Written by: Aarthi Ramnath, Aakriti Anand & Raghav Bikhchandani
Malaysia to Moscow via Mumbai: An Nvidia pipeline
The context: Nvidia has a monopoly on powerful chips required to power large AI models. It is not allowed to supply these chips to Russia due to US sanctions (see: Ukraine war).
The exposè: Russia has been getting Nvidia chips from a Mumbai pharmaceutical company—called Shreya Life Sciences—since September 2022! How it works: Shreya imports high-end Dell servers that have Nvidia chips from Malaysia—and then sends them on to Russia. Between April and August this year, Shreya sent 1,111 servers worth $300 million to two Russian trading companies—Main Chain and IS.
Why a pharma company? Shreya was founded in Moscow in 1995 by Sujit Kumar Singh—at a time when enterprising Indians sought opportunity in the collapse of the Soviet Union. It started by distributing and marketing pharmaceutical drugs to Russia—which remains a key market to this date.
Over the years, Shreya became more dependent on Moscow—relying on loans from Kremlin-controlled banks to survive hard times. As of 2022-23, the company had borrowed Rs 760 crore (7.6 billion)—of which 85% is owed to the Russian bank. At this time, it branched out into tech exports to Russian companies.
Is this illegal? Hmm, not exactly. These Dell servers are part of a list of a “dual-use goods list that aims to curb the Russian weapons systems used against Ukraine.” But India is not party to these sanctions. Also this: Shreya sold these servers to Russian companies—Main Chain and IS—that are not on the sanctioned list.
But, but, but: Dell clearly forbids its buyers from violating export sanctions—which implicates the Malaysian seller at the very least. And the evidence suggests that Shreya is trying to hide its tracks:
Main Chain sourced technology products from a second Indian company, Hayers Infotech Private Limited. Together, Shreya and Hayers Infotech exported $434 million worth of high-tech goods to Russia since February 2022. Hayers Infotech is registered at the same Mumbai address as Shreya Life Sciences. A discrete plaque at the top floor of Shreya’s offices bears the name, Hayers Infotech Pvt Ltd.
Reading list: Bloomberg News has more nerdy details but is paywalled—BNN Bloomberg has a free repub. CNBC-TV18 also offers a curation—plus more on Shreya. Also check out our Big Story for more on India’s balancing act with Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Coming soon: Meta’s search engine
All the big tech boys are gunning for Google Search. The latest to join the race: Meta—which is working on an AI-powered search engine. It will be integrated into the company’s chatbot—available on Insta, Facebook, and WhatsApp. The chatbot currently uses Google. Reminder: OpenAI is working on an AI search engine called SearchGPT—which will compete with AI-powered Perplexity. Also interesting to note: Meta is building up location data that could possibly compete with Google Maps. The Information (paywall) has the original scoop—The Verge has the curation.
About those water-guzzling AIs: A new report from JP Morgan warns of a looming environmental catastrophe—triggered by the AI boom. We all know that these massive machines guzzle energy. They also guzzle water:
Data centres, which are essential to AI model training, require water to cool server rooms — often from drinking water sources, the report said... A mid-sized data center consumes, on average, about 300,000 gallons of water each day.. But larger data centres can use up to 5 million gallons of water each day — or the same amount as a town with 10,000 to 50,000 residents.
The report focuses on the US—but it is a heads up to India, as well—given Reliance’s ambitious plans to build data centres—powered by AI chips. Also this: “data centres require chips, which need vast amounts of water to manufacture. Chips also discharge ‘highly toxic wastewater that is saturated with chemicals and heavy metals.’” (Quartz)
In other ‘crap’ AI news: According to a Wired exclusive, around 40 to 47% of all content on Medium is AI-generated ‘slop’—mostly about crypto or NFTs. Why this matters: Medium prides itself as a platform for ‘human writing.’ Wired has lots more.
