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This opinion of the Editorial Board of WSJ says it is not clear why Taiwan has been excluded from the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework that includes most of South East Asia including Indonesia, and India, South Korea, Japan, Australia. The Biden administration plans to deepen economic ties with Taiwan. WSJ says this is a mistake and Taiwan should be included in the new Asian alliance led by the US. IPEF is a Asian alliance built around 4 pillars of digital economy, transparency and good governance, Asian security and rule of law, and rapid economic technological progress. Biden administration Commerce minister Raimondo says it will increase investment in the alliance countries for supply chain renewal and shift of investments away from China and into India, Vietnam. President Biden and Jake Sullivan see it as pulling in investment into the US for infrastructure and technology and into allies such as India who have the pool of manufacturing workers to compete with China in a new supply chain. Mr. Modi also sees it as he is focused on digital economy, good governance, and infrastructure with speed and scale at high levels to match rising aspirations for the economy in India. It is designed in a way that lets US, Japan South Korea and India to fill in the needs and strategies over the period to 2030 and 2040 so that US and Europe and the Free World in Asia and Latin America, Africa can preserve democratic values with matching technological and economic strength. ...

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"Brazil no Espelho" or "Brazil in the Mirror" by Felipe Nunes is cited by Brian Winter of Americas Quarterly in 2026 just before the October 2026 election. Lula has had a good run in the last 4 years with 3% growth of the economy, improvement in working class transfers and low unemployment. Lula's drawback is he is turning 80 years, and the Brazil of today is changing in its social aspects into one that is becoming more faith oriented. With evangelical Christianity on the rise and now about 30% of the people, including in the poorer areas of cities once supporting tax and transfers policies of Lula such as Bolsa Familia. Asked about their faith Brazilians are exception in the world for numbers Nunes shows can be found nowhere else- over 95% saying they are believers that their faith is the most important aspect of their life. Brazilians are also putting family first. There is a certain fatigue with the state supporting the economic lives of people, particularly with a recent Master Banco revelations of wrongdoing in business circles, reminder of the Car Wash Scandal after Lula left office. Brazilians say working for oneself is more important than working for the government. Brazil's economy is also transformed in many ways in its size and potential since the start of the Lula government in 2003. Brazil is now the 9th largest economy in the world, growing similar to India as the 3rd largest. The notions of left and right wing politics are now in both countries being replaced with a belief in a higher Being that guides us all. The ideas of Faith, Family and Work independent of the State is the direction in the European Union and other nations in the world.  Brazil as part of the Western hemisphere, and the US asserting the Monroe Doctrine after its experience with drugs and fentanyl, mass migration across its borders, it is now a different hemisphere than before. The US has shifted to securing the western hemisphere from the swings that happened in Cuba and Venezuela over decades that have led to economic disaster, and to millions of displaced Venezuelans crossing borders. In this situation much has changed across Latin America and North America.  In any situation the US is likely to find a favorable investment climate in Brazil, closer relations with Brazil, in its own hemisphere, as it has with India in Asia. A Brazil that would work to give balance to the US process of economic cooperation with Latin America that was the intent of John F. Kennedy in the Alliance for Progress. A vision never realized, put on hold for over 50 years, yet now ready to be realized. ...

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Over 50% of respondents in the 2012 Gallup poll view Japan as the U.S.'s most important partner in Asia, compared to 39% for China. The shift in how Americans view China is pronounced in the last 3 years. In 2010 the two countries were tied 44%-44%. In 2011 China was 39% to Japan's 31%. In 2011 India, S. Korea and Australia were added to the poll as partners. Among "opinion leaders" such as business executives, government officials, academics and journalists, China gets 54% to Japan's 40%. The poll is conducted by Gallup for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan since the 1960's. The analysis shows that respondents picked China for economic reasons not for political reasons. A survey of the general population shows 84% view Japan as a dependable ally, up 2% froom 2011, with similiar trend for opinion leaders.

