US Bunker Buster's "Weak Spot" Revealed? China Finds Attack Tactic to ‘Stop' Bomb That Hit Iran
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
4 hours ago
- Indian Express
Why India-UK deal on critical minerals points to New Delhi's anxiety over Chinese grip
The fine print of the India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) has a signal towards India's growing anxiety over the Chinese chokehold on the critical minerals' supply chain, and how New Delhi is aiming to counter Beijing's dominance in the sector. This follows a similar initiative by the Quad (comprising India, Australia, Japan, and the United States) earlier this month, where they launched an initiative to secure supply chains of critical minerals, as worries grow around China's stranglehold over the resources, which are vital to new technologies. The India-UK Vision 2035, a document outlining the broader collaborative goals of the free trade agreement between the two said that they will work together to develop cutting-edge technology and research, building on the Technology Security Initiative, focused on future telecoms, artificial intelligence and critical minerals, laying the ground for future collaboration on semiconductors, quantum, bio-technology and advanced materials. To further cooperation in critical minerals, the two countries will also establish a UK-India Critical Minerals Guild to 'transform financing standards and innovation', according to a joint statement by the two. 'Together, the two sides will prioritise processing (of critical minerals), R&D, recycling, managing risk to supply chains, market development etc. and will champion circular economy principles and advance traceability,' it said. As part of the deal with the UK, the second phase of the UK-India Critical Minerals Supply Chain Observatory (SCO) will receive £1.8 million in new funding to set up a satellite campus at the Indian School of Mines in Dhanbad. The funding will also support developing the world's largest digital data infrastructure on the critical minerals value chain, according to an official joint statement. The SCO is housed within the Industrial Resilience Research Group at the University of Cambridge's Institute for Manufacturing. The first phase, which involved sharing, monitoring, and analysing supply chain data on critical minerals like lithium, copper, nickel, and cobalt, was launched in collaboration with IIT Bombay in October last year. Critical minerals, which include rare earth elements (REEs), are an important component of various cutting-edge hardware, ranging from semiconductors and electric vehicles to jet fighters. Rare earth magnets, especially neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets, are crucial for EV manufacturing, particularly in electric motors. They provide the strong magnetic fields needed for efficient and powerful electric motors, including traction motors that drive EVs. These magnets also play a major role in other EV components such as power steering systems, wiper motors, and braking systems. China has a near monopoly over the production of these rare earth magnets. Following US President Donal Trump's tariff onslaught on other countries in April, China implemented specifically designed bureaucratic hurdles for foreign companies looking to source critical minerals from the country. While the availability of rare earth metals is not limited to China, it is in the efficient processing of these critical elements where Beijing has a substantial lead, which was once enjoyed by the US and Japan. In recent years, Japan has been able to restart some of its minerals processing industry owing to government policies, but countries like the US and India are heavily dependent on Chinese exports of these metals. In response to the US administration's reciprocal tariff heat, China restricted exports of seven heavy rare earth metals including samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium, as well as rare earth magnets. Earlier, it had also banned exports to the US of gallium, germanium, antimony, and other key high-tech materials with potential military applications. India's nascent but slowly growing EV industry has faced a direct impact of Chinese restrictions on export of rare earth magnets. None of the applications made by Indian carmakers to source the critical minerals have yet been accepted by Beijing, with automakers staring at shortages and potential setbacks to production plans. China requires companies to secure an end-user licence, along with an endorsement from the local government that the minerals will not be used for military applications. However, the fact that China has not yet cleared any application from Indian entities is a cause of concern. Worrying still is a fresh insistence from Beijing that instead of sourcing magnets separately, carmakers buy entire electric motor assemblies from Chinese companies, or simply wait for the Chinese authorities to issue export permits to local rare earth magnet producers, as has been done, according to Reuters, for at least four magnet producers that include suppliers to Volkswagen — the first granted since Beijing restricted shipments earlier this year. The German carmaker is said to have lobbied hard with Beijing to get this done. Aggam Walia is a Correspondent at The Indian Express, reporting on power, renewables, and mining. His work unpacks intricate ties between corporations, government, and policy, often relying on documents sourced via the RTI Act. Off the beat, he enjoys running through Delhi's parks and forests, walking to places, and cooking pasta. ... Read More Soumyarendra Barik is Special Correspondent with The Indian Express and reports on the intersection of technology, policy and society. With over five years of newsroom experience, he has reported on issues of gig workers' rights, privacy, India's prevalent digital divide and a range of other policy interventions that impact big tech companies. He once also tailed a food delivery worker for over 12 hours to quantify the amount of money they make, and the pain they go through while doing so. In his free time, he likes to nerd about watches, Formula 1 and football. ... Read More
