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This report on Mumbai's underground subway by Corinne Abrams was first published in WSJ January 6, 2019 with Lyrarc gist. Then as happened too often in the past it became the victim of a change in government with the new government in December 2019 stalling the rapid work on the project. Only when it was voted out in June 2022 did the rapid work shown in this Jan 2019 WSJ report resume. It has accelerated under Ashwini Bhide's leadership of the METRO organization and work is back to round the clock 24 hours a day. "A 27 station, 21 mile subway is being built under one of Asia's most crowded cities- Mumbai. It is moving ahead at the pace of one mile a month, with 9 miles complete, started in 2016 the $3.3 billion Metro Line 3 is on track to be completed by 2021. The government of prime minister Modi is eager to show that it is able to tackle some of the toughest infrastructure projects like this one and get them done on  time. As the head of the Metro Rail Corporation, Ms. Ashwini Bhide puts it this should have been done yesterday, considering the appalling and difficult rides facing Mumbai's millions of residents every day on its old and creaky rail system. There is she says " a desperation" to get this done as is true for so many of the infrastructure projects that need to be done in India." "When complete it will take 1.6 million riders a day 80 feet underground to destinations across the city in air conditioned coaches." ...

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"As you know I am 5 foot 10 on the outside and I was way too fat" says the British prime minister about the time he was admitted to hospital for the coronavirus. The British prime minister now goes for a run with his dog first thing in the morning. He says about his life after the coronavirus recovery that he is steadily building up his fitness. He has good things to say about the run, the exercize in the morning. After the run says Boris everything for the rest of the day is a breeze. A quite gentle run in the beginning that is getting faster and faster as he improves his fitness.  One does not have to go to the gym to lose weight. There is always the great outdoors, space outside the home. As part of the effort to get Britain to cut all that unnecessary fat which is ruinous for healthy living, Britain will now ban all buy one get one free deals on unhealthy food products. All food in restaurants and pubs will soon be required to post the calories count on menus, starting with the bigger chains. Boris Johnson says he is supporting the NHS and the national campaign for fitness and cutting out all the unnecessary calories that have crept into people's food habits and intake. He never intended this but Johnson like others have learned from one experience that has compressed several lifetimes of experience trying to recover from the virus without the fitness of body that is needed.      ...

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This essay from the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center which puts focus on preventive medicine looks at the food we eat in a different way. In order to have a real conversation on food it says ignore the latest fads on nutrition on keto, paleo or other diets, and think about how our ancestors ate in a healthy way that both prevented disease and provided the right nutrition. It was mostly plants as meat was not freely and easily available. So much so that the consumption of meat and animal protein may have gone up by as much as 90% today. Processed foods did not exist, and unprocessed plant foods were there in abundance. They were not called low fat low carb or vegan then. It is during the beginning of the 19th and in the 20th century that the production and marketing of shelf stable, nutrient poor, high calorie, high sugar and salt processed foods replaced the normal way our ancestors had their food leading to the public health crisis of today, both in health quality, outcomes and cost.  It says replace meat and where appropriate dairy healthier plant based beans, lentils, whole grains, and vegetables, fruits so that animal protein gets back to the levels of the centuries before the 20th century shift to processed foods. It says use common sense beans including soyabeans and lentil beans replace meat wherever possible and oats with berries and nuts replace eggs. Vegetable and garbanzo beans salad replaces cheese and yogurt reducing the cheese or yogurt to very moderate levels. Focus on wholesome food and eat like our ancestors did and exercize then everything else will fall into place. ...

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The view that the war in Afghanistan should move forward as acounter insurgency effort like this one, does not see the partner in the Karzai government or the Afghan dislike of foreign troops on their soil as factors to be addressed seriously. It also does not address the difficult mountainous terrain in the country. It also does not look for alternative solutions that could be worked out with Pakistan for addressing the presence of AlQuaeda terrorist group in the border regions.

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The moon landing by Neil Armstrong on July 20, 1969 after takeoff on July 16 and a 195 hour journey. Armstrong said as he stepped out on the moon: "That's one small step for man, and a giant leap for mankind." The last nine miles of descent in a spacecraft that separated from the Apollo 11 lunar module with Aldrin and Armstrong were the most risky. Armstrong manually guided the craft to its landing spot during the last couple of hundred feet.