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The World Health Organization lists the world's most polluted cities with the highest level of PM2.5 particulate matter as 1. Kanpur, India     173 2. Faridabad          172 3.  Varanasi            151 4.  Gaya                  149 5. Patna                   144 6.  Delhi                    143 7.  Lucknow                 138 8.  Agra                        131 9.  Muzzaffarpur           120 10.  Srinagar                113 11.   Gurgaon                113 12.  Jaipur                     105 13.  Patiala                      101 14.  Jodhpur                     98 15.  li Subah ali Salem      94 A look at the cities most polluted shows that most of the cities are in or near New Delhi, (Gurgaon, New Delhi, Faridabad, Agra) in the state of Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi, Agra). The cities on the list that one does not expect are cities such as Jodhpur in the Thar desert, and Srinagar in the mountainous region of Kashmir. Srinagar is on the list because of inadequate sewage facilities to treat sewage. The Dal lake is polluted from houseboats and tourist hotels dumping sewage into the lake and not connecting to the sewage system. Jodhpur is polluted from auto exhaust and vehicular pollution.. The WHO says India's efforts to control pollution need to follow the steps taken by China recently. In response to citizen pressure and outrage about health conditions China has closed down polluting factories, and is shifting away from coal, away from coal stoves. India's efforts are inadequate and scattered says the WHO. This includes stopping fireworks sales that aggravated toxic conditions in Delhi. A program giving 37 million poor Indian women free gas connections helps a shift from use of dung fired clay ovens or coal ovens. Pollution kills 7 million people each year says WHO, and over half or 3.8 million people die from use of unhealthy cooking stoves which create indoor air pollution. Of cities above 14 million Delhi ranks first, Cairo, Egypt second, Mumbai, India fourth and Beijing fifth in air pollution levels.  ...

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The target is to move two way trade between China and India from the 2005 figure of $17 billion to $40 billion by 2010.

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India China Border and rail connection $40 billion project Chengdu to Lhasa 2025. The infrastructure brings China greater access to the western region of China some of it from the occupation of Tibet in the 1950's that now makes up territory the size of 80% of the contiguous US. India is rapidly modernizing it's side of the border with tunnels and bridges.  This situation is new. For most of history from 1000 to 1950's China had only a remote connection with the Tibetan and Indian border regions where nomadic tribes and Tibetans lived. Very few Chinese numbering by the hundreds or a few thousands may have visited the region as even under the British contacts were very limited with Tibet and border regions in the Himalayas. For China it is far from its major population centers in Beijing and Shanghai and Hong Kong, Shenzen. And it provides few advantages in spreading over a vast region that is remote and in high over 15,000 feet in the Tibetan and border regions. It is only the invasion of Korea and China by Japan in the close of the nineteenth and early part of the 20th century that has created the idea of having buffer regions that protect it from foreign powers. And this is what may happen over the next 50 years as the region goes back to what it was before the 1950's, but with modernization, as India does not seek to reach out beyond Himalayan borders into regions closer to China. ...

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About 41% of Unilever's $53 billion in sales come from developing countries, up from 22% in 1990. In 2006 developing world sales increased by 8%, sales in Europe only 1%, and sales in the USA only 2.4%. This shows the growing significance of developing countries sales to Unilever. With head offices in Rotterdam and London, Unilever was formed from a 1930 merger of a Dutch food company and a British soap company. Unilever has been selling its bar soaps and cooking oils in the Dutch and British Empires, in countries like India, Indonesia, and South Africa since the 1880's. CEO Patrick Cescau is focussed on promoting products in fast growing regions of the world. The management structure is being changed to recruit new and nurture promising managers in countries like India and South Africa. These managers are being trained in western countries to learn new marketing methods, and are being asked to come up with their own new ideas for products from scratch for developing countries with low price points. Its not about adapting existing western products, but dreaming up new ones for low income shoppers. Its introducing a product called Cubitos- miniature bouillion cubes - tailored to low income shoppers in 25 developing markets and their tastes, for as little as 2 cents. The stakes are huge. Its competitors like P&G are doing this in Mexico. Nestle is expanding in Brazil with a new plant dedicated to shoppers making less than $10 a day, and setting up a distribution network to sell to small stores in shantytowns in Latin America. Unilever estimates are that 1.2 billion consumers will buy packaged goods for the first time in 2010, mostly all in the developing world. Detergent sales are soaring in places like India, as shoppers use powders to clean their clothes, moving up from bar soaps. Estimates are that each week 40,000 people in Asia use a washing machine for the first time. ...

