Let’s Make A Deal!
This is the world’s , and is being developed by the Japanese startup SkyDrive. The car—which will be able to fly at 100 km/hour—hopes to make its debut in 2023. The promo video is a wee bit cheesy, but you can skip ahead to the 1:10 mark for the cool bit.
A ‘FACELESS’ TAX PROCESS The government has rolled out a faceless and process. What this essentially means: * You will be assigned a Document Identification Number (DNI), and your case will be assigned at random to an Income Tax officer anywhere in the country. * Assessments will be conducted not by an individual tax officer but by a team. * And the process will be spread across teams. Initial assessment will be done in one city—which will be reviewed in another city, and then finalized in a third. * There will be no need for in-person interaction with tax officials. * The appeals process will be similar. Your appeal will be randomly allotted to an officer, and their identity will remain unknown. But, but, but: The new tax process may come with a longer list of transactions that have to be declared upfront. According to the , taxpayers may have to report: * Hotel payments over Rs 20,000. * Life insurance premium payment over Rs 50,000. * Health insurance premium payment over Rs 20,000. * Donations and payment of school/college fees over Rs 1 lakh a year. * Also: Foreign travel, domestic business class air travel, purchase of white goods, jewellery and paintings worth above Rs 100,000, demat accounts and even bank lockers. APPLE VS FORTNITE JHAGDA * Apple has pulled Fortnite from its App Store. The reason: its developer Epic offered a method of direct payment to its customers—a big no-no as per company policy. * More cheekily, Fortnite offered off to encourage users to do it. * All of which made Apple very angry. But Epic was clearly laying the ground for an epic (what else?) battle. * It has now accusing it of being a monopoly—which is exactly why Apple was hauled up in front of the US Congress last month. * And it’s released this video trolling Apple’s iconic ‘1984’ ad called Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite. TIKTOK SEEKS JIO VACCINE? Little media birdies claim that Reliance is contemplating investing in the app’s India operations. The solution will both pave the way for its return, and keep it on the right side of the government. But both ByteDance and Reliance have dismissed such talk as “speculation.” The exclusive report is on (paywall). (sign up required): This bracing analysis of ‘Made in India’ TikTok clones, and their less-than-stellar performance over the past month. Trying to keep up with Jio: Amazon India, which unveiled its next move: . The service will start delivering over-the-counter and prescription medicines in Bangalore—taking advantage of a big boom in online medical services thanks to the pandemic. NO SMOKING GUN IN RAJPUT CASE The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has so far not found any “substantial direct transfers” from the actor’s bank account to his girlfriend, Rhea Chakraborty or her family. Chakraborty also does not have any joint account with Rajput. Point to note: The FIR filed against Chakraborty alleged that she siphoned out Rs 15 crore out of his accounts. Whoops! () In related news: Rajput’s army of fans/trolls are targeting the trailer of Mahesh Bhatt’s upcoming flick, ‘Sadak 2’—which also stars his daughter Alia Bhatt. It is now the most disliked trailer on YouTube with 7.9 million ‘thumbs downs’. Only 434,000 people have liked it. The reason for this rage: the nepotism argument which claims that Rajput was driven to suicide by Bollywood bigwigs who favour their kids. () THE GREAT PANDEMIC: A QUICK UPDATE * New Zealand now has , all of them linked to one family. But no one knows how they became infected—which is really worrying. * China is looking closely at an imported package of from Brazil. The surface tested positive, and it has triggered a flurry of testing. Point to note: food rarely is a source of infection. * Closer home: international travelers to Mumbai will have to undergo institutional quarantine. * The Kerala government is tracking of all Covid patients. The reason: It wants to draw ‘route maps’ to trace all their contacts. Privacy advocates are outraged. Telecom companies are unhappy. * The Ram Temple trust chief Nritya Gopal Das has . Why this matters: He came in close contact with the PM during the bhumi pujan. Modi in quarantine: to be or not to be? * Meanwhile, the UK held its first socially distanced concert. is what it looked like. TWO KEY BITS OF RESEARCH A clue to childhood obesity: A can predict whether it will be overweight between the ages of 2 and 6. ‘Overweight’ is defined as having a Body Mass Index greater than 85% of children in that age group. Point to note: The findings held true irrespective of the child's sex, race or ethnicity, mother's education or how long they were breastfed. When birds (and reptiles) cry: Researchers in Brazil studied the tears from macaws, hawks, owls and parrots, as well as tortoises, caimans and sea turtles—and found that they are astonishingly . Why this matters: vision is the single most important ability for wildlife. And the more we understand, the better we can develop treatments to preserve their sight.