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Bob Schieffer of CBS's "Face the Nation," the moderator of the last U.S. presidential debate is a journalist of the stature of Walter Cronkite. With years of experience, and covering issues under many presidents, he says moderators are like umpires. He has declined interviews and kept as low a profile as possible. Cindy Crowley of CNN, the moderator of the second debate, came under criticism after her comment about whether Obama had called the attack in Benghazi, Libya, a terrorist attack.

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Cost overruns on large projects and the change in management at Anglo American. Cynthia Carroll, the current CEO resigned after coming under strong criticism for continuing to push mega mining projects like the Minas Rio iron-ore project in Brazil with a cost of about $10 billion. That project went over twice its estimated value and was 3 years behind schedule. Costs to develop mines are increasing just as iron or prices are falling with lower demand resulting in increasing scrutiny over projects.

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A survey by the Nikkei daily shows 53% of respondents do not approve of a plan by the Noda administration to raise the 5% sales tax to 10% by 2015. There is considerable dissatisfaction with the government for its failure to cut wasteful spending. The government recently approved a dam project that is seen as wasteful spending. One member of parliament, Yasunori Saito, said he was leaving the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, saying "no tax hike until we get out of deflation."

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Rep. Paul and Rep Barney Frank call for cutting defense spending as they convene a Sustainable Defense Task Force of defense analysts. This task force recommends $1 trillion in cuts over the next 10 years. Defense Secretary Gates is preparing the Defense department for this change. Gates is looking for smart ways to cut costs while still keeping the defense capabilities intact, but cutting unnecessary overhead and unnecessary programs like the second type of engine for the F-35 fighter jet.

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The Economist asks whether the government can have the resolve to take strong action where necessary with the banks. The feeling is that the government was too close to the banks during the boom, and banks like Goldman have so much influence in the government and many bankers work inside the government, making it difficult to separate the public interest from the interest of the banks. This makes it more difficult to take necessary action when it comes to the banks.

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The Canadian banking system with fewer banks and 5 large banks operating throughout the country from coast to coast, and strictly regulated by the federal government, with a riskaverse philosophy of banking and bigger capital requirements, is emerging as one of the sounder banking systems in the world today. The US may find some aspects like the small number of large banks operating in the whole country and regulation by the federal government based on a strict risk averse philosophy.

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Remaining challenges Merck faces to wrap up the Vioxx settlement .The main fear is that enough plaintiffs opt out of the settlement that it ends up costing Merck substantially more than anticipated like the Wyeth settlement that ended up costing Wyeth $21 billion fo afen-phen diet drug litigation because enough plaintiffs opted out. Tho prevent this Merck has include language in it agreeemtn that requires plaintiff lawyers to recommend settlement to those holding out and requires them to drop representing them.

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Russia's smoking rates for men and women some of the highest in the world, and also bad rates of alcohol use. And this is showing up in health and mortality rates for the Russian people. This is a serious problem for Russia, something like the serious problem that obesity rates presents for the United States. One thing is sure quality of life matters, health quality matters and GNP growth is a very inadequate measure of progress and the quality of life.

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Names like Michel Flournoy, Susan Rice, James Steinberg, at the think tank Center for a New American Security, a think tank setup by Flournoy and Kurt Campbell a former Clinton National Security Council and Pentagon official. Its positions itself between Republican and Democratic positions for some kind of middle ground. Will it bring the new or fresh thinking and imaginative ideas as Obama has raised hopes for, if all it does is takes the old Clinton officials positions and refashions them.

