1. #And the CCP is threatening India again by its belligerence and sabre rattling on the Northern border. It is threatening Australia with trade warfare if it dares to join in the chorus of nations for an inquiry into the origin of the virus. The Global Times, a CCP mouthpiece has actually referred to Australia as a chewing gum stuck on the sole of China’s shoes! /- / - 2. ##Can the CCP even think it can ever be business as usual again. Can the right thinking nations of the world ever let the Chinese leaders get away with this? Is trade and profit going to override the deaths and continuing infections and economic mayhem the CCP brought on the world? / - / - 3. ###Finally, the leader of the free world stood up to China for its unfair trade practices; stealing technology; the cyber theft that was taking place at staggering rates; the dumping of goods on world markets by giving special subsidies to its state owned companies and demanded it change its ways and play fair. / - / -
===========================================================
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It is estimated that under Chairman Mao’s disastrous rule and policies such as The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, between 40 to 60 million Chinese died of purges and famine deliberately inflicted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
In the last two decades millions more have been imprisoned, killed and put into what amounts to concentration camps. These are Chinese people who were either Falun Gong practitioners, Uighur Muslims, human rights lawyers and activists and anyone who did not agree with the CCP.
Yet the world looked away and continued to do business with the CCP.
Reports on organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience emerged; organs for sale from live prisoners became a huge industry not only for the Chinese bigwigs who may need an organ urgently but for anyone anywhere in the world who would pay.
Yet the world looked away and continued to do business with the CCP.
Tibetans being tortured and killed, their culture and practises destroyed were regularly reported by the mainstream media; kangaroo courts that tried and executed political prisoners were also everyday fare and well known.
Yet the world looked away and continued to do business with China.
Booksellers being kidnapped from Hong Kong and tortured in the mainland; the CCP’s hegemonic inroads in the South China Sea; the Belt and Road Initiative that has bankrupted many poor countries were also criticised, debated and much discussed by Western Think Tanks and the media.
Yet the world looked away and continued to do business with China.
Finally, the leader of the free world stood up to China for its unfair trade practices; stealing technology; the cyber theft that was taking place at staggering rates; the dumping of goods on world markets by giving special subsidies to its state owned companies and demanded it change its ways and play fair.
Yet the world looked away and continued to do business with China.
Finally, there is a pandemic which starts in China and the CCP conceals it till it spreads to almost every country in the world, creating trillions of dollars worth of economic loss, hundreds and thousands of deaths and millions of destroyed livelihoods and finally the world has woken up.
It is mystifying to me that South Africa was completely isolated during Apartheid but because it was good to get cheap products from China and make huge profits, the conscience of the world blanked it out. We blanked out everything that the CCP had done to Tibetans, to Uighers, to its organ harvesting of live prisoners and countless other human rights abuses and went ahead with the Made in China delusion.
We blanked out the fact that the CCP was taking over the whole of the South China Sea; dredging up islands to make into military fortresses; challenging India at Doklam; buying up ports to show its muscle; bullying countries to buy its products and worst of all knowing the world would soon have a pandemic on its hands, surreptitiously buying up all the medical and safety equipment from western countries for its own use as well as for selling back to countries when Covid 19 hit them.
It is unconscionable. It proves the CCP cares very little for humanity. It’s actions speak volumes. Till date the CCP has not allowed scientists to visit the Wuhan or given us any clues where the virus emerged from. It’s lied about it’s deaths and infection rates. It closed up Wuhan to the rest of China not allowing any trains, buses or domestic flights but allowed hundreds of thousands Chinese visiting Wuhan to fly internationally , knowing full well these innocent travellers were infected and would take the virus worldwide. It seems almost premeditated.
But wait it gets even worse. The CCP has just passed a National Security act on Hong Kong, which takes away its autonomy and the One Country Two Systems treaty it signed with Britain.
And the CCP is threatening India again by its belligerence and sabre rattling on the Northern border. It is threatening Australia with trade warfare if it dares to join in the chorus of nations for an inquiry into the origin of the virus. The Global Times, a CCP mouthpiece has actually referred to Australia as a chewing gum stuck on the sole of China’s shoes!
It is even threatening Taiwan for sending an email to the WHO on the 31st of December warning that the coronavirus was highly infectious and the world should be warned. Had the WHO acted on this the world would have been saved a pandemic and hundred and thousands around the world would have been saved.
Can the CCP even think it can ever be business as usual again. Can the right thinking nations of the world ever let the Chinese leaders get away with this? Is trade and profit going to override the deaths and continuing infections and economic mayhem the CCP brought on the world?
I pray along with billions of citizens who are hurting as I write this, that this evil regime is brought down.
DISCLAIMER : expressed above are the author's own.
=========================================================
*Jonathan Bartlett illustration for Foreign Policy
At a time when anti-China sentiments are high across the globe and ‘kick-the-dragon-out’ chorus is getting louder in every nook and corner in the wake of the somewhat mysteriously behaving deadly Novel Coronavirus, tech behemoths from the communist country are seemingly working all-out to somehow dominate the Indian online gaming sector- one of the few businesses which despite the general devastating impact of the pandemic, continues to prosper.
Alibaba and Tencent, two of the largest Chinese tech companies now have big stakes in some of the leading Indian online gaming companies including the Paytm First and the sole unicorn (a company worth over U.S. $1 billion) of the sector in India, Dream 11.
After the restrictions imposed last month by India on Chinese investment in the wake of the COVID-19 scenario, Alibaba backed Paytm First Games, a prominent gaming company in India, recently, joined hands with Pakistan based Daraz, an online marketplace and logistics company which operates in South Asia and Southeast Asia barring India, to launch a gaming platform Daraz First in Bangladesh.