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The Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989 was a point at which the country could have made a search for peace iwth the help of foreign powers India, Pakistan, U.S. which supported the mujhadeen and Russia. The missed opportunity under Reagan led to 40 years of uninterrupted war at immense human cost to the people of Afghanistan, and financial and human cost to the U.S. with its involvement in the country's wars. A lecturer at the University of Amsterdam looks at the missed opportunities from the past for a peaceful settlement with the help of foreign powers. This happens as the Taliban meet in Moscow with other parties in the dispute.  A missed perspective relates to the origins of the problem in the India- Pakistan conflict and the history of Afghanistan in the colonial period. Afghanistan was seen as a buffer by Pakistan after the 1971 war with India that created Bangladesh from the former Eastern part of Pakistan. As a result both the Russians and the Americans were embroiled in wars and passions that had little to do with ideologies and  more with feudalism, factions and religious conflicts. Much national treasure in human life and lost opportunities for development at home on the side of foreign powers was the cost of the involvement.      ...

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The full text of the letter is given here. In this letter the U.S. sets out some important facts about events that happened during the coronavirus crisis during the crucial 4 month period from December 2019 to March 2020. Every week lost in this time due to reasons of a lack of transparency, openness meant hundreds of thousands of people more infected and tens of thousands of deaths worldwide. There are questions of transparency, of openness and this raises questions about the manner in which the World Health Assembly operates with hundreds of small countries in Africa and Asia having votes equal to that of the U.S., India, Brazil, Mexico with votes taken of over 200 countries. The entire election process can now be seen as questionable, when over a billion people in one country alone such as India or hundreds of millions in Brazil and Mexico would have to bear the consequences of poor decisions made by small countries that can be swayed in one direction or another based on political bias and other considerations that have nothing to do with global health.  At the conclusion of the letter by the U.S. to the current WHO shaped by a controversial election in 2017 the following is stated about the standards set by Gro Harlem Brundtland and which helped the world prevent the SARS crisis which originated in China in 2003 from spreading to the large countries of the world India, Brazil, Mexico, and other such countries in Asia and Africa, Latin America, and the U.S. European Union. "In 2003, in response to the outbreak of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in China, Director-General Harlem Brundtland boldly declared the World Health Organization’s first emergency travel advisory in 55 years, recommending against travel to and from the disease epicenter in southern China. She also did not hesitate to criticize China for endangering global health by attempting to cover up the outbreak through its usual playbook of arresting whistleblowers and censoring media. Many lives could have been saved had you followed Dr. Brundtland’s example." Even this does not come to grips with the flawed way in which the election of WHO head is done. It can no longer be relied on when there is the danger that lack of transparency can emerge in the WHO leadership itself because of a flawed process. It risks endangering the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions in countries such as India, Brazil, Mexico, as well as in the relatively small countries of Africa and Latin America where even basic water supplies are at risk but which could tilt elections at the World Health Assembly. Consider that a cyclone just hit the Indian state of West Bengal and Bangladesh on May 20 just as the coronavirus pandemic is spreading. That this region of 1.5 billion people had just 2 votes out of over 200 cast at the World Health Assembly in 2017 shocking. And even these votes cast based on old geopolitical considerations not how good the candidate is, and how good the country he is coming from is in terms of its record  on public health. The irony here is that private foundations in the advanced countries in the U.S. and Europe some of whom are major donors to WHO did not think that more experienced candidates in their own countries with a better record of public health such as in France or Germany are better qualified, in a flawed NGO support mentality left from the Clinton years. Basically the people in these large countries such as India, Brazil, Mexico were disenfranchised, when the austerity policies were consuming the European Union, and the U.S. had just elected a new administration itself groping for ways to reverse years of neglect of public services and infrastructure priorities. They would trust good leaders no matter where they come from, who have a record of transparency, leadership, and all the values we cherish together no matter where we come from. ...

