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This story in The Guardian looks at volunteer schools in Kashmir, India, as school children take classes in open meadows. Volunteer teachers are working to keep Kashmiri children in open air makeshift community classes in fields, pine forests and orchards,  so that some form of continuity in schooling can be maintained during the coronavirus. One volunteer teacher works with 100 children, And children have to cross rising rivers over wooden bridges in the rainy season, coming over long distances. Many families do not own a smartphone which cost Rs. 10,000 to %s. 15,000 to take internet classes. The government offers video classes on television and radio classes for older children in India. 

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Life and death choices made by 100 trekkers on the Annapurna Circuit in the Himalayas.

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India lags behind in the number of tourists visiting the country. Part of the reason was the lack of good infrastructure in the country. Indian Railways and new highways, modern river transport has opened up remote parts of the country from the jungles of Assam to deserts of Rajasthan, the mountainous regions of Kashmir, Sikkim, Bhutan and Ladakh, Arunachal, and the river regions of the Brahmaputra river and Ganges to tourism. Compared to France with 100 million tourists a year India has about a tenth of that.  Tourism is now seen as an engine for job growth as small handicraft industries can tap into the tourist market, hotels and restaurants can add to employment. The new budget for 2025-26 recognizes this by almost tripling the 95 million euros budget for 2024 to 283 million euros in 2025. Delhi with images of pollution is a distraction yet the tourist from Europe or America can find much to see in smaller towns and metros in the country from Buddhist and Vedic civilizations thousands of years old and recent history after invasions from Western Asia and Europe since 1600, and interesting cuisine, culture, language and regional influences. ...

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Aaron Back cites U.S. Bureau of Labor of Statistics figures showing hourly manufacturing wages in 2011 for Japan at a level 89% higher than in South Korea. The decline in the value of the yen to 100 to the dollar is expected to improve the competitiveness of Japan's manufacturing companies in relation to competitors in S. Korea and Taiwan. The higher manufacturing costs in Japan offset some of that advantage. Much depends on Japanese companies recovering in the area of innovation, and improving competitiveness in other ways.

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It is too early to say it is a playbook. Trudeau's action may be more effective in the long run. The issue of fentanyl from Mexico is different in 2025 from the first term of DJT in 2016, 8 years later with 490,000 deaths from fentanyl in the US, a part of America's younger generation- unprecedented in American history and since the settling of the American continent since 1600. Fentanyl smuggling into the US from Mexico is the biggest issue facing the US along with closing the US Border. This report in the WSJ says Sheinbaum tried to deflect 25% tariffs by making the offer of sending 10,000 troops to the US Border. This was similar to her predecessor saying he would send 28,000 troops to the Guatemala Mexico border to stop migrants. DJT raised the issue. The week before the Feburary 3, 2025 call between Sheinbaum and DJT the White House said Mexican drug-trafficking organizations “have an intolerable alliance with the government of Mexico.” These are aspects of the problem that the White House needs addressed in effective ways to stop the flow of fentanyl into the US. Action from the first term of DJT has not solved the problem so that DJT will have to find real effective solutions. The Canadian government followed its own approach. It set $140 million for a new unit to gather intelligence on organized crime. And appointed a head for an organization on stopping fentanyl from entering the US. Canadian PM Trudeau followed the US and DJT in labelling the Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations. Issues the US faces with Mexico that remain unresolved are the $150 billion deficit and bringing home US manufacturing in the auto industry back to the US.   ...

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G-7 leaders meeting in Italy agree on a $50 billion loan to Ukraine using interest on $300 billion of Russian assets that are frozen in the EU.

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S. Gurumurthy of the Hindu points out the dangers of economic growth without job creation in a country like India. He points out that demonetization- removal of high denomination currency notes- came at a critical time when the economic growth was not creating enough jobs. He points to the five year period till 2010 as having created 2.7 million jobs with 8.5% growth. Even though with lower growth of 5.4% in the period 1999-2004 the job growth was for 60 million jobs created. Had demonetization not happened he says, the economy could have seen the problems the U.S. faced in 2008 with a bubble developing in the real estate market. The fundamental shift of the economy to digitization of payments, increase in tax receipts brings more of the informal economy- with a size of 50% of the economy generating 128 million jobs ten times the formal sector - into the formal economy. A step that is key for India to see rapid growth in the decade ahead. The slackening of the economy for a year is part of  a needed long term plan, says Prof. Gurumurthy, visiting IIT faculty in Bombay, just as liberalization was in the 1990's.  Some errors were made in implementation and flow of credit to the informal economy, including by the RBI, yet the fundamental shift through demonetization served a good purpose. Gurumurthy says, sadly this is missing in the current politicized debate.  ...

