Dramatic rescue of ex-PM in Sri Lanka
Military troops conducted a pre-dawn operation to extract Mahinda Rajapaksa from his residence. After he resigned as prime minister on Monday, angry protesters stormed his residence. As a result, Rajapaksa had to be moved to an undisclosed location. Meanwhile, the homes of 40 politicians who support him were burnt down. The Defence Ministry has now issued orders to shoot at anyone “causing harm to life or involved in theft of property.” Opposition leaders warned that the violence may be used as an excuse to impose martial law. (The Guardian)
China’s zero-Covid trap
A new study has warned that moving away from a zero-Covid policy in China could unleash a “tsunami” of Omicron infections. At least 1.55 million could die within six months—primarily elderly unvaccinated people. This is despite more than 90% of China’s population over 3 years of age being fully vaccinated—and around 54% having received a booster shot. In other words, even if Beijing wanted to take a new approach, it would carry a stiff price. (Forbes)
In related news: We’ve all seen visuals of immense suffering out of Shanghai—which is going through a long and brutal lockdown. While normal people scrambled for basic necessities, however, Louis Vuitton and Cartier have been delivering “gift provisions” like ready-to-eat meals and desserts to their “very important clients.” Prada is hosting an online culture club—because there is nothing worse than being hungry and bored. (Reuters)
Facebook says ‘no’ to stalking
Starting August 1, Facebook will delete your entire location history. This is all the information it collected on your whereabouts in the background—in the guise of helpfully telling you which friends are nearby. And it will stop collecting this data from May 31. Of course, your other apps are likely still stalking you and selling that information to data brokers. So there’s that. (Fast Company)
A Pulitzer for Danish Siddiqui
Reuters took the top prize in Feature Photography for the work of its photographers—who covered the pandemic in India. They include Adnan Abidi, Sanna Irshad Mattoo, Amit Dave and the late Danish Siddiqui—who was killed while covering the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan. You can see a collection of the award-winning photos here. New York Times has the full list of winners.
Two stories of startup trouble
One: We now have 100 Indian unicorns—a milestone we reached last week thanks to the neobank Open. Entrackr did an interesting analysis of their performance and found that only 18 were profitable in the past fiscal year—while 57 are severely in the red. The top three loss leaders: Oyo, Udaan, and Flipkart. (Entrackr)
Two: Swiggy has temporarily shut down its courier service Genie in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. The reason: It is struggling to hire delivery workers—who are not being compensated for rising fuel prices and overall inflation. And they’re looking for better, steadier jobs elsewhere. Also: There are now way too many delivery companies—all vying for the same workforce in big cities. (Economic Times)
India pays high price for ‘aliens’
There are 2,000 alien species in India—of which 330 are considered invasive. And a study of just ten of these species shows that they have cost the Indian economy $127.3 billion over the past sixty years. So the estimate is likely to be a “gross” underestimate—given that we don’t know the impact of 97% of these species. We are also the second-most affected nation after the United States.
What’s an invasive species? One example is Lantana camara—a tropical American shrub—which has spread across the country—and alters the nutrient cycle in the soil. The result: a scarcity of native foraging plants for herbivores—which then has a knock-on effect for carnivores. FYI: it has invaded more than 40% of India’s tiger range. (Quartz)
In other unhappy environmental news: According to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), there is a 48% chance that the world’s annual mean temperature will increase by 1.5°C—at least once—between 2022 and 2026. And there is a 93% chance that the world will witness the hottest year ever recorded by the end of 2026. Yeah, we ain’t seen anything yet. (Deutsche Welle)
Shivkumar Sharma passes away
The Santoor maestro died due to cardiac arrest at the age of 84. He received the Padma Shri in 1991 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2001—and composed music for several Bollywood films like ‘Silsila’ and ‘Lamhe’ as part of the Shiv-Hari duo. ‘Hari’ being the legendary flautist Hari Prasad Chaurasia. The Wire and Economic Times have more on his remarkable career.
Good stuff to check out
On the latest episode of the splainer podcast ‘Press Decode’, the splainer team looks at a big question: Will Elon Musk change Twitter India? Be sure to head over to the IVM website, Spotify or Apple Podcasts to listen to it.
