Maithreyi

Founder - BingeHealthy, nature lover, knowledge seeker, open minded. Past - Designer, Sales, political & social volunteer activist

[Shashi Tharoor @ShashiTharoor]

If you’re a history buff, it’s wonderful to go through https://t.co/GTBs689tYL. The Selected works of Jawaharlal Nehru in 100 volumes covering the period 1903-1964 have been uploaded. They are fully searchable and can be freely downloaded. An absolute treasure trove. (And useful for political point-scoring too!)

[Vikas Vij @TheClubJunto]

R&D Lessons from China: After Reliance, JSW Halts Battery Mfg Plans

(a) RIL & JSW: “China has weaponized access to battery tech” (b) FACT: Chinese firms failed for 30 yrs doing R&D, while we focused on quarterly EBITDA (c) Renting vs Owning Mentality.

India’s Licensing Mentality

a. On Aug 26, 2026, Parth Jindal (36 yrs) told reporters that JSW has halted its ₹40,000 cr planned investment to manufacture LFP (lithium iron phosphate) battery in India. Parth said: “China is guarding LFP technology like a weapon.”

b. At Reliance AGM 2026, Anant Ambani (31 yrs) told shareholders: “Access to battery tech is being weaponized.” Reliance was forced to halt its mfg plans for LFP battery after China refused to license cell technology.

c. Indian industry prefers non-export items like oil, steel, cement, power, ports, airports because a known playbook exists. Foreign competition disallowed, 100% domestic capture, predictable profits, multi-billion mkt cap, zero R&D.

China’s R&D Mentality

a. China controls 94% of global LFP capacity. Chinese Companies: CATL: 37%; BYD: 23% (BYD became a car-maker); Others: 34%

b. LFP technology did not fall from heaven into China's lap. 30 years ago nobody wanted LFP. LFP was cheap and safe, but it had a failing. Its conductivity was so poor it could hardly deliver current.

c. US researchers gave up on LFP after a long struggle as it looked impossible to crack. But it was obvious that LFP would one day win because it involved abundant, low-cost raw materials.

BYD 2002-2020: Lessons in R&D
18 Years of Blood, Sweat & Tears

2002: BYD was a small battery-maker founded by Wang Chuanfu, an orphan from one of China’s poorest provinces. Wang chose the long and painful road of LFP when everyone else believed it was the road to bankruptcy.

In 2002, BYD’s earliest investor was Charlie Munger. Charlie said: “I invested because Wang was a “chemistry genius” and a “fanatic who worked 70 hrs a week.”

2005: In 2005, BYD developed its first in-house LFP cell.

2008: BYD launched the world’s first hybrid electric vehicle running on its own LFP – three months after Warren Buffett bought $230 million of BYD stock.

2009-2012: Commercial testing was critical to scale up the technology. But car owners were not ready to buy EVs. Chinese govt backed the technology with “10 Cities, 1000 Vehicles” program, which put LFP on municipal buses and taxis.

2016-2018: The Darkest Years: Conventional NMC technology raced ahead due to govt subsidies. Competition intensified. Industry slogan became: “LFP is dead; stop burning money.”

2019: Near-Death Experience: BYD's net profit to shareholders fell to $267 million, while R&D expenses swelled to $1.25 billion. BYD had bet its last shirt on the technology.

2020: Redemption at Last: BYD’s legendary Blade Battery was born. It worked like a dream, having survived years of failures, bottlenecks, countless iterations, rebuilding of entire production lines, and a devastating lab fire.

R&D: How to Conquer the World

a. Dozens of Chinese EV and battery startups living off govt subsidies disappeared. BYD and CATL emerged as the survivors of a domestic bloodbath.

b. In 2025, the world’s largest EV seller BYD spent 9% of its sales revenue (not profit) on R&D. CATL spent 6%. To understand the scale: In 2025, CATL had 20,000 research staff and 43,000 patents & applications.

2025 BYD R&D Expense: $9B
2025 BYD Profit: $4.5B (Half)

c. China has innumerable companies today with such suicidal R&D expense ratios. India has ZERO because with a license raj DNA, the Indian promoter has no mad desire to change the world. He just wants to die rich.

India's Ambani-Adani Equation

The following equation sums up India's economic curse:

When you have zero R&D, your profit becomes:

$4.5B + $9B = $13.5B

India's family-owned conglomerates, thriving on protectionist policies, do not wish to waste even one dollar on R&D and innovation.