Tata & Airbus ki jodi: Let’s get military
Tata and Airbus have teamed up to build India’s first private manufacturing plant for military planes. The Vadodara facility's first big project: 40 C-295 defence transport aircraft for the Indian Air Force—which is part of a bigger deal for 56 planes inked with Spain. The first plane ‘Made in India' will be out in 2026—and the whole fleet delivered by 2031. Why this matters: The Tata-Airbus plant—despite its military focus—is the first step toward building planes in India. (The Print)
The latest cancer weapon: ‘Digital twins’
Researchers have developed a new tool for cancer treatment—a “digital twin” of a cancer patient and their tumour:
Each digital twin is created from biological data from thousands of patients with cancer who have been treated in different ways. This information is combined to recreate the cancer of a real patient with molecular data on their tumor. This digital twin makes it possible to predict how a patient is likely to respond to a treatment.
They can use the twin to simulate clinical trials of meds and even predict the best possible treatment: “Patients who received treatment predicted by the digital twin technology had a 75% response rate compared with 53% in patients who received different treatments.” As in, their tumours shrank. Cool fact to know: The technology used to create the digital twins is based on the algorithms used by astrophysicists to discover black holes in outer space. (The Telegraph)
ManU’s big move: Erik ten sack!
After weeks of speculation, Manchester United has finally fired its struggling manager—Erik ten Hag. The club is reeling in 14th place after just three wins in nine Premier League matches. This is a steep fall for the Dutchman who took ManU to #3 in his opening 2022-23 season. But the club has been in freefall ever since—dropping to #8 the following year.
What proved to be the undoing of ten Hag: He spent £564 million ($731.5 million) on new players—more than any other Manchester United manager in the past decade. He will be temporarily replaced by former player Ruud Van Nistelrooy who rejoined the club in July as an assistant coach to ten Hag. Point to note: Van Nistelrooy is already in hot water over old social media photos of himself in blackface fancy-dress. The Guardian and BBC News have more on ten Hag’s turbulent tenure.
Diljit loses dils of Delhites
Diljit Dosanjh fans took a ‘Dil-luminati’-sized dump on the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Delhi. It was left covered in “piles of rotting food, bones, fluids, and alcohol bottles were strewn across the running track. Several areas of the running surface were soaked in liquid and stained.” Athletic equipment was broken as well. Needless to say, it is a disaster for athletes who train on these tracks. Sportstar has a ground report. Also read: This extended rant on concert conditions from fans.
Sticking with Diljit debacles: His trip to the Bangla Sahib Gurudwara didn’t go down well either—since it was videotaped. Cameras are strictly banned on its premises. Cue the fury over double standards. You can watch the contentious footage below. (Mint)
‘Social butterflies’ live longer!
A new Oxford University study—the largest of its kind—has found that animals that are more social “live longer, postpone maturity and are more likely to reproduce successfully than more solitary species.” In other words, humans, most monkeys, and elephants fare better than big cats or reptiles. Of course, like most advantages, this comes with a downside:
Social organisms may enjoy benefits such as sharing resources, being better protected from predators and having support to raise offspring. However, by living in more tightly-packed groups, social organisms may also suffer disadvantages such as the spread of disease, increased competition, aggression and conflict.
FYI: A previous study of this kind focussed only on mammals. (Times UK, paywalled, Phys.org)
The link between Mondays and suicide
A large analysis of data between 1971 and 2019 shows an unexpected link between the calendar and suicide risk:
[S]uicides were most likely to happen on Monday compared to other days of the work week, with about 15% to 18% of suicides occurring on those days. And across all the studied countries, the likelihood of suicide always increased on New Year’s Day.
OTOH, there is no discernible link to weekends or—surprisingly—major holidays like Christmas. One possible reason:
Some research has suggested that this might be due to a phenomenon known as the “broken-promise effect,” in which people will consider delaying their suicide in anticipation of a holiday or the weekend, only to feel substantial disappointment once the time off arrives and doesn’t provide as much of a boost as expected.
