Monday, May 27, 2019

Political Fallout For Xi

With or without the trade war, many economists have predicted the US might see a recession by 2020. Because it is cyclical. The economic expansion has gone long enough. A recession is overdue. Full-fledged trade war not only accelerates that possibility, but it also makes the recession deeper and perhaps longer.

The way US politics works is, if you are a president and the economy is in recession during an election year, you are going to lose. You can see that happening going back decades.

Granted there can be seen bipartisan support for the trade war on Capitol Hill, the voter blames the US president when there is a recession.

Trump could lose his bid for re-election. A mishandled trade war works against him.

But what about Xi? What are the political fallouts for him?

The Chinese economy has not only not seen a recession in decades, but it also grew at double-digit rates for decades. Now it is "down" to something like 6.5%. If the trade war makes that go down to something like 5% Xi might still be okay. Up to 2% knockoff that might last a few years might not throw major political challenges for Xi.

But if things go haywire, and China ends up actually dipping below zero, an extremely unlikely scenario, then there might be mass unrests. But that would take a lot of irrationality in the trade talks to get there. I have a feeling the two parties might not go that far.

If China's growth rate dips below zero, that is pretty much a global recession or worse. That might also be a scenario of the US economy contracting.



There is word Modi intends to invite Trump and Xi to his swearing-in ceremony. At any other juncture, that might have been just a ceremony. But now that invite has enormous geopolitical implications. The two should take it and figure out a way to pull back on their respective stances, allowing room for face-saving on both parts.

Xi Jinping seeks global cooperation on technology after Huawei’s US ban Countries should cooperate in developing the Internet, big data and artificial intelligence, China President Xi Jinping said.....Shares of semiconductor and chip suppliers have plunged over the past month amid trade-war tensions. Raymond James analyst Chris Caso said in a note to clients this week that he expects “many, if not most,” chip companies may have to cut estimates.
China is indicating it’ll never give in to US demands to change its state-run economy “At the negotiating table, the U.S. government has made many arrogant requests, including restricting the development of state-owned enterprises.....Obviously, this is beyond the field and scope of trade negotiations, (and) touches upon China’s fundamental economic system.”
"High-Level" Meeting, Engagements Planned For PM Modi-Xi Jinping This Year: Envoy "Both sides (India and China) are very keen to engage...and so much can be done between the two countries"...... The Chinese President vowed to work with PM Modi to take the bilateral ties to a new height. He also expressed satisfaction at the strong momentum of development in India-China relations in recent years with the joint efforts of both the sides...... In the letter, President Xi noted the great importance he attached to the development of India-China relations.
China would benefit from a positive response to US trade complaints Thanks in large part to American investments and technology, China moved from its cheap smokestack manufacturing base of the 1980s to an engineering powerhouse, with cutting-edge industries ranging from infrastructure to transportation, telecommunications, computing, military hardware, space exploration and global retailing. ....... even in good years American spendthrifts save barely 6% of their after-tax income, while the penny-pinching Chinese squirrel away half of what they earn....... Trump apparently still hopes that he can cut the Gordian knot with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the G-20 meeting in Japan next month. That perhaps explains his puzzling one-liners bubbling with optimism regarding trade talks with China. ....... Washington, for its part, should step back from meddling in China’s legislative process and economic policies, while reserving the right to vigorously respond to cases of intellectual property violations, forced technology transfers, illegal industry subsidies and restricted market access to U.S. businesses operating in China....... markets should not exaggerate the importance of U.S.-China trade tensions for a fully employed American economy driven by low credit costs, real disposable household incomes growing at annual rates of 3% and strong corporate earnings.
Rare earths are Xi’s ace card in ‘Long March’ of trade war
The effects of Modi thwarting a Dalai-Xi meet
India likely to invite Trump, Putin, Xi Jinping for Narendra Modi's swearing-in; reports say Pakistan unlikely to be invited