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Some companies have raised prices by 5% on footwear and clothing. Out of the total tariffs of about $50 billion in the first half, the Census department numbers show that about $22 billion is from machinery and electronic, about $12 billion from automobiles and about $12 billion from items such as clothing, footwear.  The major manufacturers in Japan, South Korea and Europe of automobiles and electronics, machinery, make up $34 billion out of the $50 billion in tariffs. To maintain US market access  these large companies are absorbing most of the tariffs. It is only in clothing and footwear making up $12 billion that some of the tariff related price increases will be seen.  Overall this impact could be 5% of $12 billion or $600 million. The DJT administration will find ways to offset this for American buyers in 2025-2026 similar to the deduction of auto lease interest costs in the One Big Act 2025 to cut automobile expenses, using the new $100 billion Customs revenue.  ...

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The Senate Big Beautiful Bill $6000 per person deduction makes Social Security tax free for 88% of Americans over 65 years. This is close as one can get to making Social Security benefits tax free for people over 65 years. It is a move that is seen favorably by social security recipients. Protecting the elderly on fixed incomes when the cost of living went up 12% in just 1 year in 2022 is an essential step for any administration that cares for the daily lives of the American people. In this sense the DJT administration has made a bold move in three key areas no taxes on social security benefits, no taxes on tips which address employment in hospitality/restaurants, and doubling the child care benefit for mothers, tackling key population sectors. To pay for this and keep the deficits down the dollar strong, one other action was taken- to increase investment in the economy and in manufacturing by allowing expensing of investment 100%. Fed chairman Powell repeatedly states he is very optimistic about this action generating the kind of investment boom American needs to restore good standards of living.   ...

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Milei wins 41% of the vote in Argentina midterm Congressional elections in October 2025, with one third of Congress to support his economic programs to fight runaway inflation. About one third of the people live in poverty, as Milei resorted to tough action to fight over 100% inflation. It is  now down to 30%. Argentines are determined to find a way out of this inflationary crisis that happens once every decade for the last 70 years. The US plans to provide $20 billion in loan assistance, and another $20 billion from private funds. The IMF has a $55 billion program to support the economic programs that cut the number of people in the state sector companies and government, cut economic subsidies and social assistance, in a desperate effort to rein in inflation. Only when all members of society pull together, particularly young people, can a nation get its economic act right. Argentina must find a way. A rainy day fund has to be set up as happened in Brazil and Russia, financial prudence exercised by leaders, and the young people stepping up to change the country's future, change the trajectory forever. ...

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E-mails from Steve Jobs to Apple's top 100 employees on the competition with Google's Android system.

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Changes under CEO Blankfein mark a big turn for the 100 year old culture of Goldman Sachs.

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Salinas Pliego of TV Azteca and Banco Azteca says he opposes the $1 billion in back taxes in Mexico even after a $400 million concession by president Lopez Obrador.

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Volvo sales reached about 135,000-140,000 units in North America in 2003-2004 and is dropping since then down to about 100,000 units. Now Volvo worldwide which had a loss in the 2008 first quarter of $151 million on a decline in sales by $400 million and selling 22,000 fewer cars, compared to same quarter 2007, is cutting production. Volvo is affected by its mix in sales with larger cars and its larger SUV not selling as well as its smaller cars. This even though sales are expanding in Russia and China. The exchange rate between the Swedish kronor and the dollar is hurting Ford as the adverse exchange rate has cost Ford $1.7 billion in losses in the last 2 years. About 3000 workers buyouts in the last 2-3 years from a global workforce of 25,000. And 100 positions were cut through consolidation at a single North American headquarters in New Jersey. North American dealerships will be reduced from 350 to 300 by 2009. Production cuts are at plants making the larger models. Production has been cut at the Torslanda plant in western Sweden, where the pace of production will be cut by one third from 60 an hour to 44 an hour cars produced. The plant shift redction will lead to about 700 layoffs by January2009. No cutbacks are planned at the plant in Belgium which makes smaller cars and the S60 crossover SUV. ...

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The Bank of Japan's plans to buy 100 trillion yen of Japanese government debt in 2 years to fight deflation is having a positive effect on the eurozone economies. Japanese investors are buying eurozone sovereign debt. J.P. Morgan estimates the increase in investments for overseas bonds by Japanese investors in 2013 at 45 billion euros. This is lowering the yields on the sovereign bonds of France, Netherlands and Austria to record lows and lowering the yields of sovereign bonds of Italy and Spain. The 10 year yields on Italy's government bonds declined to 4.326%. Yields on 10 year Japanese government bonds was 0.514% on April 8, 2013.