Their vision for India is to leave billions to their children. And the children think licensing another's IP is their birthright: “China has weaponized battery technology against us.”

@arabicatrader

[Braj Shyam Maurya @brijshyam8]

पत्रकार:- आदित्य कल आपकी मौजूदगी ने पूरी बिहार सरकार को हिला कर रख दिया

आदित्य:- तो छात्र की मांगो को पूरा कर दे

और मेरे माता पिता को मारने का क्या जरूरत था 😳

पत्रकार:- किसने मारा आपके माता पिता को

आदित्य:- SP साहब ने खुद ही मारा 😳

पत्रकार:- डीटेन किसने किया आपको

आदित्य:- SP साहब कही जा रहे थे, मैने उनकी गाडी को धर लिया 😜🤪

और बोला कि अपराध करके कहां भाग रहे तो उसी में गुस्सा गए वो और मेरे पीछे पड गए !!

[The Wire @thewire_in]

Why Rabindranath Tagore, Who First Popularised Vande Mataram, Was Averse to the Singing of the Entire Song

Shuddhabdata Sengupta✍️

https://t.co/g3bfVIx5FW

[Anish Gawande @anishgawande]

Stop trading insults on Vande Mataram.

Two days ago, reports emerged of a nine-year-old girl raped and murdered in Junnar. That is what this country should be talking about today.

Instead the BJP wants a fight over how many stanzas somebody sings, and anyone who disagrees becomes a New Muslim League or an Urban Naxal.

This is the only vocabulary the ruling party has left, because name-calling is cheaper than governance.

People are allowed to hold different views on the national song. Nobody is allowed to use that disagreement to smear anyone else or silence an opposition.

[Maithreyi @MaithreyiN]

@Abhimanyu1305 Any such great news mostly comes from UP

[Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) @internetfreedom]

IFF has written to the Union Home Secretary and the Census Commissioner over the household survey notified four days ago. Serial numbers 36 to 40 ask for mobile, Aadhaar, voter ID and passport numbers, not whether you have them, unlike serial number 40, which only asks about availability of a driving license.

IFF supports enumerating caste for substantive equality. But pairing Aadhaar numbers with religion and caste sits against the Aadhaar Act's bar on profiling, and the questionnaire itself remains unpublished.
We are not opposed to the census. We want it conducted in a way that earns public trust.

[SirKazam {blu tik} @SirKazamJeevi]

OK 😅

[Sann @san_x_m]

On the night of 14th August 1947, a flag flew on Jawaharlal Nehru's car as it went over Raisina Hill. It was the first time the tricolour we know today was ever flown.

That flag had been stitched under the supervision of a 28 year old woman.

Her name was Surayya Tyabji.

She was born in 1919 in Hyderabad. She was a painter. Her work was later shown in London and in Jakarta. She was married to Badruddin Tyabji, a civil servant who was part of the group working on what independent India would look like.

Everyone had assumed the flag was settled. Pingali Venkayya had designed the tricolour used by the Congress, with Gandhi's charkha in the middle. It had been carried through the freedom movement for over 20 years.

Then, weeks before independence, a problem was raised. That flag was a party flag. A country that was about to include everyone could not fly the symbol of one political party.

So the design had to be redone, quickly.

The Tyabjis were given the job.

They replaced the charkha with the Ashoka Chakra, the wheel from the Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath. The reason was simple and deliberate. Ashoka belonged to all Indians, and to no party.

Their daughter Laila Tyabji has written the family's account of it. Her mother drew the graphic version. The printing press at the Viceregal Lodge made the impressions. Everyone approved.

The English historian Trevor Royle recorded in his book that the flag which flew on Nehru's car that night had been made by Tyabji's wife.

On 22nd July 1947 the design was accepted by the Constituent Assembly.

A report in the Times of India in January 1950 described that first flag as having been presented to the nation by the women of India at the midnight session of the Constituent Assembly on 14th August 1947.

Before the flag, the same couple had worked on the national emblem. Nehru asked Badruddin to do something about it because he had an eye for these things. Surayya drew the version of the 4 lions that has been on every Indian government document since.

She was 28 years old.

She died in 1978 in Mumbai.

Her daughter has said that neither of her parents ever felt they had designed the national emblem. They felt they had only reminded India of something that had always been part of its identity.