Daraz, founded in 2012 in Pakistan, operates e-commerce platforms and logistics service in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka. In 2018, Daraz Group was acquired by Alibaba which also has invested hugely in Paytm. Paytm First Games is a joint venture of Indian mobile wallet Paytm and Alibaba.
The total investment of the Chinese companies (including Tencent and Alibaba) in the Indian tech sector, including gaming industry startups, was a little over US$214 million till 2013 but it has risen almost 40 folds to the US $8 billion by December 2019, according to Bengaluru based start-up tracking firm Tracxn. Though the exact figures of investment by Alibaba and Tencent were not available, the two were believed to be among the largest investing Chinese companies.
Apparently Alibaba looked interested in making a bigger investment in companies like Paytm as an anchor and taking larger ownership, Tencent is seemingly following the policy of smaller ownership in multiple companies.
According to a Quartz India report, ‘Alibaba has invested in Indian companies including Paytm Mall, an online retail place under Paytm, food delivery app Zomato, online grocer Bigbasket, e-commerce platform Snapdeal and logistics firm Xpressbees. Apart from Xpressbees, which does not reveal its valuation, all the other five firms have achieved unicorn status, valued between just over $1 billion (Bigbasket and Snapdeal) to a whopping $16 billion (Paytm). Alibaba is the single largest shareholder of Paytm.’
‘Tencent, meanwhile, has invested in some of the strongest rivals of the firms that have received money from Alibaba. For instance, Tencent has invested in Swiggy, which is engaged in a food delivery fight with Zomato, as well as in Flipkart, the largest e-commerce platform in India, which Walmart bought in 2018 as it competes with Amazon.
The US e-commerce giant exceeds both Snapdeal and Bigbasket in terms of sales in India. Other unicorns Tencent has invested in include messaging app Hike, ride-sharing firm Ola, learning app BYJU’s, fantasy gaming platform Dream11 and B2B trading platform Udaan. It is difficult to calculate the total amount the two have put in Indian startups, as most of the funding rounds included other investors, such as SoftBank,’ the report said.
Other Chinese investors apart from Tencent and Alibaba that have become active in India in recent years include Tik-Tok owner ByteDance, smartphone maker Xiaomi, which has invested in sectors like entertainment and mobile apps, and Chinese conglomerate Fosun, which has invested in more than five Indian startups, including logistics firm Delivery and booking website ixigo,’ it said.
According to another report the gaming industry revenue, including both transaction based and non-transaction games, in India was projected to cross Rs 25000 crore (US$ 3.3 billion) mark by 2024. The number of gamers in this country of 138 crore (1.38 billion) people with a large chunk of young population, has increased exponentially to nearly 38 crore (357 million) last year and was constantly rising.
Even during the pandemic caused lockdown when most of the businesses have either shut shop or taken a big nosedive, gaming sector is still flourishing. According to the Industry players, there is over 2 fold rise in the number of gamers during the lockdown. Because people with more leisurely time, are now playing such games on mobile phones as a favourite pastime, to keep the Coronavirus anxiety at bay.
The sector has been a hot-favourite of the investors from all quarters but the Chinese players have seemingly left everyone else behind in this regard. And now that the fantasy gaming segment, which had seen the quickest growth of over 118% last year has failed, Alibaba is apparently using other tactics by expanding its wings through players like Paytm First. Its recent tie up with Daraz, the China backed company in Pakistan is also being seen as one of these tactics. Tencent has invested Dream 11- the biggest Fantasy sports platform in India which is now almost completely shut due to unavailability of real sports events as the fantasy gaming depended on such events. In Fantasy sports, participants pay a fee to assemble a virtual team of professional players from any ongoing event and then win cash or prizes based on how those players perform in real-life games.
According to Girish Menon, head of media and entertainment for KPMG in Mumbai, the Indian scenario is attractive to Alibaba and Tencent because their entire ecosystem is developed around mobile phones. The time spent on gaming is far higher in India than any other form of entertainment.
Meanwhile, on the launch of the Daraz First games the Paytm in its statement said, ‘We are thrilled to share that Paytm First Games, has teamed up with Daraz to enter South Asian markets. The company has launched its premium gaming app in Bangladesh, and will soon be bringing its innovative gaming experience to Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar as part of its international expansion.’
Launched in 2012, Daraz is South Asia’s premier online shopping marketplace with 5 million consumers across the region. The partnership will help Paytm First Games get access to one of the fastest-growing gaming regions in Asia, the statement added without any kind of mention of Daraz’s links with either China or Pakistan.
It quoted Sudhanshu Gupta, COO, Paytm First Games as saying, ‘Mobile gaming has been exploding in South Asia region and we endeavour to partner with players who share the same mission. We are thrilled to partner with Daraz.’ Chief Growth Officer, Daraz Group, Edouard Gheerbrant said, ‘This platform will enable Daraz to capture the fast-growing mobile games market opportunity in South Asia. I’m confident that the collaboration with Paytm First Games will accelerate DFG’s growth in becoming the market leader of the region’s gaming industry.’
‘Investments made by Chinese tech companies and funds, led by giants like Alibaba, ByteDance and Tencent have funded 92 Indian start-ups, including unicorns such as Paytm, Byju’s. 18 of the 30 Indian unicorns have a Chinese investor. This means that China is embedded in Indian society, the economy, and the technology ecosystem that influences it. Unlike a port or a railway line, these are invisible assets in small sizes – rarely over $100 million – and made by the private sector, which doesn’t cause immediate alarm,’ the report said.
‘If Alibaba, Tencent and other Chinese tech majors replicate their internet ecosystems in India, this can create a systemic risk. An ecosystem such as this controls access to end-users; it means other companies (retailers, financing firms and media) will have to follow the standards/technologies prescribed to them. Alibaba/Tencent will be in a position like Google – they can decide which firm will succeed or fail by controlling user access, using their own technologies. Imagine: the Indian economy could use Chinese tech for critical applications,’ the report claimed.