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Iran's (IRGC's not the people of Iran who are protesting) strategy in talks is to stall peace talks, to use the help of global media which is creating perception for Iran, and see if the strategy of no nuclear materials turned over to Russia or some other country, see if that strategy works. This is  what German Foreign Minister Wadephul is saying on Day 16 of the Naval Blockade. Earlier this week German chancellor Merz called it unfortunate that the Iran War is continuing in explaining to ordinary Germans why the German economy is slowing down, yet he understands the danger posed by nuclear weapons in Iran or for that matter anywhere inthe volatile and explosive Middle East. Almost like the volatile and explosive Balkans that ignited World War I in 1914. This strategy of IRGC Iran does much irreparable damage to the Iranian economy in weeks to come. Iranian protests were intended to put the economy on a new path in which not just students, the middle class in the bazaars, the younger generation of Iranians who had the most to lose participated. Why is this happening? It is happening because of the complicated politics of the Middle East and centuries old differences within the Islamic world between different sectarian beliefs and cultures. It is not happening because of the US. The US cannot be responsible for what colonial empires of the British and French did in this region in the 1920's by creating artificial states of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, out of the Arab portion of the collapsed Ottoman Empire defeated in World War I with Shia, Sunni populations in these states mixed up into unmanageable states. Five decades of wars in the Middle East are the result of these unmanageable artificial states of French and British Empires by 1921. The British Empire also controlled Iran in the 1900's and its oil resources. There was no involvement of America as the British and French did what they wanted to do even in the Treaty of Versailles that ended WWI.  The fall of the pro-Soviet Mossadegh regime in 1956 was the only fragmentary situation which is an anti Soviet Cold War move by the US in 1952, and was done by a group that had British connections deep inside the Eisenhower administration led by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles that took this unfortunate step for America (looking back over  5 decades of wars). A British oriented group was active inside the Republican party that continued to operate in the Reagan administration's involvement in support for Iraq in its war with Iran. And which no longer exists in the Republican party led by DJT which puts America First, grasps the fact of unmanageable states of British and French Empires and seeks to distance the US from the Middle East. Gandhi and Patel (and Jinnah) avoided the creation of such a state in British India's partition into India and Pakistan. Afghanistan is simply an extension of this Middle Eastern complicated setup, including 9/11. Why is all this important? Arab Middle East is a dangerous place for nuclear weapons- this is all the US is trying to accomplish, thankfully without the cooperation of the British and French whose Empires are responsible for the creation of a hodge podge mix of peoples in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq which (check this out) never existed before British and French Mandates of 1921. The global and American media that sees DJT Republicans as too conservative on cultural issues and the political establishment intending to return to power have completely obscured or not presented this side of the Middle East, yet is key to devising a policy that keeps America out of Middle East wars but keeps the goal of no nuclear weapons in this powderkeg of a region. ...

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A look at Department of Transportation data shows a downward trend in airline ticket prices. Average domestic fares in the U.S. declined 16%, adjusted for inflation, compared to 1995. A comparison shows a round trip ticket price of $410 in 2010 dollars in 1995, the same ticket is priced $338 in 2011, including $22 for bags and reservation charges that were added in recent years. Not including the $22 would give a 21% decline in prices in 2010 compared to 1995. Higher labor costs for American which could not shed legacy costs because it did not go into bankruptcy like some of its competitors, combined with higher fuel prices have posed a serious threat to American Airlines. American Airlines (AMR) experienced a 33% drop in share price on Sept. 3, 2011, with a recovery gaining 21% the following day to close at $2.39. UnitedContinental had a 2nd quarter 2011 average fare- revenue divided by number of passengers- excluding taxes, of $273. Southwest had an average one way fare of $143 for the 2nd quarter 2011. According to DOT figures, passenger tickets provide only 71% of total passenger revenues to airlines, compared to 88% in 1990. The remaining 29% comes from reservations charges, standby service, checked luggage, in-flight food service, transporting pets and other charges. ...

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The new Australian budget is designed to generate a slight surplus from the A$44 billion deficit for the fiscal year ending June 30. This prepares the Australian government of Julia Gillard for elections in 2013. The budget depends on the mining boom to generate the tax revenues for planned economic growth of over 3% in 2012-2013. This is based on the large number of projects planned for investments in oil, gas and other energy projects, valued at US$456 billion. GE as supplier of turbines and other products to the Chevron-Total gas project and other projects in Australia, has sales in Australia match its sales level in China in 2012-2013. This gives an idea of the extent of the boom in the mining and energy sector. Even the widening trade deficit to A$1.59 in March 2012 reflects large imports for the mining sector. The weakness of this approach is that too much is dependent on the mining and offshore gas boom. Retail spending is weak and Australia is increasingly looking like a two tier economy, subject to the boom and bust cycles that its mining companies have experienced in the past. A bubble in Australia's housing markets and uncertainties in the global economy pose other risks....

