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Captain Shubman Gill on India's win at Edgbaston in the Second Test cricket against England-

"I think all of the things we spoke about after the first game, we were spot on with all of those things. The way we came back with our bowling and fielding was tremendous.

"We knew with 400 or 500 we would be in the game, especially if we he held our catches. Both our bowlers bowled brilliantly with the way we were able to get through [England's] top order.

"Akash Deep bowled with so much heart and skilfully with his lengths. He moved it in both directions, which was tough to do. He was magnificent for us."

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DJT First 100 Days. The Promises Kept and some of the hurdles along the way- on transgender, stopping flow of migrants and the border, getting a level playing field by reshaping world trade, attracting investment in manufacturing and making America a manufacturing nation. All this from Day One as there was no time to lose because of midterms being only 24 months away and Year One being the target for delivery.

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Taiwanese engineer, William Wang, who earlier ran a failed computer monitor company Princeton Graphics, started Vizio in 2003 in Irvine, California. He started Vizio as a low priced brand with a focus on high tech HD sets and a supply chain in Taiwan to make HD sets at lower prices. He negotiated agreements with Foxconn and AmTran Technology giving them equity stakes in Vizio. Costco provided shelf space for the early HD sets. Vizio still manages to make 4% in operating margins on $2 billon in revenue with an efficient supply chain. Wang's insight was that televisions would go the way of PC's where lower prices were the norm. Sony Electronics U.S. Division chief, Stan Glasgow, says it is harder to charge premium prices as technology and improving quality rapidly converge in the television industry, similiar to what is happening in PC's. The story of Vizio at the low end, and S. Korean manufacturer Samsung at the high end, is also the story of the decline of Japanese companies in the television business. In 2010 after seven years Vizio passed Sony to become the second largest television brand in the U.S., with sales of 6 million LCD TV's. This is up from 3.6 million in 2008, according to research firm iSuppli....

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CEO Ryan at CVS/Caremark. An unassuming man with a sharp focus on things, joined CVS right out of pharmacy school at University of Rhode Island. At 29, CVS owner Stan Goldstein gave him the chance to run pharmacy operations for CVS, then a regional drugstore chain in the eastern USA. Over the years CVS has made a number of successful acquisitions, the latest being the acquisition of Longs Drug store chain on the west coast, and it is now one of the largest chains in the USA. It has nearly 7000 stores and more than 50 million users of its CVS loyalty card in the US. As the pharmaceutical business evolved pharmacy benefit management (PBM's) companies like Caremark, Medco, and Express Scripts, came into being to manage burgeoning prescription costs. PBM's work with companies to save money, by filling recurring prescriptionsin 90 day quantities through the mail at reduced per pill cost. Now drug store chains instead of competing with PBM's are either creating or acquiring these larger PBM's. THe result is that a company like CVS which acquired PBM Caremark in 2007 for $27 billion, now has extensive computerized databases with patients information and drug usage histories. Ryan's clear focus is on these IT records as a distinct advantage, if he can use it to help the Obama administration's efforts to control health costs of chronic diseases like diabetes and arthritis, and back or neck pain, high blood pressure, and others, that end up clogging the hospital system and raising health care costs. By using these IT records to flag when a patient is not compliant or taking his medications and call the patient, Ryan can increase drug sales, get more visits into drugstores if the drugs can also be picked up at CVS stores, and increase sales through ancillary purchases during visits. This is now his strategy. It also includes setting up more clinics at stores and at corporate locations that divert the patient flow for small care like sore throats, flu and the like. As this is the way health care costs can be controlled, Ryan sees himself as helping achieve national goals while keeping CVS in the sales and profit picture for the US, even as health care as we know it goes through a complete transformation that removes the waste and unnecessary cost, and improves effectiveness and health. He sees CVS/Caremark right where it wants to be with its large patient drug database from about 1 billion prescriptions it fills each year, and as the largest single buyer and dispenser of prescription drugs in the country. ...

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Cost of living (groceries and healthcare costs) in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania. WSJ talks to the member of Congress Mackenzie and voters in this region of Pennsylvania, in a competitive House District in 2026. Voters are not dining out, using food banks, and are 50-50 in their support for DJT vs Democrats, yet plan to vote Republican. They attribute the worst inflation to Biden when it went up 20% one year, with DJT trying to cut the cost of living but failing to make the kind of headway that is needed.