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A logistical feat with 200,000 tents 67,000 streetlights, half a million parking spaces, Indian spiritual festival Kumbh Mela 2025. A tent city was built over 15 square miles to accomodate people 4 million to 80 million on festival days. It took months to build and will take 2 months to dismantle  before monsoon rains. Where is this festival? In Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh state, India, in prayers to Lord Shiva on the Ganges river.

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President Trump says he is going to delay this year's G-7 summit. He plans to call India, South Korea, Australia and Russia to a new summit talks. Instead of September he would call the meeting of the new G-10 or G-11 with the new countries added after the election, as he says the old set of countries is now outdated. The old set of countries put Canada and Italy ahead of India and Australia, and recently left out Russia.

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The failure of the northern electricity grid in India and the huge power outage in 8 states affecting 369 million people on July 30, 2012. This includes the capital city of New Delhi. The outage was a result of the northern grid taking more than its quota of power from the national electricity grid in India. Analysts say India has a shortage of about 10% of electricity needs. Over half of India's electricity generation capacity of 205 gigawatts is based on coal. Coal India which is the largest producer has failed to meet growing demand and the coal shortages are making it difficult to expand power capacity. The national plan is to increase capacity by 44% in 5 years.

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The US sees no contradiction to India looking for bargain priced oil from Russia to meet the growing needs of its economy and is actually furthering the goals of the G-7 by lowering the price Russia gets for its oil. It helps the economy of 1.2 billion people that like the rest of the world has struggled to fight the pandemic and has incurred the kind of heath costs that even China is now struggling to pay for. President Biden clearly understands and supports this. Democracies an only succeed if they fulfill the aspirations of their people. On this point Biden made clear in his State of the Union that he will generate what it takes from large corporations that paid no tax, to invest in America. Rather than fuel the profits of large oil companies India has increasingly chosen to use Russian discounted oil to invest in India. The Biden and Modi policies are identical generate savings and invest big time in trillions of dollars over the next few years to put democracies ahead in meeting rising aspirations that have been unfulfilled for far too long, which is where the real battles are being fought and will be won, and rightly so. US Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources, Geoffrey Pyatt,  said during a visit to New Delhi on Feb. 16-17- "Our experts now assess that India right now is enjoying a discount of about USD 15 a barrel in the price that it is paying for its imports of Russian crude. So by acting in its own interest, by driving a hard bargain to get the lowest price possible, India is furthering the policy of our G7 coalition, our G7 plus partners in seeking to reduce Russian revenues."  Looking at the bigger picture the problem was created by Germany under Merkel who built Germany's over dependency on Russian oil to power a cheap fuel economy it thought was in Germany's interest. This is now being reversed by the hard work of Mr. Habeck of the Green party in the coalition government of Scholz in securing alternative supplies in record time for the EU to avoid a recession. In this sense the perception created early of India which has suffered itself from invasions in 1962 and incursions in the Himalayas more recently, it is not a problem India can solve by becoming energy short at a time when it has invested so much in fighting the pandemic. A similar problem was created by Republican and Democratic administrations of the past that concentrated the supply chain in one country. India lost much investment in the last 8 years as a result of the policies of Merkel's Germany and past Republican Democratic administrations in concentrating the supply chain in one country. ...