Made In China 2025

Beijing tries to play down ‘Made in China 2025’ as Donald Trump escalates trade hostilities
From Made in China to Created in China: how nation turned itself from world’s sweatshop to global innovator in just one decade Young women handled toxic materials without protec­tion, bent over sewing machines for more than 14 hours a day with no over­time pay. They lived in filthy dormitories provided by the company – and paid highly for the privilege. The factory floor was dirty and cold; employees wore thick jackets and complained of pain in their fingers...... bright red waste water was discharged directly into a small river that ran alongside the concrete building. “If you pay officials a nice hongbao [a red envelope containing money], they will look the other way,” a manager bragged, believing I was a potential customer. “Having European environmental standards in place would make our products much more expensive. And, after all, consumers just care about price.” ....... authorities proudly showed off the polluting chemical industries, labour-intensive jeans factories and outdated steel mills that were its economic engine...... The minimum wage in most provinces has increased to about 2,000 yuan per month, reliance on exports has fallen and domestic consumption now drives 60 per cent of the country’s growth....... According to Canadian think tank McKenzie Institute, the productivity of Chinese workers is just 15 per cent to 30 per cent of the average found in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries.
China must face its weakness in semiconductors squarely, says head of state-backed fund China makes more than 90 per cent of the world’s smartphones, 65 per cent of personal computers and 67 per cent of smart televisions .... Annual chip imports by China have risen to more than US$200 billion since 2013 and reached US$260 billion last year.
Huawei launches advanced 7-nanometre smartphone chip ahead of Apple, Samsung the Kirin 980, designed to move the Chinese company ahead of Apple and Samsung Electronics in launching an integrated circuit made under the most advanced fabrication and with double the processing power for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. ....... The 7nm process allowed the Kirin 980 to pack 6.9 billion transistors, about 1.6 times more than those built in the Kirin 970 chip launched last year, as well as deliver 20 per cent improved performance and 40 per cent greater power efficiency for “next-generation productivity and entertainment applications”...... Semiconductors are at the centre of a technology gap that China wants to close.
Drones, facial recognition and a social credit system: 10 ways China watches its citizens China has around 200 million surveillance cameras ..... China is developing a facial recognition system that can match faces to a database of 1.3 billion ID photos in seconds, with a target of achieving 90 per cent accuracy. ...... Facial recognition technology also was reportedly used to catch three wanted fugitives at separate concerts in China. In one case, a man was identified among a crowd of about 50,000........ Special glasses with facial-recognition software also have been invented for police use. During the Lunar New Year holiday travel rush, police used these glasses to search for wanted criminals at the Zhengzhou East high-speed rail station. ..... at least seven fugitives related to hit-and-run and human trafficking cases were identified, and 26 cases of identity fraud broken...... In June, the government released a list of 169 people who had committed misdeeds that included provocations on flights, attempting to take a lighter through airport security, smoking on a high-speed train, tax evasion and failing to pay fines. Those on the list ended up banned from buying train and plane tickets for a year........ In 2017, the Beijing City National Security Bureau offered 10,000 to 500,000 yuan (US$1,600 to US$79,700) for information on spies.
How tensions with the West are putting the future of China’s Skynet mass surveillance system at stake The Skynet is falling......The world’s biggest video surveillance system, under construction in China, relies on critical components from the West and supplies are drying up as the United States and other nations tighten trade restrictions ..... Skynet, as China’s national security network is known, had 170 million cameras last year and Beijing plans to have another 400 million units installed across the country by 2020...... The system uses artificial intelligence, including one technology under development that could eventually allow the government to identify any one of its 1.3 billion citizens anytime, anywhere....... “The West is forming a united front [against China]”....... there is also pressure internationally for action in response to reports that up to 1 million Uygur Muslims are being held in detention centres in Xinjiang in the country’s far west...... China has not denied the existence of the facilities...... Hikvision, the world’s largest video surveillance company, based in Hangzhou, China’s eastern Zhejiang province, has seen its stock price nearly halve from its peak in March to August...... China is expected to buy US$20 billion worth of CCTV cameras and related equipment this year, nearly half the size of the global market....... “To China, this is the kind of job that must be done no matter what happens” ....... “The best weapon against sanctions is innovation.”



Made in China 2025





Why ‘Made in China 2025’ triggered the wrath of President Trump



How China aims to dominate the world of robotics



‘Made in China 2025’: How Beijing is boosting its semiconductor industry



China plans to be a world leader in Artificial Intelligence by 2030



Betting big on biotech 80 per cent of adult diseases have a genetic basis influenced by environmental factors, and there are thousands of genes related to the development of diseases. In fact, the research of genes and proteins (genomics and proteomics), genetic engineering and its applications have allowed the development of new tools that are revolutionising the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure of diseases.