‘Chinese companies such as Alibaba and Tencent have their own ecosystems, which include online stores, payment gateways, messaging services, etc. An investment by them can pull the Indian company into this ecosystem, which may mean loss of control over data,’ the report claims adding that the reliance of Indian start-ups on overseas venture capital funding has proved success for China and some of the unicorns like Paytm and Flipkart have been acquired outright by such companies.
Well known nationalist activist, writer and founder of Jan Ki Baat, Pradeep Bhandari said that India should see to it that the dragon did not succeed in economic imperialism in the name of investment in India. ‘In the post Covid world, China is facing a global distress. And in that context it is extremely imperative that India does not look at China as a true friend but a competing power that can hamper our strategic interests. India should not have an open door policy with regard to Chinese investment but rather have a restrictive, cautious policy which scrutinizes Chinese investment and prevents economic imperialism’ in the name of investment,’ he said.
Ahmedabad based online gamer Manoj Dave (name changed) said that he was annoyed to see such developments. ‘At a time when all Chinese investments without government approval are prohibited in India and when Pakistan is increasingly facing economic and social sanctions and boycott from most countries across the world, it is shocking that companies like Paytm, which keep preaching about Make in India and nationalism, are entering into a strategic partnership and JV with a Chinese-backed Pakistani company. I will not use this platform and would also urge my friends to boycott it for this type of behaviour. All those companies running their businesses with Chinese money should be boycotted by the public,’ Dave said.
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Think first as a citizen then as a consumer.
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I will never get tired of pointing out how momentous the year 2019 was for India and the whole world. I’m not just talking about the Lok Sabha election. I’m talking about the fact that in 2019, India entered the club of the world’s five largest economies. This marks the end of one era and the beginning of another.
As a matter of principle, nobody likes a rising global power. They didn’t like it when China rose. They don’t like it now that India is breaking into the top five. In ten years, we would be in the top three. That upsets everything. The whole global order.
So it is no surprise that the global elite has become exceptionally cruel and vicious towards India. As usual, they have used their Gunga Dins in India to support and further their cause. I’m talking about the army of activists, intellectuals, op-ed writers, street protesters who have systematically undermined and shamed India for 70 years. They have always been the infantry of the global elite. Their livelihood depends on it. They grow up on a diet of lit fests, made up international conferences, fake degrees (honorary or otherwise) in fake subjects from real universities and so on.
It’s the lobby. We all know about it. If India is sending a space probe to Mars, their job is to write a drain inspector report to make the BBC feel better.
But in the second half of the last year, it really felt different. This was not the usual ‘ragging’ that a rising power can expect from jealous elite and their water carriers. There was an unusual hard edge to the anti-India hatred that we saw everywhere: newspaper columns, campuses, television reports and so on.
India got more bad press last year than North Korea did. The words “Hindu” and “Nazi” were declared synonymous. Not for a moment did the liberal complex back out from or temper its extreme rhetoric. “Indian state” and “Nazi Germany” were uttered in the same breath, ad infinitum. The Hindu swastika and the Nazi hooked cross were mixed together liberally. Things got so bad that supporters of Yakub Memon and Afzal Guru openly hit the streets of Delhi. And we saw their images passed around in major newspaper as heroes (and ‘sheroes’) of liberation!
The global elite has never cared much about Indian lives. Their infantry in India couldn’t care less. But even by their standards, the attack on India seemed excessive.
Was it a higher power pulling the strings?
Tell me who benefits the most from tearing India’s image to pieces. Sure, Pakistan does benefit, but that’s all psychological. Pakistan will never be a credible military, diplomatic or economic opposition to India.
And more importantly, Pakistan simply does not have the money to buy this many infantry.
But there’s someone else. How about Pakistan’s sugar daddy?
We tend to forget that when India removed Article 370, Pakistan was not the only country to protest. There was another, much more powerful nation that was opposed to India “unilaterally” altering the administrative setup on the ground.
They have both motive and resources. If the world gets the impression that India has done something terrible and anti-human in the Jammu – Kashmir – Ladakh region, they are in a position to take advantage of it. With actual troops on the ground. And right now, they may be doing just that.
And they have the resources to buy up global and domestic opinion in bulk. Think of all the prizes, awards and honours they have doled out for defaming India in Kashmir. Think of the sponsored vacations for intellectuals and activists and all the loaves and fishes they are getting from international media and academic bodies. Most of those prestigious institutions are full of spies anyway, who are receiving lakhs of $$$ stashed away in secret foreign bank accounts. Coronavirus has exposed at least that much.
In India, we often marvel at the power and reach of the so called ‘ecosystem.’ It often goes something like this:
Day 1: Some previously unknown X puts up rumor on Twitter accusing India of some crime against humanity in Kashmir
Day 2: X gives interviews to at least 5-6 foreign media channels.
Day 3: X gets an invitation to speak at some top foreign university.
Day 4: X receives some prestigious journalism award.
In five days, X is all set. He or she goes from having debt with the local kirana store to being a highly paid international superstar. So called “dissenters” who sit in five star hotel lobbies tweeting about how terrible their lives are under Modi’s ‘fascist’ regime.
Well, guess who can make all these goodies appear with their pocket change?
I would say take a look around. Look again at every person with any level of institutional power who has been oddly incensed about Art 370 in the last several months. An intellectual, an activist, a writer, a filmmaker, anything…
Take a moment and ask yourself: what would this man or woman do for 1 lakh rupees? Maybe the person is too well off to care about 1 lakh rupees. Ok, how about 10 lakh rupees? How about 1 crore rupees? How about a million dollars?
You know which country could afford to spend even one billion dollars and not even notice? That’s 1000 chunks of one million dollars each..
