My column today. As lithium demand and production shoots up, the environmental impact of mining and refining it is also coming under greater scrutiny…

https://twitter.com/moneycontrolcom/status/1630415627856007168

Lithium mining is not a “clean” process because whether it is extracted from hard rock or from salt brines, it requires a lot of energy, mostly generated from dirty fuels, and leaves scars on the ground, spoils the ecosystem and contaminates lots of water…

Few blatantly wrong arguments being pushed out...
1) People of 18-23 should not worry about pensions.
IT is not about pensions. It is about 75% being made compulsorily redundant after 4 years with little skills that attract the corp sector. The skill sets required aren't same 2) We will give 10% preference in central police forces
This already exists in some form or other. Also, if 10% is even reserved for ex-Agniveers, that means 10% less for others.

1/n Another thread. Fairly recent history. The announcement of a stringent, nation wide lockdown was at 4 hours notice after most shops and offices had already closed. It left daily wagers in a state of shock 2/n Railways, buses, all means of public transport was abruptly shut down. Private transport -- except for those labelled essentially services -- could not ply on roads either. People either had stocks of food at home or suddenly found their grocers running out of stock

1/n The grain producing areas went to the Pakistan side when India got its independence. This was an era of food shortages where we depended on food aid from the US. This was why the US-Korea affected our food supplies. The US used food aid to discipline non-aligned nations 2/n In the 1970s, one of the objectives of the green revolution was to make India independent from the pressures that came with food aid. It led to the kind of grain production we see in the country today, a complete remodelling of the PDS system etc

1/n #Budget2022 First reactions: The govt is banking on infra spending, particularly in road sector, to create jobs, boost growth etc etc -- except that it has been doing this for many years now, with diminishing returns 2/n #Budget2022 Despite multiple mentions about helping MSMEs, most of the stuff has been through credit guarantee schemes, and they have not helped in the past.

Anatomy of a scam. Because Goibibo doesn't have a customer email id or a number where one can put in a refund request, I had been forced to use Twitter. They responded and took all the details. Within seconds, I got a second DM from a Twitter handle Goibibo Refund team. 1/n

https://twitter.com/ProsaicView/status/1450408575403114502

2/n Saying that they were looking into my complaint and someone would call me on my mobile number. Next morning I got a call, where the person had the necessary details of my complaint....

1/n The government vs Big Tech is playing out in both the US and China, though the approaches are very different in the two countries. I look at the implications to the tech landscape in my column in Business Standard business-standard.com/article/opinio… 2/n In the US, the Anti Trust proceedings are against four companies -- Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon. Other large companies are not being pursued though older companies like Microsoft and IBM have faced their own Anti Trust investigations in the past at different times

1/n Thread on GDP estimates for Q1 FY22. The 20.1% growth is from a low base -- the economy had contracted 24.3% in the same quarter last year. So we are still playing catch up. Ideally, we should have done far better #GDP 2/n Also remember these are estimates based on data that has largely based on the big organised formal sector and then extrapolated. So it will definitely be revised as more data is collected.. informal data takes a lot longer to collect #GDP

1/n In my column in Moneycontrol, I look at the government's angst with e-commerce...that the government doesn't like e-commerce has been apparent for some time now moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/a… 2/n At one time, the angst was solely directed towards the foreign Amazon... later it was against both Amazon and Flipkart given that both were owned by foreign players

1/n In my Moneycontrol column today, I look at the race between the US and China to win in Artificial Intelligence...moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/i… 2/n A decade ago, China was far behind. Now they are reportedly ahead in facial recognition, speech technology and several other areas though the US, according to some observers, still leads in others

Just to put it in perspective, the NIA had not gathered enough evidence to actually prosecute Stan Swamy but kept him in jail till he died. But the Ansal brothers of the Uphaar Cinema fire tragedy were convicted by SC but allowed to stay out of jail because of age (75 and 67) I am all for punishing anyone the police have actual proof against. But prosecution should start early and cases should be heard and disposed off. Keeping people in jail as under trials indefinitely makes no sense...

1/n In my column in Business Standard today, I look at the quality control and testing of vaccines, which are still a weak link in our vaccination efforts business-standard.com/article/opinio… 2/n Quality control and testing rarely gets much media attention in India except when some big generic drug maker's production facilities get pulled up by the US FDA -- but it is crucial in ensuring that the quality of the drugs and vaccines we take are good

In my Moneycontrol column today I look at the OECD/G20 initiative on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) which India joined along with 129 other countries. moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/g… While its broad goal is the same as that of the G7 agreement announced earlier -- to prevent global corporations from using low tax destinations to pay little taxes -- there are many details that need to be aligned

1/n The four deadly sins plaguing our vaccination effort – a short thread 2/n Why is India’s vaccination drive so sluggish? We have so far administered 63illion or 6.3 crore doses. With our population of 130 plus crore, we would need to vaccinate at least 70% with two doses, six to eight weeks apart.

1/n The jobs problem is going to remain with us for a very long time. 1) GDP is not growing as fast as it should 2) New jobs per unit GDP growth has come down over time 3) The number of people joining the job market is growing moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/l… 2/n The issue is that after a rebound in 2021-22, a number of fairly respected economists think that India will be stuck to a 4-6% growth range for quite some years ... this is bad news