The stones in the road for China’s 2025 plan on electric vehicles



Can ‘Made in China 2025’ help turn the nation’s domestic aerospace industry into a world leader?



5G offers world’s biggest mobile market a gateway to the industrial internet take advantage of artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), and augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) technologies ....... The fifth generation of mobile technology means more than just faster data speeds and greater network capacity. It also provides a foundation for connecting an unlimited number of machines to one another for day-to-day communication. A 5G network will support: a million connected devices per square kilometre; transmit a package of data with a delay of just 1 millisecond and provide peak data download speeds of up to 20 gigabits per second...... The delay on a 4G network is about 50ms, which is unsuitable for the quick response times needed by driverless cars. ..... The countries that adopt 5G are expected to experience disproportionate economic gains compared to those that lag behind...... the US, Japan, and South Korea have all made significant strides toward 5G readiness, but none on the same scale as China. ...... China, which has the world’s largest smartphone market and internet population, has projected 5G mobile network investments to reach about US$405 billion from 2020 to 2030.

Why the world’s flight paths are such a mess
Chinese airlines are consistently late for this one surprising reason “On trade, Donald Trump is an encyclopedia of error”......Trump, the cartoonish face of decadent capitalism: rich, big-mouthed, paranoid and … that hair.
China should think hard before using rare earths as a ‘weapon’ in trade tit-for-tat with US over Huawei The US attack on Huawei has progressed from a sense of unfairness about the stealing of intellectual property, to national snooping of secrets, to an active campaign to permanently hobble the company. The process has now gone so far that it is in danger of rebounding on the Americans. ....... A sharp fall in the share prices of tech stocks on Wall Street showed that beggaring Huawei would transfer significant pain to American suppliers and retaliation could hit those with long production chains in China like Apple....... Cheap manufacturing is already withering under intense competition. Trump’s trade tariff tantrums could well force China to raise the value of its economy to the levels seen in the leading-edge manufacturing that takes place within the “Silicon Bay” area around Shenzhen...... Economies are now so interdependent that every tit-for-tat action produces unforeseen and often unpleasant reactions. They burnish egos but can rebound against the initiator. Nevertheless, they are an instrument of change that will lead to a future economic equilibrium....... a new equilibrium of fair trade and balanced competition can only result from painful economic change



Tech cold war: how Trump’s assault on Huawei is forcing the world to contemplate a digital iron curtain “The hyper-globalisation of the last twenty years is unsustainable given the real geopolitical constraints. We are entering a new phase” ........ there is a growing feeling in China that it has now entered an ineluctable superpower struggle, with similarities to the fight between US and Japan in the 1980s........ That ended with Japan agreeing to the 1985 Plaza Accord that saw the yen appreciate rapidly against the US dollar, hitting exporters, resulting in the Japanese authorities over-compensating with rate cuts, which in turn kicked off a historic boom-and-bust cycle – one which China does not want to emulate.......... The globalisation of the 1990s – something which Trump has railed against as a destroyer of blue-collar US jobs – transformed the world economy with interconnected supply chains aimed at maximising efficiency. China and the US enjoyed a honeymoon period though, as cooperation provided cheaper ‘Made-in-China’ products to US consumers and opened the huge Chinese market to US firms. ....... “If the trade negotiations continue to stall and are not restarted, it is more likely that China will take further measures to limit US tech company operations in China, and then we will be in a race to the bottom in terms of decoupling” ...... Over the last four years, Huawei’s chip arm HiSilicon has been manufacturing its own Kirin chips to boost self-sufficiency in semiconductors, but even these efforts appear to have been thwarted by the US ban.......Most of HiSilicon’s chip designs are licensed from ARM but the UK chip designer this month said it would stop licensing its technology to Huawei as its products contain “US origin technology”....... Even the software that is required for chip design is currently monopolised by US companies....... Should the world move towards a true decoupling of the tech supply chain, it will be a lose-lose situation for both countries given that technology supply chains are so closely intertwined ..... scepticism that a true digital iron curtain can be achieved........ “It is impossible for either China or the US to own all the core technologies in the world ...... What China really wants to achieve is to exchange agate with pearl. It’s just at the moment, China’s home-grown tech is not good enough to be called pearl.”