So take a look around and ask yourself how many of these people could have been purchased. Some of these folks are so cheap they don’t even want any money. They’d be suckers for some title or award or even a laudatory tweet from some foreign institution. The former can be arranged for less than $1000. The latter would cost under $10.
I know ‘kudrati’ biryani became a punchline to many jokes in right-wing circles after some low IQ liberal protester gave a particularly hilarious interview to a reporter. How can biryani drop from heaven? But perhaps the simpleton wasn’t so wrong in his observation after all. Perhaps ‘kudrati’ biryani really did come from a ‘higher power’ — how about a superpower? It’s time to take this even more seriously.
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#####We interact with others mainly through speech, and so we must learn the art of speaking well. Our own beloved Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda, was a master orator. Here is what he had to say about speech :
1. If someone is talking to you, listen to him patiently.
2. Don’t interrupt when someone is talking.
3. Learn to control your voice when you talk.
4. Don’t chatter unnecessarily while working or eating.
5. Talk respectfully to elders.
6. Don’t fidget while talking. Never address someone by a wrong name. Make the effort to know the name of the person you are talking to.
7. Words of abuse are strictly no-no.
8. Don’t insult the person you are talking to.
9. Don’t mislead anyone by your talk.
10. Be careful when you talk with strangers.
#SwamiChinmayananda #SunshineSunday #Chinmayam #KeepSmiling #KeepLearning
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JAI HIND
JAI BHARATHAM
VANDHE MATHARAM
BHARAT MATHA KI JAI.
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#OPINION : 31/05/2020 : 2179.
1. #Chinese leaders should be booked for crimes against humanity : May 29, 2020 : Ashali Varma : TOI : Media Report.
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It is estimated that under Chairman Mao’s disastrous rule and policies such as The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, between 40 to 60 million Chinese died of purges and famine deliberately inflicted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Yet the world looked away and continued to do business with the CCP.
Reports on organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience emerged; organs for sale from live prisoners became a huge industry not only for the Chinese bigwigs who may need an organ urgently but for anyone anywhere in the world who would pay.
Yet the world looked away and continued to do business with the CCP.
Tibetans being tortured and killed, their culture and practises destroyed were regularly reported by the mainstream media; kangaroo courts that tried and executed political prisoners were also everyday fare and well known.
Yet the world looked away and continued to do business with China.
Booksellers being kidnapped from Hong Kong and tortured in the mainland; the CCP’s hegemonic inroads in the South China Sea; the Belt and Road Initiative that has bankrupted many poor countries were also criticised, debated and much discussed by Western Think Tanks and the media.
Yet the world looked away and continued to do business with China.
Finally, the leader of the free world stood up to China for its unfair trade practices; stealing technology; the cyber theft that was taking place at staggering rates; the dumping of goods on world markets by giving special subsidies to its state owned companies and demanded it change its ways and play fair.
Yet the world looked away and continued to do business with China.
Finally, there is a pandemic which starts in China and the CCP conceals it till it spreads to almost every country in the world, creating trillions of dollars worth of economic loss, hundreds and thousands of deaths and millions of destroyed livelihoods and finally the world has woken up.
It is mystifying to me that South Africa was completely isolated during Apartheid but because it was good to get cheap products from China and make huge profits, the conscience of the world blanked it out. We blanked out everything that the CCP had done to Tibetans, to Uighers, to its organ harvesting of live prisoners and countless other human rights abuses and went ahead with the Made in China delusion.
We blanked out the fact that the CCP was taking over the whole of the South China Sea; dredging up islands to make into military fortresses; challenging India at Doklam; buying up ports to show its muscle; bullying countries to buy its products and worst of all knowing the world would soon have a pandemic on its hands, surreptitiously buying up all the medical and safety equipment from western countries for its own use as well as for selling back to countries when Covid 19 hit them.
It is unconscionable. It proves the CCP cares very little for humanity. It’s actions speak volumes. Till date the CCP has not allowed scientists to visit the Wuhan or given us any clues where the virus emerged from. It’s lied about it’s deaths and infection rates. It closed up Wuhan to the rest of China not allowing any trains, buses or domestic flights but allowed hundreds of thousands Chinese visiting Wuhan to fly internationally , knowing full well these innocent travellers were infected and would take the virus worldwide. It seems almost premeditated.
But wait it gets even worse. The CCP has just passed a National Security act on Hong Kong, which takes away its autonomy and the One Country Two Systems treaty it signed with Britain.
And the CCP is threatening India again by its belligerence and sabre rattling on the Northern border. It is threatening Australia with trade warfare if it dares to join in the chorus of nations for an inquiry into the origin of the virus. The Global Times, a CCP mouthpiece has actually referred to Australia as a chewing gum stuck on the sole of China’s shoes!
It is even threatening Taiwan for sending an email to the WHO on the 31st of December warning that the coronavirus was highly infectious and the world should be warned. Had the WHO acted on this the world would have been saved a pandemic and hundred and thousands around the world would have been saved.
Can the CCP even think it can ever be business as usual again. Can the right thinking nations of the world ever let the Chinese leaders get away with this? Is trade and profit going to override the deaths and continuing infections and economic mayhem the CCP brought on the world?
I pray along with billions of citizens who are hurting as I write this, that this evil regime is brought down.
DISCLAIMER : expressed above are the author's own.
=========================================================
2. ##Why India should be concerned about the growing investments of China in Indian online gaming companies : 30 May, 2020 : rajnishk : Opindia : Media Report.
##The tech giants from China have been obviously investing with a policy to cash-in on the thriving Indian mobile commerce market and the related hidden benefits.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------At a time when anti-China sentiments are high across the globe and ‘kick-the-dragon-out’ chorus is getting louder in every nook and corner in the wake of the somewhat mysteriously behaving deadly Novel Coronavirus, tech behemoths from the communist country are seemingly working all-out to somehow dominate the Indian online gaming sector- one of the few businesses which despite the general devastating impact of the pandemic, continues to prosper.