Official records of the Constituent Assembly do not name individual contributors, so most textbooks still credit only Venkayya, and his work genuinely came first.

But today, when the flag goes up, look at the wheel in the middle of it.

A young Muslim woman put it there, on purpose, so that no Indian would be left out of it.

[Saurav Das @SauravDassss]

My message to the dearest patriots.

Happy Independence Day. 🇮🇳

Perhaps, after 12 long years, we are celebrating Independence Day in its truest sense. Because something within us has finally broken free. THE FEAR.

A generation that was told to remain silent has found its voice and the medium. A generation that was told nothing would change has begun to BELIEVE again. An era of awakening has begun. An era of peaceful protest has begun. And slowly, but definitely, we will WEED OUT the old, the corrupt, the incompetent and the arrogant.

We are only getting started.

A Jantar Mantar is being born in every district of this country today. A place where the hopeless will find hope in one another. Where those who felt powerless will discover the power of standing together. Where ordinary citizens will raise their voices against an unjust system.

We need to be each other’s courage. Each other’s strength. Each other’s hope.

Those in power are trying to divide Gen-Z and the young. They are saying “Your Gen Z vs Our Gen Z”. Why? Because they know what history holds true: there is nothing more powerful than a people who refuse to be divided!

They will divide. We will unite. They will spread fear. We will spread courage. And when the time comes, we will remember. Sab yaad rakha jayega. Aur tab, hum dekhenge.

That time is not very far away.

The mind is without fear now. And there is no going back.

#CockroachesUnite @Cockroachisback

[SirKazam {blu tik} @SirKazamJeevi]

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY !
🇮🇳 🇮🇳 🇮🇳 🇮🇳 🇮🇳 🇮🇳 🇮🇳 🇮🇳 🇮🇳 🇮🇳 🇮🇳

[sanjoy ghose @advsanjoy]

Growing up in pre Amritkaal, our Aug 15 would start with this song! ☺️

[Amar Singh Chouhan @amar_4inc]

This isn’t just an anthem.
This is pure soul.

Deaf children. Silent voices.
Yet every gesture screams louder than any song:

“Jana Gana Mana…”

No sound.
Only pure, unbreakable love for the nation.

Patriotism has no language.
Patriotism has no barriers.

This silent national anthem gave an entire country goosebumps.

To every Indian ,especially the ones who feel the tricolour in their heart without needing to hear a single note:

Happy Independence Day.

Jai Hind. 🇮🇳
#IndependenceDay

[Saurav Das @SauravDassss]

#CJPStatement🚨

The Bar Council of India’s decision to halt the enrolment of NALSAR’s 2026 graduating students as advocates, reportedly because they opposed Chief Justice of India Surya Kant being invited as Chief Guest, is grossly disproportionate, deeply troubling, and prima facie indefensible.

Students cannot be collectively penalised for expressing dissent over a ceremonial invitation. The Cockroach Janta Party condemns this order.

If Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra does not withdraw this order immediately, then all law students, advocates, senior lawyers, and well-meaning young cockroaches will protest outside Bar Council’s office and Mishra’s official residence, and their respective states.

@MishraManan01’s accountability will be fixed.

@Cockroachisback

[Piyush Rai @Benarasiyaa]

Rice + water + jeera + haldi

Mid-day-meal at a govt primary school in Hamirpur, UP

[Paranjoy Guha Thakurta @paranjoygt]

Letter from Lahore by Ehtesham Hassan for Abhijeet Dipke

Dear Abhijeet,

Beyond Borders

We watch with wonder and longing
I am writing to you from Lahore, a city that breathes the same dusty air as Delhi. I am a young activist here, part of a generation that has grown up in the long, flickering shadow of a border. I am writing to you because, after a long time, the news coming from your side of the fence felt like staring into a mirror.

When the Chief Justice of India used the word “cockroach” to describe the young and unemployed, young people I know here in Pakistan recognised that word instantly. It is the way the powerful across South Asia look at the millions of us who are “surplus”, the graduates without jobs, the students whose dreams are sold in leaked exam papers, the young who are expected to be grateful for the crumbs.

By naming your movement the Cockroach Janata Party, you took the stone thrown at you and used it to start building a house.

