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Sanity Break #1
SANITY BREAK This is our dog, and he needs a name. Or else he will be doomed to wander—forever nameless—up and down this long and lonely web page. Send your suggestions to . Become once and forever a part of splainer history!
Headlines that matter
HEADLINES THAT MATTER FIRST, THE NUMBERS * Total number of cases: 7,19,664. Total number of deaths: 20,160. Total recoveries: 4,39,947. * Delhi the 100,000 mark, but also reported nearly 72,000 recoveries. * Hyderabad’s A-list is after a top jeweller died of Covid after hosting a lavish party. Another jeweller who was at the event has also died. * A Bangalore startup is developing a that actually kills the virus. IS THE WUHAN VIRUS REALLY THE YUNNAN VIRUS? Scientists in 2013 sent frozen virus samples to the Wuhan Institute of Virology from a bat-infested former copper mine in Yunnan province. The reason: six men who cleared the cave of bat feces contracted a pneumonia-type illness, and three of them died. Back in February, Shi Zhengli—the world’s leading virology expert—published a paper saying that the Yunnan virus is 96.2% identical to the Wuhan virus. Why this matters: Donald Trump and others claim that the Covid virus originated in the Wuhan lab. But its director insists it had no live copy of the Yunnan virus for it to leak. () BAD NEWS FOR INDIAN STUDENTS IN AMERICA The US immigration will not allow foreign students on F-1 or M-1 visas to remain in the country if their universities move all their classes online. The newly released statement : > “Active students currently in the United States enrolled in such programs must depart the country or take other measures, such > as transferring to a school with in-person instruction to remain in lawful status.” Point to remember: President Trump that all schools and universities must reopen in September—but it’s a very unlikely prospect if US Covid numbers continue to soar. They in the past ten days, and now stand at 2,888,729. In related bad news: 800,000 Indians may be forced to leave Kuwait if the government approves aimed at reducing the number of foreign workers. Expats account for 70% of the country’s population. The plan is to bring that number down to 30%. The planned Indian quota: 15% or 245,000. The current size of the Indian community: 1.45 million. THE COVID EFFECT: INDIA EDITION : According to a new survey, 70% of Indian startups are struggling to survive, while 12% have already shut shop. Only 22% have cash reserves to meet their expenses over the next 3-6 months. More importantly, investors have bailed out: "Over 33% of the startups said investors had put the investment decision on hold and 10% said the deals had been scrapped. Only 8% startups had received funds as per the deals signed before Covid-19 outbreak.” In : At least 10,000 techies may have already lost their jobs in the April-June quarter. : the soaring number of bad loans is expected to total Rs 1.67 lakh crore by the end of this financial year. : Covid has dealt a considerable blow to the ‘ban plastic’ movement—which was gathering speed before the pandemic. Wuhan hospitals alone produced more than 240 tons of plastic waste daily. Experts predict the US will generate an entire’s year worth in just two months. Plastic usage is spiralling in cities across India—and they can do little to control it. For example: Kerala had banned single-use plastic in January but now has procured vast quantities of cutlery, cups etc in order to distribute free food. : Ola co-founders Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati together added Rs 544 crore to their personal wealth. The reason: they recently received 2,56,038 in equity at a nominal price of Rs 10 per share. Point to note: the company recently laid off 1,400 employees. THE TRUE ‘ROCK’ STAR ON INSTAGRAM The highest paid celebrity on Instagram is not a Jenner or a Kardashian. It is Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson who charged more than $1 million a post last year. Kylie comes in at #2 with $986,000, followed by Cristiano Ronaldo at $889,000. And yes, The Rock also has more followers than Kylie. () IT’S ‘NAMASTE LONDON’ FOR AKKI Akshay Kumar that he is heading to London next month to kick off shooting for his film ‘Bellbottom’—which is the first big Bollywood declaration of a return to business as usual. Of course, India hasn’t opened its international borders as yet—and may not do so on July 31 if our numbers continue to climb. And now that the EU has banned Indian visitors, the UK may well follow suit once/if its situation improves. So Akki may well find himself hanging in Mumbai come August. INDIA INC IS SUPER-CHATTY ON TWITTER Mint tracked the Twitter activity of 20 global business leaders and found that our tycoons are way more active—but are far less likely to be RT-ed. Also, our guys like to tweet on a variety of topics: "For the global set, about 42% of tweets revolved around their own company against 10% for the Indian set. A large share of tweets by Musk, Cook, and Pichai were centred around their own firms." ()
Sanity Break #2
SANITY BREAK This is for ‘Dil Bechara’—Sushant Singh Rajput’s last movie. The Bollywood adaptation of ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ will premiere on Disney Hotstar on July 24. It will be a surreal experience, no doubt to watch Rajput in a love story about a terminally ill woman.
