Nivan

I post about India's history, policy & politics

[Nivan @nivan_bagchi]

Skandagupta's fights against the Hunas.

[Shiv Aroor @ShivAroor]

What event in Indian history/recent current affairs do you want to see a film made on?

[Nivan @nivan_bagchi]

@pitdesi Bengalis as french is quite accurate

[Nivan @nivan_bagchi]

Bengal has half the GDP of Gujarata, get lower malnutrition. Why? It (used to) serve eggs.

[Diva Jain @DivaJain2]

Most people whining about lack of eggs have never run an organization. Veg/Non Veg segregation is a logistical nightmare for a project of this scale.
Also Govt is under no obligation to help you meet your (expensive) protein goals.
If you want eggs/meat please eat them at home.

[Nivan @nivan_bagchi]

Afghanistan is the place where Buddha died and the places has been Godless ever since.

[BBC News (World) @BBCWorld]

Selling children to survive: Afghan fathers forced to make impossible choices https://t.co/dQ1YJdElHX

[Nivan @nivan_bagchi]

@mkatju *jopo

[Nivan @nivan_bagchi]

@kushal_mehra You were mocking Todays's Chanakya polls??

[Nivan @nivan_bagchi]

@SMitra_ Kolkata Bengalis have a superiority complex about their culture. Love to see you all being a butt of joke in this country.

[Shreyaman Bhargava @shreyaman]

Exactly how dumb one has to be in order to commit this level of stupidity?
I opted for the diabetic option in Tejas and they gave me artificial fruit juice and a cupcake with 23gms of artificial sugar. Moreover, just 1 item instead of 3.
@IRCTCofficial @RailMinIndia @RailwaySeva

[Nivan @nivan_bagchi]

Pahadi Brahmins are the 'martial race' of India's counter intelligence.

[Nivan @nivan_bagchi]

@Jayvtweets And they said only the British took money abroad.

[Nivan @nivan_bagchi]

@gemsofbabus_ @shreyaman

[Nivan @nivan_bagchi]

@ConstantinoX @suhasinih As Balen Shah has been shown to be technocratic, I think technological/digital governance based cooperation as a strong possibility.

[Nivan @nivan_bagchi]

@johnstanly What about the Kurds will they join? What kind of fight can they put up in case they do?

[Shanaka Anslem Perera ⚡ @shanaka86]

Everyone talks about Iranian oil in barrels. Nobody talks about what is inside them. That difference is why Western refineries have been running shadow networks through Dubai for twenty years to get it despite the sanctions.

Crude oil is not a uniform commodity. It is a spectrum of hydrocarbons with different molecular weights, and the composition of a given crude determines how easily it converts into the products refineries actually want to sell: gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, heating oil. The measurement that captures this is API gravity. Higher API gravity means lighter crude with shorter carbon chains, which means lower energy cost to crack, lower processing cost to refine, and higher yield of the light distillates that carry premium pricing. Lower API gravity means heavier crude requiring more energy, more processing steps, more capital equipment, and producing a higher share of lower-value residuals.

Iranian Light crude runs at 33 to 36 degrees API gravity with sulfur content between 1.36 and 1.5 percent. That is the refinery sweet spot. It is light enough to yield high fractions of gasoline and middle distillates without excessive processing costs, but heavy enough to produce the full range of products that complex refineries are designed to process. It is what petroleum engineers call an optimal blend crude.

Now compare the alternatives.

Venezuelan Merey heavy crude runs at approximately 16 degrees API gravity with sulfur between 3 and 5 percent. Refining it profitably requires a coking unit, a hydrocracker, and an extensive desulfurization train. The equipment exists. The economics work for refineries purpose-built around Venezuelan feedstock. It is not a substitute for Iranian crude. It is a different product requiring different industrial infrastructure.

US West Texas Intermediate runs at 39 to 40 degrees API with sulfur below 0.25 percent. In theory, the cleanest and easiest crude to process. In practice, it is so light that it does not yield the heavier middle distillates a complex refinery needs to run at full capacity. European and Asian refineries built around medium crudes cannot switch to WTI without blending it with heavier crudes to achieve the molecular weight distribution their process units require. WTI is not a drop-in replacement for Iranian medium.

Iranian oil fits where both US shale and Venezuelan heavy do not. It is the liquid that flows through the middle of the global refining system without requiring either the coking infrastructure for heavy crudes or the blending operations for ultra-light shale. That molecular fit is why it commands a persistent premium above comparable grades. It is why Indian refineries maintained Iranian crude purchases through every round of sanctions and negotiated the logistics to keep that flow moving. It is why the Dubai shadow banking and trading network that the UAE is now considering dismantling existed in the first place.

The Strait of Hormuz does not just carry oil. It carries the specific category of oil that the global refining system was built to process most efficiently. Closing it does not just reduce supply. It removes the grade of crude that the system runs best on and forces every refinery in the world to run less efficiently on whatever it can find as a substitute.

That is the premium embedded in the $82 oil price. Not just volume. Molecular weight.

https://t.co/ULBgEzZ3A8

[Jason Brodsky @JasonMBrodsky]

Extraordinary piece in FT about the operation to kill #Iran's regime's supreme leader Khamenei.

Nearly all traffic cameras in Tehran were hacked by #Israel for years. They knew when members of the #IRGCterrorists Vali Amr Protection Unit (Khamenei's bodyguards) came and left work on Pasteur Street. And interestingly the CIA--not Mossad--had a human source which assisted with the effort.

https://t.co/Giqgb6d0dT

[Nivan @nivan_bagchi]

@Iyervval But restraining itself to mere posturing really an ideological alignment or absence of capacity?

[Nivan @nivan_bagchi]

Bro really said Sanjeev Sanyal is not a a Bengali because he has an opinion about Marxist filmmakers who made poverty porn movies.

[শাশ্বতী সরকার Saswati Sarkar @sarkar_swati]

Does Sanjeev Sanyal live or vote in Bengal ? Probably not. Does he speak good Bangla ? No (I have spoken with him a few times, his Bangla is heavily intermingled with English). He has repeatedly denounced Bengali culture: abused Bhadroloks, Kolkata and classical Bengali movies (eg, those made by Rittwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen) and said he prefers Sholay to them. What is Bengali about him that he would get a RS seat from Bengal ?

If he loves Sholay, he should at least be nominated from a Hindi speaking state.

[Nivan @nivan_bagchi]

@davismoirang They said they came from Canada. Which explains a lot.

[Nivan @nivan_bagchi]

Weirdly somehow, Indian Hindus care more about persecution of Afghans and Baloch than Indian Muslims. Indian Muslims just obsess over Palestine.

[TOLOnews English @TOLONewsEnglish]

Video: Eight-year-old Noor Alam, who survived a Pakistani airstrike in Nangarhar, mourns his family, martyred within moments of the strike.
#TOLOnews_English

[Nivan @nivan_bagchi]

@AbhishBanerj Why would people clap on that?!