‘Someone will press a trigger’: Duterte says China’s claim to disputed islands’ airspace ‘is wrong’ and could be ‘flashpoint’ for conflict

China’s electric car market is growing twice as fast as the US. Here’s why Since most electric cars sold in China are produced by domestic firms they have been able to keep their costs low and are able to price it competitively compared to petrol driven cars.

UK chides Huawei for equipment security flaws, but rules out Chinese state interference Huawei Technologies poses a major risk to the UK’s telecommunications networks because of the company’s failure to fix security flaws found in its equipment and software, according to a report on Thursday by a government-led watchdog, which ruled out Chinese state interference as the cause of those defects........ “about basic engineering competence and cybersecurity hygiene that give rise to vulnerabilities that are capable of being exploited by a range of actors”....... In February, the NCSC determined that it is possible to “limit the risks from using Huawei” in 5G networks

EU ignores US calls for blanket ban on Huawei in Europe as Chinese company’s 5G expertise helps its cause Huawei competes against the likes of Cisco, Ericsson and Nokia from the West for billions of dollars worth of potential next-generation network contracts. The world’s largest network gear maker currently gets almost half of its more than US$100 billion in annual revenue from overseas markets and has an estimated 30 per cent share of Europe. ....... Huawei said in a statement it welcomed the commission’s “objective and proportionate” recommendations...... banning their 5G network gear at this point could risk future economic prospects.

Trade War: The Spiral Down Scenario

Both Xi and Trump are talking tough. Right now they are sounding like they are in no hurry, and they don't expect to even talk in Japan when they meet at the G20 summit.

First, you raise tariffs, one on the other, first a little, on a little, then a lot, on a lot, until you have everything at 25%. That raises prices. Somebody did the math on that and said it will be like an $800 tax on every American consumer. The unhappiness of the Iowa farmers, it seems, is contagious. It is going to engulf the nation.

But now that whole thing looks like a sideshow. The US started by saying we don't want to buy 5G equipment from Huawei, equipment that Huawei claims is much better and much cheaper than the competition. That was that. But I guess that was not enough. Trump would like to kill Huawei off entirely. He has decided US companies that sell chips to Huawei may not do so. A three-month reprieve has been provided.

China's response has been, well, 90% of the rare earth minerals on which the US high tech industries depend comes from China. We could choke that.

Tariffs were warm-up. This is war. This really is trade war.

Is decoupling possible? People have started to talk in terms of a tech iron curtain. Some are saying this might last 20 years. I am not so sure. If all this is allowed to play out for just one year, that would accelerate the US economy into a recession. A recession would kick Donald Trump out of office.

If Apple were to lose 500 billion dollars in market value, what do you think that will do to the US consumer sentiment? Trump is as unprepared for the China trade war as he was for his talks with the North Korean leader. He does not believe in doing homework. He has not thought this through. There is no grand strategy.

Has Britain been able to decouple from Europe? The Chinese and US economies are even more interconnected.

This is not going to be painless for China either. The middle class in China is already plenty anxious about the implications of where this is going.

It makes sense for the Chinese to engage in some opening up. That is much better than a full-fledged trade war.

Both the US and China might actively seek to export and import more from other countries. But these two happen to be the two largest economies. There is no avoiding that. If Germany and France were engaged in a trade war, they might readily find substitutes. But the US and China are too big to have that option. There are no substitute economies for them.

I don't believe this is about democracy. Trump does not much care for democracy in America. Forget China. I believe this is about the lost manufacturing base in the US. The diagnosis is highly inaccurate. Most manufacturing jobs have been lost to automation.

Trump's trade war is as stupid as the border wall he wants to build. It will only lead to a recession.

If the trade war continues into 2020, it surely will be the central issue in the presidential election. It will be much talked about.


as 2020 draws near and the world is on the cusp of ultra-fast 5G networks, the US has found itself without a telecommunications hardware champion that can compete with major 5G players such as China’s Huawei Technologies, Finland’s Nokia and Sweden’s Ericsson.
5G offers world’s biggest mobile market a gateway to the industrial internet

Saturday, May 25, 2019

Three Crises: China, Iran, DC

The US faces a trade war with China, an almost war with Iran, and it faces a constitutional crisis in Washington DC. Of the three the last might be the biggest.