We leave you with this data point: In 2019, over 700,000 people died by suicide—accounting for about 1.3% of global deaths. That’s more than deaths from malaria, HIV/AIDS, and breast cancer. (Gizmodo)
what caught our eye
business & tech
- Indonesia has banned the sale of the iPhone 16 series. The reason: Apple did not fulfil its investment commitments in the country’s infrastructure.
- Tata’s Noel era kicks off with some downsizing—Tata Trusts will do away with the CFO and COO roles.
- An update on the Bezos-influenced presidential fence-sitting controversy at Washington Post—over 200,000 people have cancelled their subs in protest.
- Meta execs revealed that Insta and Threads decrease the quality of videos that don’t get a lot of views—as a result the “most popular creators tend to have the best-looking videos.”
- Reuters has a must-read on the rise in investments in India by Swiss companies, partly helped by the signing of a $100 billion trade deal earlier this year.
sports & entertainment
- In upcoming theatrical re-releases, here’s the SRK-Sallu bhai starrer ‘Karan Arjun’, which will mark its 30th anniversary by gracing our screens next month.
- Grammy-winning rapper Lil Durk has been charged with conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire in connection with the killing of rapper Quando Rondo’s cousin in 2022.
- This year’s men’s Ballon d’Or winner is…Rodri! The Spain and Manchester City defensive midfielder beat out the pre-event favourite—Brazil and Real Madrid winger Vinicius Jr.
- The Guardian has an insightful read on the potentially unprecedented scale of human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia’s 2034 FIFA World Cup preparations.
as for the rest
- The Indian government is likely to conduct the long-delayed census by next year, but there’s still no word on the caste census just yet.
- ISRO has some ambitious targets—a new high-capacity rocket and two Chandrayaan missions, including landing an Indian on the moon by 2040.
- Elon Musk’s X has suspended an account belonging to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that posts in Hebrew.
- Citing a recently concluded digital survey, Kerala has reaffirmed itself as free of manual scavenging.
- Another day, another feku bomb threat (see: our Big Story)—this time a man falsely alleged a ‘human bomb’ aboard a Mumbai to Delhi flight, in a bizarre way of targeting his aunt amid a dispute.
- Indians lost Rs 120 crore to ‘digital arrest’ fraud—in which scam artists pose as police officers demanding personal information—between January and April.
- The Indian state with the most high net-worth individuals (HNIs) is… Maharashtra with 470. Delhi is a distant second at 213.
- More than a third of the world’s tree species are threatened with extinction, according to the first comprehensive assessment of trees.
- Hollywood Reporter has a must-read by Karin Klein, who writes on her resignation from LA Times after the newspaper’s owner Patrick Soon-Shiong blocked the Editorial Board’s endorsement of Kamala Harris.
Five things to see
One: A Manhattan museum curator has found a previously unknown waltz composed by Frédéric Chopin. The music sheet dates back to between 1830 and 1835—when Chopin was in his early 20s. Why this matters: This is the first such discovery in more than half a century. Chopin wrote as many as 28 waltzes—out of which only 17 were published. The rest were either lost or destroyed. (New York Times)
Two: Donald Trump’s rally in New York City was filled with gross-out racism, sexism etc. But there was one high point: Hulk Hogan struggling to pull off his signature t-shirt tearing move. (Hollywood Reporter)
Three: Will the real Timothee Chalamet please stand up? Dozens of Timothee Chalamet look-alikes showed up for a contest in New York City—including the actor himself! (Associated Press)
Four: Say hello to a great Indian bustard chick—born through artificial insemination at the breeding centre in Jaisalmer. Why this matters: There are only 150 bustards left in the wild. The bird typically lays only one egg in ground nests—which are highly vulnerable to predators. A must-read: Our Big Story on why green energy is a risk to the endangered bustard. (Indian Express)
Five: Here’s a must-see trailer for ‘September 5’—a likely Oscar contender—which offers a “fresh perspective” on the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics terrorist attack. The film hits theatres on December 13. (Hollywood Reporter)
feel good place
One: Moo Deng and her “emotional support leaf”. Aww.
Two: Saas bahu serial star.
Three: ‘Karate Kid’ reboot: Baloo edition.