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Procter and Gamble's new CEO, Robert McDonald, set a new goal of over half a million customers a day for five years, hoping to add people in remote villages of China, India and other developing countries for its shampoos, toothpaste, diapers and other products. In many places people are not even familiar with the products like diapers, and need education about the benefits and use. McDonald sees the potential as just "absolutely amazing, amazing." And under the prior CEO, Lafley, progress was made in Mexico, and developing countries are now 32% of the $78 billion in sales, up from 23% four years ago in 2005. Sales are doubling every 4 years in these countries. In Mexico the marketing at low price points throughout Mexico has moved sales per capita to $20, which compares to $1 for India and $3 for China. The idea is to move China, India and places like Nigeria up to the Mexican level. McDonald sees sales growth of $40 billion with this move. Distribution is a challenge, and new ways to use these products and their design for low price markets and local customer habits is needed to make this a success. Families that don't use diapers are encouraged to start using them only once a day at night to promote restful sleep, and young girls are introduced to feminine hygiene pads. Shampoo is in tiny packets for 1-2 uses and may cost no more than an egg. Even though this puts P&G in head on competition with better established Colgate and Unilever, P&G executives see the efforts of all 3 companies actually helping to educate the people in using these products and broadening the market for all. ...

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The purpose of the National Education Policy was to prepare India's young people for India as a developed modernized country and to meet the educational needs of such an economy. The idea was to break the idea of silos based education that separate the science, engineering, medicine, law, arts, humanities, languages based education into separate non mixable parts. It is based on the idea that in modernized economies one needs critical thinking abilities, creative thinking, that mixes the humanities and arts with sciences, with engineering, and other scientific fields.  Because of India's diveristy, history of disadvantaged populations, to build an inclusive economy is also a goal to tap into the widest pool of human potential and talent in a country with 1.2 billion people. For this to happen the goals are set for inclusivity for gender and disadvantaged populations.  What is not in NEP is the investment part, and the governance part, both critical for it to be effective. Investment at 4-6% of GDP is inadequate, as this Brookings report point out. For healthcare and education, India has to expand its share of GDP dedicated to these two areas to make it comparable to other advanced nations. This will pay off in infrastructure development and exports led growth as inputs of education are key to get productivity up in manufacturing and in R&D. Governance is essential part of this overall plan as the public school system in India as in Brazil, Mexico and other countries suffers badly from a lack of attention- with discipline, transparency, good government, increasing incomes and rewarding teachers at every level. ...

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The Vice Chief of the Indian Army explains in detail how the scheme that is rolled out for Agnipath is a pilot project and how the lessons learned will be incorporated over the next 5 years. He says the recruits leave with something like 24 lakhs rupees for a second innings at age 22, with the opportunity to get 13 lakhs in preferential basis loans in government assistance to start an enterprise. Others could choose to enhance their education and go on to get degrees under preferential educational setup. The idea is not to set them up for life but get them off to a good start as they are only about 22 years and with special technical skills acquired during their 4 years in the armed services. Technical skills acquired in the airforce could be even more advanced. Private industry in an India almost twice the size of the economy that exists today and the fastest growing economy in the world would easily absorb 30,000 of such highly trained disciplined people in the scheme who leave. The US GI Bill and other similar programs for the military have shown that this works and private industry is eager to take in these people on a preferential basis. These in fact have proven to be even more attractive opportunities using the example of the US experience than a government job. Lt. Gen. Raju says about the All India regiments replacing the homogenous units of the past. The Rastriya Rifles  and similar units in the Army have shown that the bonding happens for people from different parts of the country. He could have said that it is seen in the cricket teams where the bonding is between people from different regions and places. These units have performed very well says Raju in the LAC, in Kashmir, in border areas and in other situations. ...

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Food inflation is affecting a wide range of countries not just poor countries. Even in the US where on average only 7% of the income of households goes to food, for poor and lower income households this can go up to over 30%. In Turkey with a high inflation rate of 80% in June over prior year, the problems of food inflation are severe. Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia and other Arab countries get most of their wheat from Ukraine and Russia through Black Sea ports. Across Asia the situation varies with less food inflation in countries that are self sufficient in food production such as China, India and Vietnam, to countries such as Sri Lanka where inflation is severe and takes up most of the budget for ordinary families. Lebanon is an extreme example with the collapse of its economy and 332% inflation with food inflation severe. Ethiopians spend about 45% of income on food. Somalia faces drought conditions and severe food shortages. This part of Africa is the most fragile and most prone to breakdown. Being self sufficient in food was an important goal for countries that faced famine in the past such as China and India- this has produced good results. Even in Europe small countries that make their own food with agriculture getting importance such as France and Switzerland the benefits are immense. Switzerland food inflation is as low as 1.5% lowest in the world. Where as in Africa this importance of agriculture has been neglected the consequences are seen today. In Latin America Argentina and Brazil are exporters of soyabeans and other food. This helps insulate them from the worst effects of the food crisis.     ...