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The government controlled Securities Association of China says a fund of 120 billion renminbi ($19.4) billion is set up July 3, 2015 to buy shares in the larger more stable companies and reduce selling of shares from brokerage firms portfolios. This is not likely to have much impact because of its small size, and because the volatility is concentrated in small and medium size firms stocks which had doubled since June 2014, and were hit by the sharp decline in June 2015. The stock exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzen also suspended initial public offerings. Share prices have dropped by about 30% since June 12 on the Shanghai and Shenzen stock exchages. With the surge in the Chinese stock market prices till June 12, 2015, share prices of many small and medium sized companies doubled or even quadrupled in value. The overall index on the 2 exchanges doubled because as the smaller stocks quadrupled the large blue chips went up by about a fourth in value. The overall Shanghai market went up 149% to June 12, 2015, over the prior year. It is down 28.6% as of July 5, 2015 since June 12, 2015. A stock index of 100 large mainland Chinese companies traded both in Shanghai and Hong Kong were up about 24% by contrast. A major problem is the margin trading with loans to investors from stock purchases up nine times in 2 years and informal financial companies charging annual interest rates of over 20%. Small investors focussed on small and medium sized firms because they were going up the fastest, and many risked their life savings. Younger workers were also part of the group caught up in the frenzy of stock buying. Shares in the larger companies are only about 30% of the overall value of companies on the Shanghai Stock Exchange....

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The 7 Priorities listed in India's Budget for April 2023 to March 2024 provide a roadmap for the next 25 years to 2047 when India marks 100 years as an independent nation. These are-Inclusive Development Reaching the last mile, Infrastructure and investment, Unleashing the potential Green growth, Youth power, Financial sector

Reaching the last mile- Gandhi's idea- "Ask yourself if the step you contemplate is of any use to him or her (the poorest and weakest man or woman you have seen), will he or she gain anything by it? Will it restore to him (or her) control of their life and destiny."

A fund will be setup for Agri-startups. A National Digital Library will be set up for children and adolescents and States will be encouraged to setup physical libraries at panchayat and ward levels.

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Dyeing a pair of jeans requires 100 litres of water for the dyeing process and 15% of artificial synthetic dyes make their way into waterways as pollution. In this report The Hindu shows how centuries old indigo plants are being revived, many of them native to India. These plants contain 0.5% of Indican which exposed to oxygen produces the blue substance Indigotin. It is one of the few naturally based dyes for cotton fabrics. Other plants native to Idia also produce dyes that are less harmful to the environment. These dyes replace synthetic dyes made from petrochemical derivatives.

The work of Padma Shri Vankar, formerly of IIT Kanpur and her colleagues has helped identify and create dye extraction and dyeing methods for several plant species. This includes Nepal barberry of Arunachal, wild canna , Flame of the Forest from which colors for Holi festival are derived.

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Years of Tory cuts and austerity spending left the UK unprepared for the pandemic, says this editorial in The Guardian. The running down of the public sector was a policy choice says The Guardian. In the decade before Covid the Tories cut public spending as a proportion of the GDP from 46% to 39% leaving Britain exposed during the pandemic. Jeremy Hunt continues in a long line of Tory chancellors who are impervious to comprehension of the fall in incomes of ordinary households, the working nurses and teachers who turn to food banks. Hunt even talks about another 100 billion pounds of cuts over the next 2 years. And  turning Britain into a Silicon Valley, when Silicon and Tech is failing in the US, and when the US Justice Department is seeking the breakup of Big Tech with support from Republican Bill Barr. 

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The German response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine is to increase its spending on defense to over 2% of GDP.  An emotional Scholz told an extraordinary session of the German parliament - We have to ask ourselves: "What capacities does Putin's Russia have? And which capacities do we need to counter his threats?" "Putin wants to establish a Russian Empire... the question is... whether we can summon the strength to set boundaries to warmongers like Putin," said Scholz. Scholz said he would immediately invest 100 billion euros or $113 billion in weaponry. Mr. Scholz also announced concrete arms procurements including the decision to buy state-of-the art drones from Israel and F-35 warplanes from the US, which he said would be used to amplify NATO's nuclear deterrent against Russia. 

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Poliovirus could be present in New York wastewater as early as April 2022 evidence shows. In UK this could as early as February 2022. It shows the need for rigorous polio vaccination programs. Rockland and Orange counties in the New York City area have polio vaccination rates for eligible children as low as 60%, compared to a national rate of 93%. Decades of neglect of healthcare, and lack of investment in healthcare infrastructure and healthcare services, and in education for healthcare that was a major priority in the postwar years in the fifties and sixties have led to a situation where this is happening today. Vaccination rates are wholly inadequate and a 100% consensus that existed on key things such as vaccination needs to be recovered in the US, by changing the entire sense of priorities in society and the way it invests in its people.