The White House's stonewalling on demands from the US Congress have reached uncharted territory.






I have read up much more on the trade war than the other two. It is an unfolding scenario. I don't see a well thought out strategy. I do note that there seems to be bipartisan support on the Hill. What is the endgame scenario?



Does this sound like a guy fighting for democracy?


Friday, May 24, 2019

Two Out Of Three: Kamala, Andrew, Pete

Right now I am thinking two of these three might end up on the Democratic ticket next year. I don't know who. I don't know in what order. And, of course, I could be proven wrong. I think Andrew Yang is the most underestimated candidate right now for the only candidate with the real solution to the biggest problem at hand: the loss of jobs to automation. I think the winning candidate, whoever that is, will be the great synthesizer. Not the one who came up with the ideas, but the one who best synthesized them all. Who might that be? Kamala Harris' idea to fine companies that pay women less for the same work is on par with Andrew Yang's idea of the Universal Basic Income. I think it is about time. And, of course, the symbolism of an LGBTQ candidate is immense.

Medicare for All. Wealth tax. Wiping out student loans. Universal Basic Income. Fining companies for not paying women equally. These ideas might come from different candidates, but they can all be part of one platform.

President: Kamala Harris
Vice President: Andrew Yang
Secretary Of Urban Affairs: Pete Buttigieg





Buttigieg likens Trump to a 'crazy uncle' The South Bend mayor also accused of him of using a 'fake' injury to avoid Vietnam. ....... South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg on Thursday likened his approach to taking on President Donald Trump to dealing with a “crazy uncle.”..... “Like, he’s there. You’re not going to disrespect his humanity. But he thinks what he thinks. There’s not much you can do about it.” ...... “It’s actually getting harder and harder to find a policy of this administration that most Americans don’t disagree with,” he continued. “Which is exactly, of course, why they need it not to be about policy.” ...... he accused the president of racist behavior ...... said he thinks Trump is a racist...... he does and says racist things and gives cover to other racists ...... the president has also likened Buttigieg to Alfred E. Neuman, the gap-toothed, big-eared character on the cover of the humor magazine Mad.

Trump’s Walkout Hits a Wall Maybe Trump had success bullying real estate moguls and other businessmen and thinks the tactic will work in Washington, even after two years of experience show that it doesn’t. Maybe he flies off the handle and plays the tough guy because he likes it, thinking the White House stage as a version of The Apprentice. Trump has been strategically consistent in using anger to connect with his supporters during his presidency. ....... The sight of Trump baring his teeth like a wild macaque doesn’t seem to faze Pelosi and Schumer. Decades in Congress have inured them to this kind of political gnarling..... Tantrums don’t work very well in government as opposed to business, because there are so many more moving parts—separation of powers, political parties, scores of agencies, 50 states and 245 million eligible voters—than in Manhattan real estate....... Like his Niagara of lies, Trump’s hysterics are just another way of forcing people to live in his factually stunted, theatrical universe. As Pelosi and Schumer have shown, the spell is easily broken.

A week of Trump-fueled dysfunction leaves Congress gasping Pelosi, who earlier in the day said that the president had committed “impeachable offenses” and was in need of “an intervention” by family and friends....... Marc Short, chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, was on TV Thursday morning to demand funding because “we think it is a crisis” at the border. ...... The Appropriations chief then put out a press statement just a few minutes later congratulating Trump for “breaking the gridlock.” Democrats find that sentiment puzzling: They blame Trump for the impasse to begin with

IRS could be forced to release Trump’s taxes in the heat of 2020 The administration is betting that it can drag out the coming case beyond next year’s elections. That could prove a bad strategy.



The 10 Democrats most likely to be the 2020 nominee, ranked

Modi 2.0 And The 5G Question



Modi has earned himself another five years. One hopes there is not any other need for a shock therapy like demonetization. These five years are an opportunity to give India double-digit growth rates. 5G is fundamental to that equation. There is no way for India to avoid the Huawei question.

Modi's Second And Bigger Victory

Parroting the US position makes little sense. Instead, India should do its homework, in collaboration with others if necessary. Britain, France, and Germany are some powers that are eager to do their homework.

