican states in the southern US. Susie Wiles says- "You don’t have to shout to get noticed. I don’t want to be in the spotlight. I think it hampers your ability to be effective.” ...

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Declan Walsh's article published on May 19, 2013 in the NYT, was written and reported before his expulsion by the Interior Ministry of Pakistan. It surely must rank as an exceptional piece of journalism and possibly the best that has been done on Pakistan in the U.S. media for decades. Walsh focusses on the Pakistan Railways once part of the British Indian Railways which pulled together all of South Asia from Burma and the Afghan border to Ceylon, an engineering feat accomplished by the British which integrated India (and Pakistan) into nation states. He takes a cue from the India patriot Gokhale's advice to the the young Mohandas Gandhi to travel by rail to see India, its agricultural interior and small towns. Walsh rides the Awami Express from Peshawar near the Afghan border to Karachi, in Sindh province. Along the way the train passes Sukkur, crosses the Indus river, reaches Lahore in the Punjab province, and makes its way to Hyderabad in Sindh province near the Thar desert and India. Walsh stops at each point to talk with railway personnel, describes passengers, and the changing terrain. The strains on the society from extremist violence, the lack of investment in the railways, corruption, and railway ministry officials who diverted resources away from the railways, are described in detail, showing how conditions have deteriorated in the railways to this point. It also focusses attention on the need to modernize and rebuild Pakistan's railways. In China and in India railways play a huge role in the life of the common man, providing the major means of transportation and freight links for these large developing countries. By pulling freight business away from the railways and shifting it to businesses outside railways, a critical source of revenue was take away by a rail minister in the Musharraf government, which needs to be reversed. In the U.S., China and India rail freight business is a key part of the railway companies. There is a sense of despair in the railway people Walsh talks to, but his account also spells hope by bringing this to the attention of the outside world, to the public in the U.S. and Europe, even Japan, that what Pakistan needs is new investment, help with infrastructure. It sends a message to the new government to gird itself for the difficult tasks ahead to win the confidence of the people of Pakistan in a way that has not been done in the past. Falling behind is then both problem and opportunity in a modernizing world with new technologies that can transform the landscape....

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Jaishankar was asked at the 2021 GLOBSEC conference in Bratislava in 2021 why he thinks anyone will help India in case of a problem with China after it did not help others for Ukraine. Chancellor Scholz of Germany cites Indian Foreign Minister Jasihankar's remarks in Bratislava, Slovakia, in 2021. Jaishankar said- "Europe has to grow out of the mindset that Europe's problems are the world's problems, but the world's problems are not Europe's problems. That is if it is you it's yours, if it is me it is ours. I see reflections of that. There is a linkage today which is being made. A linkage betwen China and India and what's happening in Ukraine. Chia and India happened way before anything happened in Ukraine. The Chinese do not need a precedent somewhere else on how to engage us or not to engage us or be difficult with us or not to be difficult with us." These are Scholz's remarks at the Munich Security Conference. Scholz says Jaishankar has "a point."  "This quote from the Indian Foreign Minister is included in this year's Munich Security Report and he has a point it would't be Europe's problem alone if the law of the strong were to assert itself in international relations." To be credible European or North American in New Delhi or Jakarta, it is not enough to emphasize shared values. "We generally have to address the interests and concerns of these countries as a basic prerequisite for joint action. And that's why it was so important to me to not merely have representatives of Asia, Africa and Latin America at the negotiating table during the G-7 Summit last June. I really wanted to work with these regions to find solutions to the main challenges they face growing poverty and hunger, partly as a consequence of Rusia's war, as well as the impact of climate change or COVID-19. There is another side to this -Scholz and Germany's president Frank Walter-Steinmeier are from the social Democrats party which has sought closer cooperation with Russia, and also carry a great deal of ambivalence for the war. America is not fighting this indirect war in its neighborhood, Germany is. And some of the roots of this conflict go back to the Napoleonic invasion of Russia in the 1800's period and the German invasion in the 1940's. Macron is even more ambivalent in his position and he has remained this way from the beginning- not committed to humiliating Russia. In a way it is the position of the Social Democrats from the historical context of Germany's invasion of Russia, and Christian Democrats eagerness to create a German recovery with low cost Russian energy that created the dependence that Russia sought to use. In what it sees as the unfairness of NATO being allowed to expand right next to its borders. Because of a sense of righteousness on both sides- Russia of the Soviet period failing to see the feelings of a Budapest in 1956, East Berlin in 1953, and Prague in 1968, sees little wrong in an invasion of Kviv. And with it all the biography of Brezhnev the last leader of the Soviet Union, describes that very struggle in the Great Patriotic War the soviets fought against Nazi Germany which was fought by Ukrainians including Leonid Brezhnev with great will and purpose against all odds.  Cambridge historian has written the history of Europe that Scholz is cited to be reading in 2021- Europe The Struggle for Supremacy 1453 to the Present.  It shows Europe since 1453 engaging in balance of power of European powers, Sweden Denmark, Russia, Austria, Germany, France, Britain, Turkey, continually for 500 years. Europe simply forgot its own history. Asia including Japan, China, Indonesia and India, simply emerging from the situation of falling behind in science, technology, and the industrial revolution and building their economies with the help of the US since the Meiji Restoration in Japan in 1868. The Balance of Power Simms says was maintained for 500 years is simply based on no country allowed to act with impunity, no country allowed to do whatever it wanted because of its position of strength at that moment or period of time. In that situation all other powers regrouped to keep the balance from being upset. The war in Ukraine is also likely to end in a way that is consistent with that which Brendan Simms writes about because this has not changed now for over 500 years. Biden knows this and it has fallen on America to shoulder the burden for this in the last 150 years, Scholz is aware of this, Modi in India sees this, and Jinping in China realizes this even with its concerns about Taiwan.   ...

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Fruit and vegetable gardens one can harvest for free in the Rhine River Valley city of Andernach, a medieval city that is one of the oldest settlements in Germany. The city administration launched this project in 2010 to get more local people engaged in the outdoors in their community and raise awareness of how food is grown. The plants cover tomatoes to pomegranates. The mayor hopes other cities around the world will follow this example. The mayor Anneli Karlsson says one does not feel such a relationship to plants as when one goes out and picks out the food, the salad, that one is then going to use for dinner that evening. This is an idea that cities in Europe, the US and other parts of the world can take up in the middle of the current rise in food prices, so that the interest would lead to closer relationship with the food grown around us, and in even growing it oneself in one's own garden. In the first year 100 varieties of tomatoes were planted. Then other edible plants were added. It includes Greek mountain tea leaves as well as the usual pumpkins, potatoes, grapes zucchini, kale, almonds. No pesticides so it is all organic. There aren't any fences one just takes what one needs.  The gardens are good for tourism. They also hire unemployed people to add to the workers in addition to the team of gardeners. Rising food prices are getting people to take interest in how food is grown and urban area food gardens. ...