Quick notes: GST pain, Faraday Future...

• Can our artisans survive GST? 'I don't know how long the small-scale handmade sector can survive'.



• Are Tatas so naive?  Rumor has it that Tatas are paying $900 million for a 10% stake in Faraday Future, thus valuing the electric car startup at $9 billion.. Ridiculously overpriced, if true.



• Bringing Bikes Back: Bikes are having a second coming in China — in the form of bike-shares.



• Nirvana Shatakam performed by school children in Dublin, Ireland:

मनोबुद्ध्यहङ्कार चित्तानि नाहं
न च श्रोत्रजिह्वे न च घ्राणनेत्रे ।
न च व्योम भूमिर्न तेजो न वायुः
चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम् ॥१॥

न च प्राणसंज्ञो न वै पञ्चवायुः
न वा सप्तधातुः न वा पञ्चकोशः ।
न वाक्पाणिपादं न चोपस्थपायु
चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम् ॥२॥

न मे द्वेषरागौ न मे लोभमोहौ
मदो नैव मे नैव मात्सर्यभावः ।
न धर्मो न चार्थो न कामो न मोक्षः
चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम् ॥३॥

न पुण्यं न पापं न सौख्यं न दुःखं
न मन्त्रो न तीर्थं न वेदा न यज्ञाः ।
अहं भोजनं नैव भोज्यं न भोक्ता
चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम् ॥४॥

न मृत्युर्न शङ्का न मे जातिभेदः
पिता नैव मे नैव माता न जन्मः ।
न बन्धुर्न मित्रं गुरुर्नैव शिष्यं
चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम् ॥५॥

अहं निर्विकल्पो निराकाररूपो
विभुत्वाच्च सर्वत्र सर्वेन्द्रियाणाम् ।
न चासङ्गतं नैव मुक्तिर्न मेयः
चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम् ॥६॥



• 'What can India teach us' by Max Müller: I remember one of our masters (Dr. Klee) telling us, that there was a language spoken in India, which was much the same as Greek and Latin, nay, as German and Russian. At first we thought it was a joke, but when one saw the parallel columns of numerals, pronouns, and verbs in Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin written on the blackboard, one felt in the presence of facts, before which one had to bow. The concept of the European man has been changed and widely extended by our acquaintance with India, and we know now that we are something different from what we thought we were. The study of Sanskrit has not only widened our views of man, and taught us to embrace millions of strangers and barbarians as members of one family, but it has imparted to the whole ancient history of man a reality which it never possessed before.



• Consciously quantum: Perhaps the most renowned of Quantum mechanics' mysteries is the "observer effect" -- the fact that the outcome of a quantum experiment can change depending on whether or not we choose to measure some property of the particles involved. This deeply troubled the early pioneers of quantum theory. It seemed to undermine the basic assumption behind all science: that there is an objective world out there, irrespective of us. If the way the world behaves depends on how – or if – we look at it, what can "reality" really mean?



• A bitter harvest: Low prices leave farmers seething. “The farm crisis is worsening by the year”.



• Something In The Air: Why does India lead the world in deaths from TB? The rise of TB infections has coincided with the dismal air quality index in many Indian cities.



• Smog shortening lives. Patient numbers have more than tripled in Delhi hospitals since pollution levels spiked.