Smart & Curious
SMART & CURIOUS A LIST OF INTRIGUING THINGS ! The Hubble Space Telescope has captured a very detailed image of a unique galaxy known as NGC 2775 which is a flocculent: “meaning it has a woolly, feathery, or fluffy appearance, which is a very apt description considering the arms spiraling out from its center look like they're made of dog fur dotted with millions of blue stars.” That may be the most poetic description of dog fur ever written! Related item: this is a ten-year of the sun, also from NASA. TBH, it sounds a lot more intriguing than it looks. We recommend it as a form of visual ASMR. ! Kerala classrooms are using augmented reality to teach little kids online. And it looks seriously cool! ! Indian ornithologists are holding a global poll to rename the casteist name of the Brahminy Kite—which is now sadly closed. And there is precedent: The Black Kite was once named Pariah Kite. Why always with the kites? ! Scientists have developed a high-tech glove that translates sign language into speech in real time. Why this is brilliant news: deaf people can communicate directly with everyone—even those who do not understand sign language. A SHORT LIST OF GOOD READS * A founder explains why the pandemic is, in fact, an excellent time to start a new business in . * explains why 12 elephants died in Coimbatore under mysterious circumstances. No, there weren’t any bombs or traps involved. * has an excellent piece on how the Human GPS—or our brain’s navigational system—works, and why it’s quite easy to get lost. This is reassuring for some of us who routinely get lost in malls. (h/t our subscriber Aarathi Ganesan) * Tanmoy Goswami has a startling and must-read take in on the phrase ‘community transmission’—and why it is taboo in India. No, this isn’t about what you think it is about.
Weekend advisory
LIFE ADVISORY SO YOU’RE WORRIED ABOUT BEING OVERWHELMED… By the stress of the pandemic, but maybe you are not. Responses to a ‘Portrait of the Moment’ survey were surprisingly positive—and not in the shallow sense of that word (more on that ). Now, you may not want to take , but we think its questions are well worth considering. SO YOU’RE WONDERING ABOUT YOUR LIFE PURPOSE… You may want to consider Mark Manson’s —that are based on the premise that there is no such thing as a life purpose. Our favourite is the first one: What’s your favorite flavor of shit sandwich and does it come with an olive? SO YOU’RE OBSESSED WITH YOUR WELLNESS… Stop giving all your money to brands selling you all sorts of silly hacks—be it potions, pills or diets. Here’s a surprisingly simple guide from to feeling more well. And it won’t cost you a naya paisa.
Feel Good Place
THE FEEL GOOD PLACE ! This is a hilarious parody of ‘Aaj jaane ki zid na karo’ inspired by three months of lockdown cooking. (courtesy our subscriber Shrikanth Iyer, and created by his fed up sibling Sriram and his partner, Deepti). makes us all look like losers! And we love her for it! what is going on here, but it is, er, sofa-ine! tweeted: “Who can draw the best bum?” We have never seen so much naked booty on Twitter! We present a family-friendly entry below.