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This report in WSJ by Thomas, Hughes and Wise says despite the concerns about Biden he is tied with Trump at 46% in a recent Ipsos Wash Post survey of voters. Lyrarc.com's Analysis of readers comments of WSJ, NYT and Wash Post reports on Biden for the last week show that most readers support Biden and see the media overreaching and lacking balance and good judgement in reporting. This report also shows 42% of Democrats support Biden continuing his candidacy. There is clearly misinformation with 4 specific examples of gross distortion of images of the president spread online, cited in reports. A true grass roots assessment would show a large majority of Democrats support the president once the dust has cleared. Lyrarc's assessment of the President at the NATO press conference Q and A gives the president a 9 out of 10 for the sharpness and ability to handle a huge number of details and complex policy issues, and for his delivery and viewer comprehension. Biden explained complex issues in simple plain English which also stands out. On the same day India's Modi said he was glad to be welcomed by Australia when he was in Vienna, Austria, with its chancellor, correcting it immediately. No one mentioned it even though it happened twice for Modi. Media made it their headline for Biden for similar mixing up and immediate correction. Going over complex issues for 60 minutes with 9 reporters in A+ fashion- no mention at all by the Media. In Movement for Global Literacy we cited the low degree of confidence and trust in media- only 20% of the American people trust the media such as the TV news shows and the newspapers. To know the true picture go directly to the grassroots and find out in every part of the Union. Lincoln,TR, FSR and Truman all in their own way faced the twisted rhetoric of politicians and the media in their time, yet retained the confidence of Ameica. ...

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Companies like P&G and Walmart in Mexico, and Lever Brothers and Cadbury in India, are taking developing markets seriously and going after the low price points for products; selling in areas away from the large cities. See the links to Nestle,P&G and Walmart. Cadbury is adding another element, by investing in the growing of cocoa in southern India, to have access to a cheaper supply to meet those low price points. Cadbury Dairy Milk Shots, are pea sized chocolate balls with a sugar shell to protect them from the heat. This product was launched this year. It sells for 2 rupees or 4 cents for a five gram packet. The low price makes it accessible to more people. For Cadbury emerging markets are crucial for new growth, and affordability a critical way to go after this market. Emerging markets account for 35% of Cadbury's sales and 60% of the growth. The potential is huge considering India's low per capita consumption of chocolate. Half of the people in India have never tasted chocolate in their life. And India's total chocolate consumption is $465 million compared to $4.89 billion in the UK. Growth has been at about 20% for the last 3 years. Cadbury controls over 70% of the chocolate market and 30% of the confectionery market in India, with combined sales of $338 million, according to AC Nielsen. Nestle is next with 25% of the chocolate market. To keep prices low the company is moving factories to lower cost locations and improving its supply chain. It has setup 20 nurseries in southern India, from where saplings are sent to nearby farms for cultivation. Cadbury provides the saplings, technical expertise, and advice on where to get free government assistance in fertilizers. This is called the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership and has planted 5 million saplings in India in 2008. Another 7.5 million saplings are planned for 2009, and already Cadbury imports only half of its cocoa needs. Local coca costs 30% less because of a 30% tariff on imports....

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This astounding story in WSJ by Jiyoung Sohn in Seoul and Yang Jie from Tokyo, shows how South Korea stopped the illegal transfer to China of entire  computer chip factory setup information of Samsung by a South Korean engineer in Singapore. This shows president Biden has accomplished what no other president has been able to do in the last 40 years. Biden brought Japan and South Korea together reminding them that their differences over wartime occupation can be overcome, leading to the US, Japan and South Korea forming  close cooperation in 2023. After all it was the US that helped setup the democratic framework in the two Asian neighbors after 1945. This story shows how the problem of South Korean and Japanese technologies illegally transferred is being tackled by both countries in 2023. This is part of overall cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region that includes India and Australia, for an open Indo-Pacific region based on the rule of law. ...