Alibaba and Tencent, two of the largest Chinese tech companies now have big stakes in some of the leading Indian online gaming companies including the Paytm First and the sole unicorn (a company worth over U.S. $1 billion) of the sector in India, Dream 11.
After the restrictions imposed last month by India on Chinese investment in the wake of the COVID-19 scenario, Alibaba backed Paytm First Games, a prominent gaming company in India, recently, joined hands with Pakistan based Daraz, an online marketplace and logistics company which operates in South Asia and Southeast Asia barring India, to launch a gaming platform Daraz First in Bangladesh.
Daraz, founded in 2012 in Pakistan, operates e-commerce platforms and logistics service in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka. In 2018, Daraz Group was acquired by Alibaba which also has invested hugely in Paytm. Paytm First Games is a joint venture of Indian mobile wallet Paytm and Alibaba.
1. Chinese Giants’ Investment Strategy :
The tech giants from China have been obviously investing with a policy to cash-in on the thriving Indian mobile commerce market and the related hidden benefits.The total investment of the Chinese companies (including Tencent and Alibaba) in the Indian tech sector, including gaming industry startups, was a little over US$214 million till 2013 but it has risen almost 40 folds to the US $8 billion by December 2019, according to Bengaluru based start-up tracking firm Tracxn. Though the exact figures of investment by Alibaba and Tencent were not available, the two were believed to be among the largest investing Chinese companies.
Apparently Alibaba looked interested in making a bigger investment in companies like Paytm as an anchor and taking larger ownership, Tencent is seemingly following the policy of smaller ownership in multiple companies.
According to a Quartz India report, ‘Alibaba has invested in Indian companies including Paytm Mall, an online retail place under Paytm, food delivery app Zomato, online grocer Bigbasket, e-commerce platform Snapdeal and logistics firm Xpressbees. Apart from Xpressbees, which does not reveal its valuation, all the other five firms have achieved unicorn status, valued between just over $1 billion (Bigbasket and Snapdeal) to a whopping $16 billion (Paytm). Alibaba is the single largest shareholder of Paytm.’
‘Tencent, meanwhile, has invested in some of the strongest rivals of the firms that have received money from Alibaba. For instance, Tencent has invested in Swiggy, which is engaged in a food delivery fight with Zomato, as well as in Flipkart, the largest e-commerce platform in India, which Walmart bought in 2018 as it competes with Amazon.
The US e-commerce giant exceeds both Snapdeal and Bigbasket in terms of sales in India. Other unicorns Tencent has invested in include messaging app Hike, ride-sharing firm Ola, learning app BYJU’s, fantasy gaming platform Dream11 and B2B trading platform Udaan. It is difficult to calculate the total amount the two have put in Indian startups, as most of the funding rounds included other investors, such as SoftBank,’ the report said.
Other Chinese investors apart from Tencent and Alibaba that have become active in India in recent years include Tik-Tok owner ByteDance, smartphone maker Xiaomi, which has invested in sectors like entertainment and mobile apps, and Chinese conglomerate Fosun, which has invested in more than five Indian startups, including logistics firm Delivery and booking website ixigo,’ it said.
2. The Online Gaming Sector :
The Indian online gaming industry is among one of the few businesses in the country which had not only flourished during the slowdown before the Covid 19 crisis but has also continued to boom even after it. In the nearly two decade old Indian gaming industry, initially games were played on consoles and later on PC’s only. But with the surge in the numbers of smart phones and availability of cheaper internet data, it saw a quick growth in last 5 years or so. Almost 90% of all the gamers now play on mobile phones. It grew by 40% to reach Rs 6500 crore (US$855 million) in annual revenue size last year. It was projected to be almost triple to over Rs 18700 crore (over US$2.5 billion) by 2022, according to a recent joint study of the Industry body FICCI and the professional services provider firm Ernst & Young.According to another report the gaming industry revenue, including both transaction based and non-transaction games, in India was projected to cross Rs 25000 crore (US$ 3.3 billion) mark by 2024. The number of gamers in this country of 138 crore (1.38 billion) people with a large chunk of young population, has increased exponentially to nearly 38 crore (357 million) last year and was constantly rising.
Even during the pandemic caused lockdown when most of the businesses have either shut shop or taken a big nosedive, gaming sector is still flourishing. According to the Industry players, there is over 2 fold rise in the number of gamers during the lockdown. Because people with more leisurely time, are now playing such games on mobile phones as a favourite pastime, to keep the Coronavirus anxiety at bay.
The sector has been a hot-favourite of the investors from all quarters but the Chinese players have seemingly left everyone else behind in this regard. And now that the fantasy gaming segment, which had seen the quickest growth of over 118% last year has failed, Alibaba is apparently using other tactics by expanding its wings through players like Paytm First. Its recent tie up with Daraz, the China backed company in Pakistan is also being seen as one of these tactics. Tencent has invested Dream 11- the biggest Fantasy sports platform in India which is now almost completely shut due to unavailability of real sports events as the fantasy gaming depended on such events. In Fantasy sports, participants pay a fee to assemble a virtual team of professional players from any ongoing event and then win cash or prizes based on how those players perform in real-life games.
3. Dragon’s Interests :
A recent report said that more than a third of India’s 1.3 billion people are internet users, and most of them used budget category smartphones with cheaper data-usage plans. The local smartphone market was growing by 10% per year before the Covid crisis.According to Girish Menon, head of media and entertainment for KPMG in Mumbai, the Indian scenario is attractive to Alibaba and Tencent because their entire ecosystem is developed around mobile phones. The time spent on gaming is far higher in India than any other form of entertainment.