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Reliance Jio launches a high speed broadband service in India with annual plans for subscribers ranging from $10 to $118 a month for speeds from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps. The prices are about one tenth of prices in Europe and the U.S. In 2016 mobile network prices dropped after Reliance introduced lower pricing. The new launch provides streaming services using high speed internet. Reliance Jio is taking on telecom companies, as well as streaming platforms. It is now the largest telecom company in India with revenue of $1.6 billion in the quarter ending June 30, 2019.  The free trial offer from Reliance Jio is 100 Mbps connection free, along with Jio apps. There is a 100 Gigabyte quota, with free 40 GB at a time 24 times- a total of 1000GB free. The only charge is a refundable deposit of 2,500 rupees ($35) for the router. Giveaways include high definition or LED television  and 4K setup box. 15 million people have registered for the service. Reliance Jio is aiming for 20 million residential users and 15 million businesses across 1600 towns in India. Reliance playbook is to launch aggressively with low prices and establish a dominance in the market. It did this in 2016 with free trial offer bringing in 100 million customers in the first 6 months. Today Reliance Jio service has 340 million customers who spend 30% more than other operator's such as Airtel and BSNL.   By cutting data prices in India sharply to one tenth of world prices Jio has created a completely different market and one in which there are only 3 or 4 smaller competitors in that space. Bringing down prices for users and enabling India to jump ahead in internet use in ways similar to that of South Korea, Finland, China.   ...

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Researchers in the U.S. and China team up to shows difference in the way boys and girls use their smartphones and computers. The boys tend to favor video games and the girls preferring social contact spending time going through social media programs. Evidence shows women less likely to develop internet gaming disorders, and women using programs like Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram more often than boys. Girls feel the ill effects of using these programs more than boys, often driving parents crazy.

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Tata Consultancy Services acquired Citigroup's India based outsourcig unit Citigroup Global Services for $505 millon in an all cash deal. With that deal TCS alo got a $2.5 billion contract to provide process outsourcing services, application development and infrastructure support to Citigroup and its affiliates over 9 and half years. This is notable because the Citi contract is the biggest ever for an Indian company, as previously Indian companies have operated with smaller scale deals lasting 2-3 years and worth $50 to $200 million. In October 2007 TCS signed a 10 year $1.2 billion contract with Dutch group Nielsen. What this does is enhance TCS capabilities and expertise to go head to head with companies like IBM and EDS. The Citi acquisistion adds 12,000 employees and $280 million in revenues to TCS. TCS had 111,000 employees before the Citi Global Services acquisition and this expansion will enable it to compete more effectively with IBM and EDS/Hewlett Packard.

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The Asian-American voters are significant in some states such as New Jersey 7% of voters, Nevada 9%, Minnesota 3.1%, and California 15%. Compared to the 2012 election this is the fastest growing demographic up 16%. With lower immigration from Mexico this is likely to continue for several decades. Nationally it is 4% but growing rapidly. The Asian-Americans come from countries such as India, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines. Seib says Trump has lost as many Asian-Americans as he has gained whites who chant "build that wall," by using such rhetoric. The Asian Americans are about 48% moderate and about 23% liberal, 19% conservative. Many are in the tech and white collar fields, in the suburbs of major cities including the South. Its this location that can make them an important influence. The Democratic Party has reached out to these generally better educated voters, who have heard about building that wall with unfavorable views- 40% saying they would vote against a person with "anti-immgrant views" regardless of what the other issues are. The early 2016 poll done by the Asian and Pacific Islander Vote project shows 61% having unfavorable views of Trump and 61% having favorable views of Clinton in 2016.   ...

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Tokyo subway serves 16 million people, New York's 5 million. Tokyo's subway has seen continuous investment over six decades, whereas the NY subway does not get federal spending investment and lacks continuous investment every year. The result is a creaky old system in the US compared to a modern highly efficient system in Japan. WSJ looks at the two subway systems in this video explaining why they are the way they are.

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Hugh Schofield of the BBC gives this analysis of the televised national debate between Macron and Le Pen on April 20. BBC also gives a video of the debate. On the economy and cost of living- Macron said actions he has taken to put a cap on fuel prices and tax exemption for pay bonuses were fairer and more effective than Madame Le Pen's ideas. Le Pen said she would cut the VAT on energy. Macron said a cap on fuel prices was "twice as effective as dropping the sales tax." Le Pen said she will cut taxes, and no tax for under 30's.  On Europe and Russia- Macron said Le Pen was one of the first leaders to recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea. "You are speaking to your banker when you speak to Russia," Macron said referring to a bank loan from Russia. He also said that the French did not look to Russia for finance, when Le Pen said she was turned down by French banks. On the European Union- Macron argued that Le Pen's idea of "a Europe of nations" would spell the end of the European Union and that "you are selling a lie." Schofield says Macron avoided the trap of coming across as too arrogant or technocratic, sometimes even holding back.  ...

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Iranian helicopter crash with president Raisi and search for survivors in dense fog.

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Some aspects of public enthusiasm inside France, on public buildings, for French athletes, and use of the River Seine, of the city itself with novel designs for athletes quarters, all this remains as a memory of these Paris Olympics games. 

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Naval blockade of Iran cutting off oil exports and securing the Hormuz for navigation April 12 2026. Speaking on Hannity TV show General Keane and South Carolina Senator Graham say the goal is to get the enriched uranium out of Iran. Senator Graham says the Pope is a good man but he has no idea about the danger posed by enriched uranium in Iran and the development of a "dirty bomb" and ballistic missiles. The US Navy is able to control the seas around the Gulf and the Red Sea to check all sea traffic in the area and has all the capabilities to do this.