Time of India
14 hours ago
- Time of India
Futuristic departments
Amit Kumar was trained as a Mechanical Engineer with specialization in thermal engineering from the University of Roorkee (now Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee) where he was awarded the University Gold Medal. Post his graduation, he decided to pursue a career in renewable energy, a novelty in the early eighties. He had retired from TERI in July 2021 whereas Senior Director, Social Transformation, was responsible for initiatives focusing on energy access, holistic rural development, and community engagement. There he had also led research activities in the fields of renewable energy and resource-efficient process technology applications. As Dean (Distance & Short-Term Education), TERI University between 2014 and 2016, he was responsible for the development and outreach of the University's online courses, management & faculty development programmes, and skill enhancement initiatives. LESS ... MORE The atmosphere is quite festive in the capital of this State, having a city of the millennium, no less. And why not? How many governments across the globe can boast of a department dedicated to the future? There was a consensus among the elite of its officialdom that they were not entering uncharted waters. On the contrary, the state ventured into to future, drawing ample lessons from how to run (or not, depending on whether you belong to the ruler or the ruled community) its showpiece cyber city. The mega event started off with an impressive multi-media presentation titled 'Future is Past', quoting a Swiss-American psychiatrist and author Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, 'We need to teach the next generation of children from day one that they are responsible for their lives'. Elaborating further with the aid of actual site photographs (as opposed to artistic representations favoured by its famed realty segment) the voiceover intoned that its steadfast focus, right from the beginning, has been on revenue generation, leaving mundane tasks of city management to the residents themselves. The motto being 'Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime', with a caveat that fish may not be available during certain days of the year. It was emphasised how it has always been a science-backed process of thinking, well before the term `design thinking' got fashionable. The simple but effective, this phased process was summarised in a few steps as 'big ticket announcements – drawing board – DPRs – tendering – re-tendering – rethinking – back to drawing board'. In a nutshell, present challenges get converted into future ones. After all, wouldn't the future look bleak without challenges of its own? This also helps boost everyone's morale by constantly looking forward to the future. Our age-old philosophy also tells us that while the Present is Transient, the Future holds Potential. It helps greatly to have multiple agencies working at cross purposes; and of course, that annual ritual of GRAP helping convert better parts of present plans to futuristic ones. The presentation highlighted another noteworthy enabler that ensured that, instead of the devolution of power envisaged in the 1992 constitutional amendment, the city-centric decisions were centralised. This singular innovation must have pushed most of the present-day issues to some indeterminate future dates, it was said. All through this, however, the guiding principle of equity was never forgotten, e.g., mansions worth hundreds of crores faced the same infrastructural eventualities as common homes or for that matter high-level district offices. The gathering applauded enthusiastically when the presentation ended with reiterating the commitment to growth built on inclusive and equitable promises, all in the future, naturally. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Time of India
White House unveils artificial intelligence policy plan
Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills The White House on Wednesday released an artificial intelligence (AI) policy plan highlighting priorities for the US to achieve "global dominance" in the plan developed by US President Donald Trump's administration, calls for open-source and open-weight AI models to be made freely available by developers for anyone in the world to download and three core themes are accelerating AI innovation , build American AI infrastructure and lead in international AI diplomacy and Krishnan, White House advisor on AI policy, took to X to share the announcement. "There is a lot of exciting actions in here but one I'm very partial to is the focus on open source and open weights and making sure the U.S. leads in this critical area," his post AI plan calls for the Commerce Department to research Chinese AI models for alignment with Chinese Communist Party talking points and previously reported by Reuters, it adds the federal government should not allow AI-related federal funding to be directed toward states with "burdensome" regulations.(With inputs from Reuters)