The bigger picture is privacy and security are major concerns with the internet in general. There are some policy solutions. Many solutions are technological and are in the future. Intelligence agencies do snoop in. That is true for all major powers. There is an urgent need to come together and create standards across emerging industries. That means countries coming together. That means the leading tech companies coming together.

When it comes to 5G equipment, looks like Huawei has hardware that is much better and much cheaper than its several rivals. The question being asked is, is it safe though? Britain, France, Germany, and India have enough expertise to be able to assess and answer that question. And if Huawei is not safe, are its rivals safe? Or do they offer the same vulnerabilities?

Right now 5G is the most critical infrastructure for India. It beats all else in importance. You roll out 5G and every city, town, village, and hamlet will have  become a "smart city." This has huge implications for commerce, for democracy, for the environment. It will become so much easier to measure air quality and water quality. It will decrease the pressure on the cities. Many more will be able to telecommute. It will most definitely give rise to new industries. A state like Bihar might give a million tutors to the world who all work from their homes in Bihar and teach kids around the world. Yoga teachers will similarly get global reach.

5G will take Modi's idea of "minimum government, maximum governance" to unprecedented heights. Much of the government will be online. There will remain very little need to visit government offices.

5G will revolutionize finance and access to credit for the poorest of the poor.

When hackers hack, they do so because you have internet access. It is absolutely possible for Huawei (or any other similar company) to create tiny "doors" for spy agencies. Just like it is absolutely possible for Microsoft to create little "doors" for the CIA in its Windows operating system. It is possible for Huawei competitors to do the same. It is possible for a company like Facebook to collect data on people and for some intelligence agency to create a bogus app that helps them vacuum that data. Facebook does not even have to actively cooperate.

All this does not take away from the promise of 5G. 5G will have 100 times greater impact than Indian Railways on the Indian economy. 5G is a train that you don't want to miss for too long. 5G is the ultimate Silk Road.

Privacy and security concerns must be addressed. But that requires countries and companies coming together and showing unprecedented levels of goodwill and cooperation.

The beauty of the 5G promise is, the Indian government does not have to spend a dime. All the action will be in the private sector. All you have to do is do your homework and approve.


Modi's Second And Bigger Victory
Trade War Endgame Scenarios: Look At Canada And North Korea For Hints
India And Reforms
New Twist In The Trade War: China Devalues Its Currency
5G And The Trade War
Huawei Founder Ren Zhengfei
A Truly Global Universal Basic Income
New Political And Economic Paradigms For The Age Of Abundance
The Inequality, The Climate Change


Inequality And Climate Change Are Existential: A Blueprint For Survival
Towards A World Government
30-30-30-10: A More Thoughtful And Egalitarian Formula For Equity Distribution In Tech Startups For The Age Of Abundance
The Blockchain: Fundamental Like The Internet
The Character Called The Tech Entrepreneur