Meanwhile, on the launch of the Daraz First games the Paytm in its statement said, ‘We are thrilled to share that Paytm First Games, has teamed up with Daraz to enter South Asian markets. The company has launched its premium gaming app in Bangladesh, and will soon be bringing its innovative gaming experience to Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar as part of its international expansion.’
Launched in 2012, Daraz is South Asia’s premier online shopping marketplace with 5 million consumers across the region. The partnership will help Paytm First Games get access to one of the fastest-growing gaming regions in Asia, the statement added without any kind of mention of Daraz’s links with either China or Pakistan.
It quoted Sudhanshu Gupta, COO, Paytm First Games as saying, ‘Mobile gaming has been exploding in South Asia region and we endeavour to partner with players who share the same mission. We are thrilled to partner with Daraz.’ Chief Growth Officer, Daraz Group, Edouard Gheerbrant said, ‘This platform will enable Daraz to capture the fast-growing mobile games market opportunity in South Asia. I’m confident that the collaboration with Paytm First Games will accelerate DFG’s growth in becoming the market leader of the region’s gaming industry.’
4. Data Security & Other Risks :
According to a report by the Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations, a reputed foreign policy think-tank, Chinese funding to Indian tech start-ups is making an impact disproportionate to its value, given the deepening penetration of technology across sectors in India.‘Investments made by Chinese tech companies and funds, led by giants like Alibaba, ByteDance and Tencent have funded 92 Indian start-ups, including unicorns such as Paytm, Byju’s. 18 of the 30 Indian unicorns have a Chinese investor. This means that China is embedded in Indian society, the economy, and the technology ecosystem that influences it. Unlike a port or a railway line, these are invisible assets in small sizes – rarely over $100 million – and made by the private sector, which doesn’t cause immediate alarm,’ the report said.
‘If Alibaba, Tencent and other Chinese tech majors replicate their internet ecosystems in India, this can create a systemic risk. An ecosystem such as this controls access to end-users; it means other companies (retailers, financing firms and media) will have to follow the standards/technologies prescribed to them. Alibaba/Tencent will be in a position like Google – they can decide which firm will succeed or fail by controlling user access, using their own technologies. Imagine: the Indian economy could use Chinese tech for critical applications,’ the report claimed.
‘Chinese companies such as Alibaba and Tencent have their own ecosystems, which include online stores, payment gateways, messaging services, etc. An investment by them can pull the Indian company into this ecosystem, which may mean loss of control over data,’ the report claims adding that the reliance of Indian start-ups on overseas venture capital funding has proved success for China and some of the unicorns like Paytm and Flipkart have been acquired outright by such companies.
5. Sharp Reactions :
To a query about the increasing Chinese investment, Gaming sector expert and founder and MD cum CEO of Ability Games, Kolkata based independent research and game development company, Suraj Chokhani said, ‘Today when the whole world has turned in to a global village, technological collaboration and investment from other countries is required for growth and doing big things. But so far as China is concerned, it should also open its doors for the Indian companies to invest there in the same manner its companies were doing here in India. It would also help in achieving trade balance of sorts. It should not be a one-way affair.’Well known nationalist activist, writer and founder of Jan Ki Baat, Pradeep Bhandari said that India should see to it that the dragon did not succeed in economic imperialism in the name of investment in India. ‘In the post Covid world, China is facing a global distress. And in that context it is extremely imperative that India does not look at China as a true friend but a competing power that can hamper our strategic interests. India should not have an open door policy with regard to Chinese investment but rather have a restrictive, cautious policy which scrutinizes Chinese investment and prevents economic imperialism’ in the name of investment,’ he said.
Ahmedabad based online gamer Manoj Dave (name changed) said that he was annoyed to see such developments. ‘At a time when all Chinese investments without government approval are prohibited in India and when Pakistan is increasingly facing economic and social sanctions and boycott from most countries across the world, it is shocking that companies like Paytm, which keep preaching about Make in India and nationalism, are entering into a strategic partnership and JV with a Chinese-backed Pakistani company. I will not use this platform and would also urge my friends to boycott it for this type of behaviour. All those companies running their businesses with Chinese money should be boycotted by the public,’ Dave said.
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###INDIA POSITIVE :
A simple yet powerful depiction of why we must choose #MadeInIndia .
Think first as a citizen then as a consumer.
Be the soldier within the borders.
Put #IndiaFirst
#BoycottMadeInChina #MakeInIndia #VocalForLocal #IndiaPositiveChallenge #PositiveIndia #IndiaPositive
#NewIndia #Covid #IndiaFightsCorona
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3. ###Nobody likes a rising global power and we must ask a simple question – Who benefits the most from tearing India’s image to pieces : 30 May, 2020 : Abhishek Banerjee : Opindia : Media Report.
###As a matter of principle, nobody likes a rising global power. They didn’t like it when China rose. They don’t like it now that India is breaking into the top five.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I will never get tired of pointing out how momentous the year 2019 was for India and the whole world. I’m not just talking about the Lok Sabha election. I’m talking about the fact that in 2019, India entered the club of the world’s five largest economies. This marks the end of one era and the beginning of another.
As a matter of principle, nobody likes a rising global power. They didn’t like it when China rose. They don’t like it now that India is breaking into the top five. In ten years, we would be in the top three. That upsets everything. The whole global order.
So it is no surprise that the global elite has become exceptionally cruel and vicious towards India. As usual, they have used their Gunga Dins in India to support and further their cause. I’m talking about the army of activists, intellectuals, op-ed writers, street protesters who have systematically undermined and shamed India for 70 years. They have always been the infantry of the global elite. Their livelihood depends on it. They grow up on a diet of lit fests, made up international conferences, fake degrees (honorary or otherwise) in fake subjects from real universities and so on.
It’s the lobby. We all know about it. If India is sending a space probe to Mars, their job is to write a drain inspector report to make the BBC feel better.