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Idea that control over Straits of Hormuz is US goal is repudiated by DJT in his Address to the Nation, yet it finds its way into the media. There is no war for US to win, it is only about removing a nuclear and ballistic missile threat, nothing to do with oil. MAGA base, US public has rejected these wars in remote countries of the Middle East, when reindustrialization is the goal, not repeating the mistakes of Bush and Obama who by fighting these wars for 8 years in Iraq wasted resources and pursued policies that deindustrialized the Nation and weakened the heartland of America. Beyond limiting the threat of nuclear weapons and long range ballistic missiles that could hit US, Europe and other nations there is no other goal. US and DJT repeatedly pointed out that being self sufficient it does not need Iranian or Iraqi or Saudi oil. The president even said in his Address that the US wanted to supply other countries with oil as it produced more than Saudi and Russia combined, and not counting Venezuelan oil production ramp up expected by 3-4 million barrels a day. Behind this is the known fact that China and Japan get 90% of their imports from Hormuz Straits, so it is up to these nations and India and Britain to find solutions to Hormuz not the US. ...

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Detail about Tata's $2500 car. What it looks like- a jelly bean small in front, larger in the back for aerodynamics, 30-35 horsepower, with bearings good for 45 mph, top speed 75 mph, trunk in front to hold a briefcase and battery, rear mounted engine with continuous variable transmission, a hollowed out steering wheel shaft, engine designed by Bosch 600 to 660 cubic centimetres 35 hp. Tata CEO, Ratan Tata, says in a interview the car will do far better on emissions than today's low end cars, and that the emissions standards were much easier to meet than the crash and safety tests, because of the lightness of the vehicle. Todays lower emissions standards in developing countries makes it easier by not having to use more expensive technologies. Electronic sourcing and internet auctions are used by Tata to a greater degree, 30-40 % of parts sourced this way compared to 10-15% by other larger carmakers. This helps meet the aggressive cost target. On the safety isssue its interesting to note that most of the people buying this car will be millions of motorcycle families and individuals (typically a couple of people can ride an Indian motorcycle). They may be safer in a light car than on a motorcycle. This has to be seen in the particular context of India. Renault-Nissan used the experience of lowcost car engineering techniques and secrets from its Logan car made in Romania and transferred it to its other models. Tata started with a clean sheet of paper, asked the quesion what they really had to have and was there some other way. It was Ratan Tata's dream to build a car in 1 lakh or 100,000 rupees or about $2500. The project had all out backing and tested Indian engineers ingenuity. The Tata effort will be studied by carmakers from around the world. Bosch does not underestimate the value of this business, as the car will target a market of hundreds of millions of people in India and China and developing countries. Ariba a supplier to Toyota, and BMW a supplier to Tata, helped Tata buy parts through electronic sourcing. China's Cherry Automobile company, another pioneer, had an Austrian firm help it design its engine for its small car. Tata worked with German company Bosch on the engine. And both must have used cutting edge technology but with a different goals and specifications to achieve unique tasks....

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With vaccine hesitancy in the US the goal of vaccinating a large part of the US population is still elusive. Less than half of the US population is fully vaccinated as of July 30. The vaccination rates in the US are now much slower than India even taking into account the population difference. The vaccination in India is at the rate of 4 to 5 million a day for the past week in India. In the US this report in The Guardian shows 4.7 million vaccinated in the past 2 weeks. On July 30 856,000 people were vaccinated in the US compared to over 5 million in India.  Newspaper reporting that encourages vaccine hesitancy people to delay getting vaccinated because of poorly reported headlines is adding to vaccine hesitancy in the US. This has led to much frustration at the White House. The threat of the Delta variant is making more people to take vaccination. Southern states are seeing a jump in vaccinations. Many prominent Republicans are now endorsing vaccination.  One of the problems in tackling the Delta variant is the confusing nature of the CDC guidance on masks. On May 13 CDC issued guidance saying masks were not necessary indoors and outdoors. Now 3 months later in July the CDC says the threat of Delta variant means mask wearing is essential particularly indoors because of the higher transmissibility of the delta variant.  ...

