Title: Hawking, 1942-2018
(This great man took physics to the people, and changed the
way we think about disability)
ü Few
scientists manage to break down the walls of the so-called ivory tower of
academia and touch and inspire people who may not otherwise be interested in
science. Stephen Hawking was one of these few.
ü He
was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, an incurable
motor neurone disease, and given two years to live.
ü Not
many would have survived this, let alone excelled in the manner he did.
Luckily, the type of ALS he had progressed slowly, and over time he made many
discoveries that marked him among the great physicists of his time.
ü His
first breakthrough was in the work he did for his PhD thesis.
ü The
expanding universe and the unstoppable collapse of a black hole.
ü Hawking-Penrose
singularity theorems, brought him international acclaim.
ü Thinking
along these lines led him to a contradiction — that this theory predicted that
black holes would exude radiation, whereas in a purely classical picture
nothing could escape the black hole, not even light. He resolved this
contradiction by invoking quantum mechanics. The radiation of the black hole
was named Hawking radiation.
ü There
is no doubt that with Hawking’s death the world has lost an outstanding
scientist. But he was not only a pathbreaker in the world of science.
ü He
came to be known to millions with the publication of A Brief History of Time,
his best-selling book describing in non-technical terms the structure,
development and fate of the universe.
ü He
ranks with Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein as that rare physicist who fired
the popular imagination. However, while Newton and Einstein worked on broad
canvases, Hawking was focussed on cosmology and gravitation.
Title:
Far short of the potential
(The
India-Japan economic relationship remains underwhelming in relation to
strategic ties)
ü In
theory, it’s hard to find two nations that make a better economic fit than
fast-growing, populous India and rich, demographically challenged Japan.
ü India
needs technical expertise and investments to develop its infrastructure, while
Japan has capital to spare and know-how to share.
ü They
have a common strategic objective in countering Chinese hegemony in Asia, a
goal that can be best met in collaboration.
Boosting
ties
ü Consequently,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe have
worked hard to upgrade ties.
ü Notably
Japanese investment in India’s first bullet train, and political avowals to
grow the economic relationship exponentially.
ü There
are now 1,369 Japanese companies and over 4,800 Japanese corporate offices
active in India. Japanese investment in India totalled $4.7 billion in 2016-17,
up from $2.6 billion the previous year. Japan currently ranks as the third
largest investor in India.
According
to Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) data:
ü China
received about five times more Japanese investment between 1996-2015 ($116
billion) than India did ($24 billion).
ü Japan-India
two-way trade — $13.48 billion in 2016-17 — is also
a fraction of the $350 billion China-Japan trade relationship or
even India-China trade ($84.44 billion in 2017).
Challenges:
ü The
gap cannot wholly be explained by the usual suspects that plague foreign
investors in India such as inadequate infrastructure, complex tax regulations
and land acquisition problems, although these remain substantial challenges.
ü it
takes Japanese companies in India longer than their Korean or Chinese
counterparts to learn how best to localise their products for the Indian
market.
Negative
Image of India
ü The
difference in the cultural relationship to punctuality is stumbling block.
ü In
Japan, being on time is akin to religion, whereas in India, time is fungible.
ü Ultimately,
Japanese corporations are strongly risk averse which makes it difficult for
them to cope in the freewheeling, jugaad-proud environment of India.
Vocabulary words:
- Shattering (adj) = Very shocking (तबाह करनेवाला)
- Excel (verb) = Perform exceptionally well (श्रेष्ठ होना)
- Breakthrough (noun) = Development, success
- Grapple (verb) = Engage in a close fight (पकड़ना)
- Resemble (verb) = Look like (जैसे लगते हैं)
- Exude (verb) = Discharge, release
- Pathbreaker (noun) = A pioneer or innovator
- Fate (noun) = Destiny, providence (किस्मत)
- Endeavour (noun) = An attempt to achieve a goal (प्रयास)
- Conviction (noun) = A firmly held belief or opinion
- Shattering (adj) = Very shocking (तबाह करनेवाला)
- Excel (verb) = Perform exceptionally well (श्रेष्ठ होना)
- Breakthrough (noun) = Development, success
- Grapple (verb) = Engage in a close fight (पकड़ना)
- Resemble (verb) = Look like (जैसे लगते हैं)
- Exude (verb) = Discharge, release
- Pathbreaker (noun) = A pioneer or innovator
- Fate (noun) = Destiny, providence (किस्मत)
- Endeavour (noun) = An attempt to achieve a goal (प्रयास)
- Conviction (noun) = A firmly held belief or opinion
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