But in the second half of the last year, it really felt different. This was not the usual ‘ragging’ that a rising power can expect from jealous elite and their water carriers. There was an unusual hard edge to the anti-India hatred that we saw everywhere: newspaper columns, campuses, television reports and so on.
India got more bad press last year than North Korea did. The words “Hindu” and “Nazi” were declared synonymous. Not for a moment did the liberal complex back out from or temper its extreme rhetoric. “Indian state” and “Nazi Germany” were uttered in the same breath, ad infinitum. The Hindu swastika and the Nazi hooked cross were mixed together liberally. Things got so bad that supporters of Yakub Memon and Afzal Guru openly hit the streets of Delhi. And we saw their images passed around in major newspaper as heroes (and ‘sheroes’) of liberation!
The global elite has never cared much about Indian lives. Their infantry in India couldn’t care less. But even by their standards, the attack on India seemed excessive.
Was it a higher power pulling the strings?
Tell me who benefits the most from tearing India’s image to pieces. Sure, Pakistan does benefit, but that’s all psychological. Pakistan will never be a credible military, diplomatic or economic opposition to India.
And more importantly, Pakistan simply does not have the money to buy this many infantry.
But there’s someone else. How about Pakistan’s sugar daddy?
We tend to forget that when India removed Article 370, Pakistan was not the only country to protest. There was another, much more powerful nation that was opposed to India “unilaterally” altering the administrative setup on the ground.
They have both motive and resources. If the world gets the impression that India has done something terrible and anti-human in the Jammu – Kashmir – Ladakh region, they are in a position to take advantage of it. With actual troops on the ground. And right now, they may be doing just that.
And they have the resources to buy up global and domestic opinion in bulk. Think of all the prizes, awards and honours they have doled out for defaming India in Kashmir. Think of the sponsored vacations for intellectuals and activists and all the loaves and fishes they are getting from international media and academic bodies. Most of those prestigious institutions are full of spies anyway, who are receiving lakhs of $$$ stashed away in secret foreign bank accounts. Coronavirus has exposed at least that much.
In India, we often marvel at the power and reach of the so called ‘ecosystem.’ It often goes something like this:
Day 1: Some previously unknown X puts up rumor on Twitter accusing India of some crime against humanity in Kashmir
Day 2: X gives interviews to at least 5-6 foreign media channels.
Day 3: X gets an invitation to speak at some top foreign university.
Day 4: X receives some prestigious journalism award.
In five days, X is all set. He or she goes from having debt with the local kirana store to being a highly paid international superstar. So called “dissenters” who sit in five star hotel lobbies tweeting about how terrible their lives are under Modi’s ‘fascist’ regime.
Well, guess who can make all these goodies appear with their pocket change?
I would say take a look around. Look again at every person with any level of institutional power who has been oddly incensed about Art 370 in the last several months. An intellectual, an activist, a writer, a filmmaker, anything…
Take a moment and ask yourself: what would this man or woman do for 1 lakh rupees? Maybe the person is too well off to care about 1 lakh rupees. Ok, how about 10 lakh rupees? How about 1 crore rupees? How about a million dollars?
You know which country could afford to spend even one billion dollars and not even notice? That’s 1000 chunks of one million dollars each..
So take a look around and ask yourself how many of these people could have been purchased. Some of these folks are so cheap they don’t even want any money. They’d be suckers for some title or award or even a laudatory tweet from some foreign institution. The former can be arranged for less than $1000. The latter would cost under $10.
I know ‘kudrati’ biryani became a punchline to many jokes in right-wing circles after some low IQ liberal protester gave a particularly hilarious interview to a reporter. How can biryani drop from heaven? But perhaps the simpleton wasn’t so wrong in his observation after all. Perhaps ‘kudrati’ biryani really did come from a ‘higher power’ — how about a superpower? It’s time to take this even more seriously.
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4. ####How six years of Modi Sarkar shifted the Overton Window of the country towards Sanatana Dharmam dominance : 30 May, 2020 : K Bhattacharjee : Opindia : Media Report.
####The abrogation of Article 370, the Ram Mandir verdict and the Citizenship Amendment Act, undoubtedly, has been the defining trinity of the second term of Narendra Modi as Prime Minister thus far.
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*Prime Minister Narendra Modi
The 30th of May marks the first anniversary of Modi Sarkar 2.0. In many ways, it has been the most historic first year of any government on Independent India. Remarkable decisions were taken, historic disputes were resolved and the country definitively oriented itself towards pursuing a different national vision than the one forged by Jawaharlal Nehru.
The 6th year of Modi Sarkar brought to an end a variety of disputes, both major and minor. The abrogation of Article 370, the Ram Mandir verdict and the Citizenship Amendment Act, undoubtedly, has been the defining trinity of the second term of Narendra Modi as Prime Minister thus far. But such historic decisions were not borne in a vacuum. The foundation for it was laid during his first term.
Ever since he took office, Narendra Modi’s governance has geared itself towards shifting the Overton Window of the politics of the country. It can be said without a shadow of a doubt that when he took office, Hindutva was still the counterculture in the corridors of power. But in six years, he along with Home Minister Amit Shah has made Hindutva the dominant political force in the country.
Towards that effect, the biggest decision towards the shifting of the Overton Window was the appointment of Yogi Adityanath as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Until that moment, despite his significant political influence in eastern Uttar Pradesh, the Warrior Priest of Gorakhnath was still a pariah in political circles. But one move by Narendra Modi and Amit Shah altered the entire dynamics of what constitutes mainstream politics.
In retrospect, the appointment of Yogi Adityanath as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh was perhaps the Big two of the BJP paying homage to the contribution made by the Gorakhnath Math towards the Ram Janmabhoomi Movement. Mahant Digvijaynath and Mahant Avaidyanath played a critical role in ensuring the Return of the King of Ayodhya to his sacred abode in Ayodhya.