In Lahore, we often feel like we are living in a silent version of your protest. Our struggle is the same: the Medical and Dental College Admission Test scandals mirror your crisis where the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test was leaked. Our families go into the same crushing debt for coaching centres, our youth bulge is also becoming a youth burden. But in Pakistan, the air is sometimes a little heavier.

Exam leaks are just the tip of it. Zooming out, we all face common issues: unemployment, poverty, poor living standards across borders. Your protest feels refreshing and full of hope for millions of us here as well.

There could be no better month than August to rethink our collective freedom from imperial rule. We lost millions during the Partition of 1947. But what did we achieve if millions of us still lack the basics of life after 80 years of independence?

Gen Z is in the best position to raise these questions to governments and to themselves. We cannot wait for another century to get the basics right. We must act now by educating, uniting and mobilising youngsters.

We look at the images and videos from India with a sense of wonder. There is a courage in being “visible”. Here, we have learned that visibility comes with a high price. We have had to find quieter ways to exist, to organise in the margins, and to keep the fire alive when the cameras are turned away.

I won’t lie to you: there is envy here – not a bitter envy, but a longing. We watch your digital space, 22 million followers in a fortnight, and we think of what we could do if our own digital corridors were as wide.

We watch the way your civil society shows up for you, and we dream of a day when the youth of the entire subcontinent can stand together, not as “Indians” or “Pakistanis”, but as a people who have been denied a future by the same, old-world politics.

The “cockroach” is the perfect metaphor for us, isn’t it? The cockroach doesn’t care for the Radcliffe Line. It survives in the cracks of the walls we build between us. It outlives empires. It is the ultimate witness to the failures of the powerful.

I see your struggle as a warning and a promise. The warning is that the tactics used to silence youth, internet shutdowns, the dismissal of student grief, the branding of dissent as “anti-national”, are a shared regional language. But the promise is in your resilience. If you can stand up in Delhi, it gives a little more oxygen to a student in Lahore or Karachi who feels like they are suffocating.

But in the young Indian student crying over a leaked exam paper, I see a sibling. When I see you standing against a system that calls you a parasite, I see a version of myself that is allowed to speak.

Keep the streets, Abhijeet. Keep the satire. Keep the pestilence of your presence alive. As long as you are standing, the idea of a Young South Asia remains possible.

We are watching from the other side of the mirror. We are different, yet we are the same. We are the ones they forgot to count, but we are the only ones who can count the cost of their failures.

They can spray all they want. We have already learned how to breathe underwater.

With hope and shared history,

A Voice from Lahore

(Ehtesham Hassan is a freelance brand designer and a progressive activist from Lahore).

[SirKazam {blu tik} @SirKazamJeevi]

Bhakt Handbook - Cheat Sheet

[Saurav Das @SauravDassss]

This is an extremely concerning practice in Parliament that has somehow been normalised!

How can legislation of such institutional importance be passed in barely 2 to 3 minutes? If Parliament will not debate how good or bad a Bill is, scrutinise its safeguards, question its consequences, and demand answers from the government that is making it, then what exactly is Parliament for ? This National Tribunals Commission will have a role in appointments to important tribunals dealing with matters ranging from taxation, protecting honest officers, to the environment. Yet there was NO parliamentary discussion on the architecture being created, the people who will exercise these powers, or the safeguards necessary to protect the integrity and independence of the process. And that’s exactly the problem. Tomorrow, when appointments made through this system come under scrutiny, a question mark will inevitably hang over this selection commission itself because Parliament did not scrutinise the system that it produced.

This is not just about this one Bill. This is about the frightening normalisation of legislation without deliberation!

And then we wonder why our institutions fail us. Why paper leaks remain unresolved, why environmental crises worsen, why pollution becomes an everyday catastrophe, and why accountability disappears.

People harping on about “good governance” must know that it does not begin after a law is passed but begins with HOW that law is made!

[SirKazam {blu tik} @SirKazamJeevi]

UPI, Aadhaar, MNREGA all work because they were planned, designed & developed before Modi. He continued with them & takes credit

As for initiatives & slogans started by Modi, here is a summary report:

[sanjoy ghose @advsanjoy]

Remembering four organisations which steadfastly refused to participate in the Quit India Movement-
1. Muslim League (under Jinnah)
2 Hindu Mahasabha (under Sarwarkar)
3 RSS (under Guru Golwalkar)
4 CPI (under PC Joshi)