Lauren Paley sings "Hymn to the Sea" from The Titanic Soundtrack sitting in her stairwell. The is stunning. (h/t subscriber Ira Kamble)
A LIST OF CURIOUS FACTS One: The aquatic beetle Regimbartia attenuata has found a way to escape even after being swallowed by a frog. Hint: “This beetle species may promote frog excretion to facilitate its escape.” to believe it… lol! Two: Scientists are using skin, eggs and tissue samples of Malaysia’s last rhino, Iman—who died last November—to bring back the now-extinct species. The plan: “use cells from the dead rhinos to produce sperm and eggs that will yield test-tube babies to be implanted into a living animal or a closely related species, such as the horse.” Whoa! () Three: Yes, there is a pink planet! The reason for that very rosy glow: it’s only 160 million years old. And it’s just been spotted by NASA which has promptly named it GJ 504b. Yeah, well 🤷. () Four: Between the 10th and 14th centuries, a sizable community of Tamil merchants thrived in Quanzhou, China. They built exquisite temples and sculptures, parts of which survive to this day—and are carefully preserved at the Quanzhou Maritime Museum. This explains the history. See the sculptures in their true glory on the . Below is a close up of Vishnu.
SO YOU CAN’T AFFORD MASTER CLASS… promises to give you all the same gyaan for free! TBH, we don’t know what to make of a site that proudly boasts: “We stole MasterClass' content and turned it into wikiHow articles.” But hey, it exists and has been covered in the media—and nobody has sued it yet. 🤔 SO YOU WANT TO SING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM… On August 15? Head over to Google’s ‘’ and record your stellar version of ‘Jana Gana Mana’. The tool converts your voice into the sounds of a bansuri, sarangi or shehnai. One : you have to download the recording to share it. Note: this only works on your phone. SO YOU WANT TO WATCH SOMETHING… This week’s selection is brought to you by our founding member Geetika Varshney who is always on the hunt for her next binge-watch—and she posts her view-list on her Insta handle . : Think ‘Burning Train’ + zombies. Yes, zombies! This South Korean film—now available on Netflix—tells the story of a father and daughter who find themselves trapped on a train during a . There’s lots of high suspense, drama and you may find yourself screaming at the screen from time to time. : This is a cinematic adaptation of the real-life story of a who cooked 534 recipes in 365 days from a cookbook written by Julia Child. This is a great treat for all foodies! Also: Meryl Streep. Just saying. Watch it on Netflix. : Based on Shakespeare’s ‘Titus Andronicus’, this is a dark and —starring Tisca Chopra and Naseerudin Shah—of a mother on a mission to avenge her son’s death. Warning: Bornila Chatterjee’s direction is uneven at times but the cinematography is lovely. Available on Amazon Prime.
: Slow and steady does indeed win the race. Sometimes, fables do come true! : Sometimes, you gotta keep your eye on the ball… literally so. : There’s nothing like a good game of chase.. With an entire pod of orcas! Ok, we probably wouldn’t want to be on that boat... : We totally missed out on World Elephant’s Day. We come bearing apologies and this adorable photo.
A lively look back at our pehla election of 1951. We’ve come a long way.
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The BJP is expending astonishing amounts of energy on Tamil Nadu this election season—and it’s all about 2029.
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Early-onset cancer has been steadily rising but scientists have no clue why this is happening.
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