As momentous it was, the elevation of Yogi Adityanath was only the highlight and not the whole reel of the manner in which Modi Sarkar shifted the Overton Window of Indian politics towards a more Hindu oriented approach. With every of his, Narendra Modi made it perfectly acceptable to be ‘Hindu and Proud’ in mainstream political discourse.
It may appear unthinkable now but six years ago, it was not the case and the entire political machinery worked towards shaming Hindus for their religious identity. The enemies of Dharma sought to make casteism and oppression of women the defining identity of Hindu philosophy. Narendra Modi liberated politics from such toxicity.
With each visit to a great Hindu temple, with his proud public demonstration of his Hindu identity, Narendra Modi made it clear once and for all that we shall no longer surrender our nation and its people to the false song of liberalism. Simultaneously, great emphasis was placed on the celebration of the Kumbh Mela as truly a national festival.
Another highlight of the first five years of Modi Sarkar was the defence of the traditions of the Sabarimala Temple. Yes, it could be argued that an ordinance could have been brought to settle the matter but that is a discussion for another day. But the fact is, the Prime Minister and the party came out unequivocally in the defence of Sabarimala Temple’s traditions and made it clear that the traditions were sacrosanct. Other party leaders also criticised the judiciary for interfering with Hindu traditions without any due reason.
At the same time, nationalist fervour gained momentum across the country as well. With political will, Modi Sarkar made it politically nonviable for parties to compromise in matters of national interest. Simultaneously, it was made clear to Pakistan that a game of dossiers won’t be played should it pursue its misguided terrorist adventurism.
The fervour was such that following the Pulwama Terror Attack, it was not a question of if Narendra Modi would take strong action against Pakistan, the only was when. And the answer came in the form of the Balakot Airstrikes. It is indeed a great shift in the Overton Window of a country’s politics when the Prime Minister is expected to pursue military action against Pakistan in retribution for the blood of the soldiers that was spilt. Gone are the days of UPA when Indians bayed for action against Pakistan but none was taken.
Another significant event of Modi Sarkar 1.0 was the crackdown on foreign funded NGOs and ‘civil society organisations’ that align themselves closely with Naxalites. ‘Urban Naxals’ was added to mainstream lexicon, quite a far cry from the days when such people used to dictate national policy and write our laws in the days of the UPA.
Nevertheless, the first five years of Modi Sarkar were spent on trying to lay the foundation for what was to come. But the hints were clear. And that is why we said that Nehruvian Secularism will not survive another five years of Modi Sarkar. And the events of the past year have only proven us correct.
It all began, of course, with the anti-Triple Talaq Bill. It was for the first time that a government of Independent India refused to cower before the Maulanas and Maulvis of the Muslim community. There was great opposition to it but Modi Sarkar refused to budge from the stand it had taken and ultimately, saw the path to the very end.
A sacred pillar of Nehruvian Secularism was desecrated by Modi Sarkar through the anti-Triple Talaq Bill. And it was a thing of great beauty. It was made clear once and for all that Islamic fundamentalists will not be permitted to run the roost in India any longer. And of course, what followed afterwards was the utter obliteration of Islamic fundamentalism from the corridors of power.
Currently, the Home Ministry under Amit Shah is busy making sure that the people responsible for orchestrating violence across the country in the aftermath of the Citizenship Amendment Act are brought to justice. ‘Activists’ associated with the far-left group Pinjra Tod have been arrested and numerous ‘students’ of Jamia Milia Islamia are languishing in jail as well for their alleged role in the violence.
And yet, there is still a lot of dissatisfaction among Hindus regarding the current turn of events. Article 370 is gone, CAA is here and Ram Mandir construction is underway and yet, people are not satisfied. But then, it is human nature to not remain satisfied and this is how it should be. It is both a testament to the quality of the leadership at the top and the desire to accomplish greatness of Indians that people are still not completely satisfied with those in power. And as I said, it is how it should be. People should always be demanding of their leaders.
Even so, the extent to which the Overton Window has shifted towards Sanatana Dharmam oriented politics cannot be denied. It is impossible now for a political party to insult Hinduism and still harbour dreams to play an important role in national politics. Recently, even demands for the abrogation of Article 30 that discriminates against Hindu were being made by people, led by none other than Kailash Vijayvargiya, the national general secretary of the BJP.
We have come a long way, yes, but a long way remains to be traversed. A lot has been accomplished but even more remains to be achieved. But it should be remembered that if we can stand today and hope for the things that we do, it is solely because Narendra Modi and Amit Shah and others have demonstrated that even more is possible and more can be achieved. It is because of them that we can stand here and still not be satisfied with what has been accomplished thus far.
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NOTE :
Swami Chinmayananda : SANATANA DHARMAM AND OUR NATION FIRST:
1. If someone is talking to you, listen to him patiently.
2. Don’t interrupt when someone is talking.
3. Learn to control your voice when you talk.
4. Don’t chatter unnecessarily while working or eating.
5. Talk respectfully to elders.
6. Don’t fidget while talking. Never address someone by a wrong name. Make the effort to know the name of the person you are talking to.
7. Words of abuse are strictly no-no.
8. Don’t insult the person you are talking to.
9. Don’t mislead anyone by your talk.
10. Be careful when you talk with strangers.
#SwamiChinmayananda #SunshineSunday #Chinmayam #KeepSmiling #KeepLearning
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All opposition fools from Congress,Communists, all silly demonic regional parties and their lunatic leaders, should listen to Swami ji and mend/repair themselves to become Good citizens of this Holy Nation first then only party politics, forget about caste politics, religious minorities vote bank politics too.
==================================================================JAI HIND
JAI BHARATHAM
VANDHE MATHARAM
BHARAT MATHA KI JAI.
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