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David Segal takes a detailed look inside Apple's retail stores in the U.S. and talks with employees at different stores to find out what its like working as an hourly employee at an Apple store. World wide Apple's 327 global stores sold $16 billion in Apple products. Per employee the sales are about $473,000, but at an hourly rate of about $12 the average employee makes about $25,000 per year. After recent wage raises this could be up to about $36,000. The National Retail Federation says electronics stores have about an average of $206,000 in sales per employee. Contrary to what most people may think most of Apple's employees are not engineers and other professionals, about 30,000 of the 43,000 Apple employees in the U.S. work as hourly employees in the retail stores. Most are young people in the early 20's, single, with health insurance provided by Apple not costing as much for that age group. There is no career path and most leave after a couple of years. Because of the Apple mystique and the drive to create new user friendly products there are many young people looking for this kind of temporary work, especially now with high unemployment. ...

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This look at China and leaders Mao, Chou-en-lai, Deng, Xi Jinping through the lens of the Hoover Institution series on authoritarianism "The Party's Interest Come First," by Hoover research fellow Turgian makes the same errors as is evident from expert at Oxford University/ Kennedy School Rana Shantasil Mitter of Indian descent. Which is to see China as an academic, not by immersing oneself in China of 1890- 1950 into the lives of China's millions of ordinary people. And how is one to immerse oneself into these lives. One can do this through the eyes of General Stilwell who loved and immersed himself in China like it could be said no other American of that period in Barbara Tuchman's well researched account of this China of 1890-1950.  One clue to this is also that Tuchman unlike Torgian or Mitter by a long shot is the only writer who met Mao in Beijing in the 1970's. In 1971 she met Mao and made observations on the lives of the people in "Notes from China- If Mao had met Roosevelt in 1945." As a result of Tuchman's account of Stilwell's personal experience of China since 1900's being lost to most Americans, there is no concept of what China had experienced with the gradual collapse of China's economy and politcal structures, its defense as China, like India, and Asia as a whole failed to experience the opening up to science and technology and modern ways of thought since 1600. The results were catastrophic for the Chinese people and for the people of India leading to economic destruction on a scale unknown in history and lives shortened and reduced by poverty.  ...

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What this Editorial board opinion in the Indian Express is saying is that India should concentrate its efforts on modernizing its economy on a scale that is similar or surpasses that of China because of its access to the latest technologies. Just as China capitalized on the opportunity presented by its entry in the World Trade Organization in 2001, through an economy wide effort to build a manufacturing and export logistics base. India is presented with the opportunity of building its own manufacturing and export logistics base as supply chains are being redesigned in 2023. This requires a longer term plan with clear thinking and concentrated effort with the entire resources of the nation. What looks like a small or gradual shift in supply chain with the US and EU adding India and Vietnam to their Chinese manufacturing base is going to change with every change in world events, as the US concentration of manufacturing in China becomes a situation that is impossible to to maintain. The only logical way for the US and following the US the EU to create a proper balance in its political relationship with China is to change fully its lopsided concentration of manufacturing in China. Biden is only making the initial moves, the EU is only waking up to the need to make its own changes to reduce this concentration. How much distance does the US need to cover to reduce its concentration in China? By a large amount because the shift of manufacturing was excessive and ill advised done as companies in the US raced in a competition to shift outside over 2 decades and simply outdid themselves and performed a disservice to the workers and families of America whom they served. Just for the US to get workers and families to benefit from return of good manufacturing jobs to the US and restore its manufacturing base that has shriveled, it will have to be a massive enterprise, where day by day it becomes more evident that more and more needs to be and accomplished in an accelerated way. What this also means where appropriate to leave a progressively year after a year larger base in India, and also Vietnam, much larger than is envisaged today. This situation is even more acutely felt in Japan which to bring a proper balance in its political relationship with China needs to even more urgently reduce its concentration of manufacturing in China. It must be the task of the Modi government to have a clear view of the road ahead- build the needed logistical base for exports using the latest technologies and set higher and higher targets for manufacturing.  If you look at the map of Asia this is the Global South- India is 60-70% of the Global South with its population of 1.4 billion people mostly young with aspirations for a modern economy like that of the US and Germany. Add to that Indonesia and Vietnam, and other nations already in the redesigned supply chain in 2023 and you have 2 billion people in Asia. Concentrate on this for the next 2 decades for a complete transformation of India, that is what the younger generation demands of its government. ...