5G launch in India: Modi government to roll-out high-speed 5G telecom services by 2022 The South Asian nation, traditionally a laggard while embracing latest technology in telecommunications, will follow South Korea, Japan and China where 5G service will be offered within the next two years........ expects South Korea to launch these services by March 2019, Japan in late 2019 and China, along with most western major cities, in 2020......“India needs China to launch to drive economies of scale and lower cost 5G handsets. I think 2022 or later is appropriate for India” ..... So far, telecom infrastructure has got second place to physical infrastructure as Asian nation struggled to beef up its roads, ports and airports.
Trump Wants '5G' and 'Even 6G' Wireless Technology 'As Soon As Possible.' What's He Talking About? Autonomous vehicles could use 5G’s lower latency to respond quickly to changes in traffic and communicate with other connected equipment. And since 5G will be capable of helping low-power devices communicate with one another as coverage grows over the next decade, it could enable all sorts of new smart home tech, too...... The U.S. government is even pressuring allies to block Chinese-made 5G equipment, though some, like Germany, aren’t listening.
Narendra Modi government needs to focus on reviving sectoral health, deploy 5G: Industry
5G: Modi's next speed test "...accelerated deployment of next generation ubiquitous ultra-high broadband infrastructure with 100% coverage of 10 Gbps across urban India and 1 Gbps across rural India...". ...... 5G will enable electronic and mobile smart governance, remote health diagnosis, remote education, digital payments, Smart Cities, Smart Transportation, Internet of Things (IoT), Machine to Machine Communications (M2M), and smart devices enhanced by Artificial Intelligence (AI), such as driverless cars, smart houses, etc....... Airtel is set to deploy Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO), a precursor of 5G, in Bengaluru and Kolkata. Nokia announced partnerships with both Bharti Airtel and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL). Nokia also announced the establishment of a 5G IoT laboratory in Bengaluru. China's ZTE has initiated pre-5G trials with Airtel, Vodafone, and Reliance Jio........ A change in mindset is required in order to realise the potential benefits made possible by new broadband technologies and distributed computing networks, as well as by other technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Big Data, Cloud Computing, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, etc. ....... a HD movie takes 26 hours to download on 3G, six minutes on 4G, and only 5 seconds on 5G. ......... Suppose I am on an international flight when I get a brilliant brainwave for developing a new drug. My handset on the airplane should be able to quickly get me whatever research journals, medical databases, design, simulation and visualization tools I will need to immediately act on my brainwave. In fact, the network should "read my mind", quickly figure out by itself what resources and what information I need, and fetch them to my handset mid-air. ........ A major problem in developing such networks is that the software developers, system hardware engineers, radio and electromagnetic engineers, designers of integrated circuits, and semiconductor materials engineers do not understand each other and often work at cross-purposes. ........ These are all engineering challenges that require a multi-disciplinary approach, and the government's Rs 500 crore corpus should focus on creating such multi-disciplinary research teams at various Indian educational and research institutions.



Why Modi government wants India to go 5G in 2020 "We missed the opportunity to participate when the standards were being set for 3G and 4G, but don’t want to miss the 5G opportunity. Now when the standards are being set for 5G across the world, India will also participate in the process be successful in launching 5G by 2020." ..... the new standard — apart from just being faster than current generation 4G networks — will promise better latency and higher bandwidth, which will allow for a higher density of broadband users without slowing down the speed. ....The network will additionally also be optimised for Internet of Things (IoT) ...... The technological advancements of 5G will in part help the government make a renewed push for its "Digital India" initiative and cashless economy campaigns ..... The rollout of 5G technology will also make the government a lot of money from the auctioning of spectrum needed for newer technology. ...... Even though India was more than 10 years late in adopting 3G technology and lagged behind in adoption of 4G standards too, the government's plan of bringing the 5G network platform to the masses — rivaling the rollout in developed economies in Europe and America — is highly ambitious, but certainly achievable. ..... Airtel has announced that, initially, it will implement the new technology in Bangalore and Kolkata, and later expand to other parts of the country......Jio, which is based on an all-IP network and can be easily upgraded to 5G and beyond, has already announced that it will move to 5G standards shortly after the rollout.
Japan and India pledge cooperation on AI and 5G "No two nations have as much potential together as Japan and India," Abe said at the beginning of his meeting with Modi at the prime minister's office in Tokyo..... The two nations plan to conduct joint research on artificial intelligence. ....... The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, one of Japan's largest public research institutions, and the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad will jointly develop AI technology and begin research in the robotics field....... Japanese and Indian technology companies sense an opening as the U.S. and Australia restrict Chinese players like Huawei Technologies from supplying 5G equipment. A hundred times faster than current technology, 5G will form the communications infrastructure for the "internet of things" and self-driving cars........ The Japanese leader has told aides privately that he feels comfortable discussing global events, and not just bilateral issues, with the Indian leader...... His fondness for Modi was evident in a Facebook post on Monday. "I invited Prime Minister Modi to my vacation home, where just the two of us enjoyed a private dinner together," the Japanese prime minister wrote. "In that relaxed atmosphere, we talked frankly with each other about various topics. I want to continue to walk firmly hand in hand with Prime Minister Modi, aiming at bringing about a free and open Indo-Pacific." ....... The two countries will also collaborate on infrastructure, such as port and road projects in third countries like Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Bangladesh. The Japanese government will assist with development in Northeast India as well.
India and Japan seal $75bn currency swap deal India and Japan on Monday inked a $75 billion bilateral currency swap agreement which should bring greater stability to foreign exchange and capital markets in Asia's third largest economy...... Japan and India had a currency swap agreement of up to $50 billion that had expired. The Indian rupee has tumbled 15% against the dollar since January amid the U.S. Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes. The new swap deal will guarantee a buyer for the rupee that will help to stem a fall in value in case of a currency crisis...... "The importance of [the] swap agreement is that India can borrow U.S. dollars from Japan and give it Indian rupees of the borrowed amount to stabilize its currency," said Shamshad Ahmad Khan, a visiting associate fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies in New Delhi. "This is very important considering the timing when [the] Indian rupee is depreciating."........ Modi said the leaders had agreed on a "two-plus-two" dialogue between their foreign ministers and defense ministers, with the aim of working toward encouraging world peace and stability. ....... the strategy requires greater synergy between the two countries' defense and foreign ministries." ...... Modi also pointed out that Japanese investors, during his visit, have committed $2.5 billion to India, which would create employment for 30,000 people. "We will strengthen our partnership in every sphere, including digital, cyberspace, health, defense, oceans and space." ..... They also exchanged notes about a loan agreement for the ambitious 1.1 trillion rupee ($15 billion) Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed rail, the construction of which started last year. Japan is funding over 80% of the project.

