Long before SWIFT codes and wire transfers, the Chettiars of Tamil Nadu had built a transnational financial system that ran on trust, kinship and a promissory note called the Hundi. If a clan member defaulted, the entire community made the creditor whole At their peak, Chettiar financiers were bankrolling the rice trade in Burma, rubber plantations in Malaya and Ceylon, and the retail boom in Singapore — all coordinated from 75-odd villages in what is now Sivaganga and Pudukottai.

India has been making cars since the 1950s but the motor industry has not invested adequately to have the design skills & competency sufficiently in house.

Selling cars for 6-7 decades and yet not entirely self-reliant when it comes to engines. It's not about 100% self-reliance - everyone uses AVL, the Austrian engine consultancy.

Difference is: BMW uses AVL for the last 20%. Indian companies use AVL for the first 80%. The next engine needs another AVL contract.

India is the world's second-largest market for Dassault CATIA and Siemens NX. Every AMCA design, every Navy warship takes shape in French and German software.

We debate hardware indigenisation endlessly. The industrial software question barely exists. France is replacing Zoom with an indigenous platform. Good headline. But France already owns Dassault Systèmes — the €70B company whose CATIA designs Rafale jets and India's AMCA.

We celebrate easy substitutions while ignoring dependencies that matter.

19-year-old Chandan Gupta's murder at the hands of a Islamist gang during a Republic Day rally sparked outrage in 2018.

But when it came to the actual fight for justice, his family stood alone. While Hindu organizations held protests, no one helped with the grueling legal battle that followed.

1/4 The contrast was stark:

- The accused had 25 lawyers, international NGO support, and offered crores in bribes.

- Meanwhile, Chandan's family spent their life savings (₹16L), faced threats, watched evidence get tampered with, and saw his friends turn hostile in court.

2/4

How to manufacture a hit job against the govt by exploiting the lazy stereotypes that come up in our collective minds.

Here's how @ThePrintIndia planted this sly insinuation that the Modi govt believes Gangajal will cure us of Covid-19 An NGO reaches out to the govt asking if a scientific study can be conducted on the effect of bacteriophages found in upper streams of the Ganga.

They're not claiming Gangajal has magical properties that will cure you of Covid-19.

A short thread on @SwarajyaMag team's small Bharat Darshan - #Kashipath2019 - our road-trip from Bengaluru to Kashi aka Varanasi.

We covered approx 2000km by road and visited over 15 places of great historical and cultural importance. Our plan was quite ambitious - to try and see so much of India in so short a time was quite a challenge.

We saw places of great natural beauty, places of learning, centres of architecture and even prehistoric art in rock shelters

The possibilities India offers - amazed!

Beginning today a team from @SwarajyaMag comprising of myself, @arvindneela, @astrokaran and Jones are setting out on a 3,000km road trip.

From Bangalore to Banaras. To visit all major heritage sites en route. For day 1 we plan to cover Lepakshi and Penukonda, and reach Hampi for the night.

The entire 3k-5k km trip travel is sponsored by @savaaricars

See you in Lepakshi next!

On Jan 27, 1967 three US astronauts who were part of the Apollo programs died a gory death *on the ground*. A freak fire accident killed them in the command capsule they were supposed to be going into space.

It hurt the Americans like hell. The three astronauts who died knew the dangers and hence this parody photo.

Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee are still remembered.

The *entire* Lutyens media ecosystem has been out to create an impression that Kashmiri students are being attacked everywhere.

Turns out *not even one* Kashmiri student has been hurt so far. Many media and activist types have been caught spreading fake news about attacks etc. On Pulwama:

Anti-Modi journalists want a commission of inquiry into how this lapse of intelligence happened.

But intel was there, it just couldn’t get very specific.

Given sheer no of convoys/potential targets suicide attacks are just so hard to prevent.

A short thread. I'm sure this is only a partial list. Ramalingam, murdered. Opposed conversions by Islamists.

thenewsminute.com/article/pfi-ma…