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Milan will host the World Cities Culture Summit in 2020, and the Winter Olympics in 2026 shared with the Alpine town of Cortina. The international book fair of Turin is moving to Milan. The left of centre Mayor Giuseppe Sala has promoted the city to increase tourism by 50%. And foreign investment is increasing for new construction projects with $21 billion to be taken up in the next 15 years. Experts are asking if this is coming at a price as the rest of Italy has stagnated for 20 years, and the rural large city gap is increasing throughout Europe. The flow of professionals to cities such as Milan, Paris, Munich, Berlin, from other towns and cities is creating a huge shift that experts at the Centre of European Reform see as a problem because of the political turmoil, and rising inequality with ever widening gaps between smaller cities and towns and rural areas with the big cities. This is compounded by ageing and demographics such as seen in the eastern part of Germany, and parts of France. Experts call it The Big European Sort, where a sifting or sorting process is increasingly transforming the demographics of European countries and driving polarisation. This process is also happening in the U.S. Experts say the big cities benefitted from the change with the European single market and the European Union. Places where working class people live are not seeing and increase in wealth which is disproportionately going to professionals clustered in big cities. Deindustrialisation has turned places like Mezio only 20 miles from Milan into industrial ruins. Towns that once voted socialist are now voting far right in these hollowed out industrial places. In the U.S. and in Europe the process was exacerbated by the flow of cheap imports from Asia hollowing out factories in regions around big cities, and by the growth of services industry in big cities with globalization in finance, legal, and other professional services. Fro 1980 to 1995 Paris region lost about $5.5 billion in industrial output and gained $20 billion in services output that also aligns with globalization in areas such as finance, according to CER, Eurostat. The process had accelerated in 1995-2020. By telling this story about Milan and the Lombard region around it like Mezio, The Guardian is saying it is time to look at how everything works together rather than breaking apart- citing the Finnish architect Saarinen about how a chair fits into a room, a room into a house, and a house into its environment, an environment in a city. So the question is how can we build the future by seeing that the city fits into a region, and a region fits into a country. As a young professional described this on BBC television interview recently this is a difficult period with the ability to design the future seemingly snatched away by the times, but also an opportunity to rethink and take the actions today for a better tomorrow for all. This is part of the coverage on Cities in The Guardian looking at how cities can work, and how cities can become part of healthy regions, for organic growth. ...

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Spirit Airlines strategy to charge for almost everything from snacks to bags, reservations on the phone and other items for a flight- making it a bare bones flight like that of European budget carrier Ryanair- has proven very successful. Spirit's net profit per plane is now the highest by far in the U.S. airline industry. Spirit leads with $2.06 million profit per plane, followed by Delta at $1.21, United $1.19, JetBlue $0.51, Southwest $0.32, US Airways $0.21, and American at a negative $2.32 million, according to Ascend and FactSet Research. Spirit has stayed away from business fliers, instead pursuing the frugal flyer, other than the seat everything has a price. Boarding passes cost $5, water $3. Spirit started the trend to charge for bags. Southwest has moved away from the no frills arrangement and Spirit is gutsily moving that way. Carryons in the overhead bin run $30-$45. Compared to other airlines which get only 6% of revenues from add on charges, Spirit gets about 50%. Since 1989 Spirit earned $289 million, compared to $1 billion for way larger Southwest. Bill Franke, a former CEO of America West Airlines in 1990's, bought Spirit with the idea of modeling it on Ryanair in Europe, after Spirit could not turn a profit flying Midwest passengers to Florida. He teamed up with CEO Baldanza to run the operation on a hands on basis with only 1% going for advertising, and Franke doing some of the ads in emails. Running flight on a tight schedule means late flights and with tight seating and strict refund policies, Spirit has many complaints. It has the worst on time performance in the industry. Yet it has planes running close to capacity in today's frugal customer environment. Prices are about 30% lower than competitors according to industry analysts. Franke and Baldanza seem to revel in this, sensing that they have struck the right tone for a frugal flier, and outdone cost pioneer Southwest. ...

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Adidas took a one time charge of 125 million euros for irregularities in its Reebok India Company, and expects an additional charge of 70 million euros. Adidas expects net profit to increase by 12-17% in 2012. Net profit for the first quarter of 2012 increased by 38% to 289 million euros, mainly on higher sales in China and Japan and its TaylorMade-Adidas Golf sales. Revenue increased by 14% to 3.8 billion euros on a constant currency basis. Profit results reflected lower financial expenses and a lower tax rate. The 2012 Olympics and Euro 2012 soccer will offer additional marketing opportunities for Adidas. Adidas is increasing its distribution in China and plans to have 2500 stores in 1400 cities by 2015. It will use its NEO brand at lower price points for entry customers in the smaller cities of China.