Photo via Ajay Bhagat




Thursday, May 23, 2019

Modi's Second And Bigger Victory






No matter which way you look at it, it is just plain remarkable. Modi has managed to take his tally to almost 350. I have a feeling, by 2024, that tally might inch towards 400. The Congress Party needed a sympathy wave in 1984 to be in that 400 range. Modi is depending on his work, his organization, the electorate's intelligence.

India 2019: Looks Like A TsuNAMO

The terror attack in Kashmir and the Indian response to go deep inside Pakistani territory to wipe out a camp of terrorists sure played a role. That created a sympathy wave. But that was the icing on the cake. This dude has been doing the work.

He is a risktaker. 2014-2019 was the hard part. The next phase is not necessarily easier. But I would argue it is relatively easier. He does not need to give the Indian economy another shock therapy like demonetization.

Modi is an excellent communicator. He has a full agenda. I think he would be smart to co-opt Rahul Gandhi's Universal Basic Income idea for the bottom 20% and make his own. It is a sound idea. Automation will only accelerate. That has to be allowed. The productivity gains have to pay in the form of Value Added Tax. And that VAT has to fund the UBI.

Indira Gandhi nationalized the banks. Indian banks are state-owned. In that way India is China. But when you have as much corruption as there has been in India, and for such a long time, you end up with a huge pileup of non-performing loans, which drags down the economy's prospects. Some clean-up has been done. Much more remains to be done. Funneling credit to the small and medium enterprises, and the mom and pop stores, that are the dynamo of the economy is where job creation is. That has to be a top priority.

Sometime in the next few years, Modi has to take India to double-digit growth rates. That is the only way it can someday catch up to China. China growing at 5-6% and India growing at 10-11% is how. At this stage, 5-6% is excellent for China. But India can only truly reap its demographic dividend by growing at double-digit growth rates.

India is such a vast and diverse country. And it is a vibrant democracy. Everybody has an opinion. When Indians go grocery shopping, they haggle. It is free speech in action. To take major steps of reform while also dancing to the tunes of the electoral rhythms is a challenge. Modi is excellent at it. He is gifted. He is hard working. (The guy does not sleep.)

Overall I am optimistic that Modi will keep delivering. But the political path is bound to be full of surprises.

Adjusted for Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), India is projected to have become a larger economy than the US by 2030. It is befitting that that happens on Modi's watch. That is the projection. Modi has the option to accelerate it. The projection puts India at number two, and China at number one.

Chandrababu Naidu's move a few years ago to walk out of the NDA, in hindsight, looks like was a bad move. He has been wiped out, in his own state, and at the national level. One worries for the city of Amaravati.

West Bengal will fall. It will fall into the BJP's lap. That is the trend.

Modi basically repeated his 2014 performance in the Hindi heartland. That is quite a statement.

The BJP is the largest political party in the world.








Make in India should be aligned with a revamped Foreign Trade Policy to capture export market share amid ongoing dislocations in production base on the back of geopolitical uncertainty like trade wars and Brexit