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By preventing serious illness in patients two pills for coronavirus from Pfizer and Merck can change the course of this pandemic. Pfizer will give a royalty free license to Medicines Patent Pool, an organization backed by the United Nations for its coronavirus pill. Merck has also given a royalty free license to Medicines Patent Pool for it pill. This organization will then grant a license for the manufacture of the coronavirus pills to poor developing countries. India is included in the list of countries yet China, Russia and Brazil are excluded for the Pfizer license.  Merck has given Indian generics manufacturers approval to make the pill. This will provide supplies of the pill to 105 developing countries, South Africa will also make the pill to provide it at $10 a course in Africa. Pfizer will begin manufacturing of large quantities in 2022 with 50 million planned for 2022 and 21 million in the first half of 2022. Pfizer pill will be made available in 95 countries. The Merck pill is called Molnupiravir. Pfizer pill is called Paxlovid with 30 pills taken over the course of 5 days. Pfizer pill is effective in studies when given to people who had not been vaccinated. It has to be given within 3-4 days of getting coronavirus confirmed through a test which makes testing critical for its use. ...

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Iran War and rescue of pilot of downed F15-E in mountainous terrain in southern Iran April 4 2026. CSAR or Search and Rescue Missions become a critical part of the war. The pilot was a colonel trained for the mission and spent 24 hours in mountainous terrain which was monitored by US forces, after intelligence located him in a mountain crevice. For this to be possible unlike in the Vietnam War and Korean War other nations are not involved as in the earlier Cold War.  The US under DJT as president has shifted to respecting Russia as a Northern European power that it can talk with (meetings with Putin in Alaska 2025) and China as a trade partner (planned meeting in Beijing in April 2026) that it can talk with unlike with previous administrations of Biden, Obama and Bush where China had afree hand in economic matters and global trade and Russia was shut out of the world economic system by elites who ran the government in the US at that time. Russia seeks reintegration in the world political and economic systems, and China seeks acceptance as an economic power which the US respects, both points in which the US has offered to accept. US has also repeated the line to China that it was not going to do the job of keeping Hormuz open for China and Japan to get 90% of oil imports, and in oding so risk losing its soldier's lives, while China and Japan can quietly watch doing nothing to help free navigation of international waters. Note that the narrowest strip of water of 13 miles separates Oman from Iran so that a part of these waters are on the Omani side and not on the Iranian side making free use of that Omani part under international law possible- in which sense Iranian hostile activity closing the Omani side also is a violation of free navigation. This is not pointed out by Iran or Japan or even Britain who are benefitting from US action and remaining silent or being ambivalent or accusing US of being interventionist even when everyone knows MAGA base rejected Bush in the Republican party and the elites and embraced DJT for great part because they want nothing to do with interventionist adventures in the Middle East for certain. US is getting a bum rap from European allies and from China, India, Japan and the media inside the US and in those countries as if the US seeks oil from the Middle East. It was Britain where a lot of the posturing goes on about non intervention that started this oil based intervention since 1900 in Iran itself, and in artificial states of Iraq, Syria, that it created out of the collapsed Ottoman Empire in World War 1. Sykes and Picot were the US and French diplomats who set that up. US under DJT has accomplished self sufficiency in oil and US has no need for anything from the Middle East, no desire to even get involved, and MAGA well grasps that fact and wants to keep it that way. Only nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles with long range to hit US and EU are reason for US action, which is reason enough for EU, China, Russia to set their own goals so that non proliferation in dangerous areas is prevented. So that the people of China, Russia, India, Europe and the rest of the world can enjoy the fruits of their own labors after a century of severe hardships and struggles which the American people if not their elites respect, and the fruits of peaceful cooperation which the American people extend to the World, and to China, Russia and India. ...