India's Autonomous Vessel Matangi.

A truly wonderful innovation!

The unmanned ship Matangi was developed by the Indian startup Sagar Defence Engineering. It recently made history by completing an autonomous sea voyage of around1,500 km from Bombay to Tuticorin without any crew on board.

The project was officially flagged off by the Defence Minister as part of the Indian Navy's "Swavlamban initiative", marking a massive milestone for indigenous AI and defence technology!

My take

Simply great!  

Tailpiece.

Two pieces of connected information to this story :-

    * Matangi is the daughter of Matanga maharshi. (Syamala Devi ...Mata Parvati)

    * A community called "Matang" in Maharashtra exists that claims to be  the descendants of this 

       rishi. Their traditional occupation was and still, is making brooms and bamboo products.

Manipur's final electoral roll is ready.

The final photo-electoral rolls for all 60 Assembly constituencies of Manipur were published yesterday putting the total number of voters at 19,60,620.

With 10,06,962, female voters outnumber their male counterparts (9,53,350). The gender ration is 1,056 females for every 1,000 male electors. The state has 308 third-gender electors.

A total of 56,871 electors have been added 30,650 electors have been deleted from the draft electoral roll published on 05 Jul.

BRICS 2026.

Under India's chairship, BRICS is entering a new era of deeper collaboration and stronger representation for the Global South.

     

* 49.5% of the world's population

* 40% of global GDP

* 26% of global trade

Built on Resilience, Innovation, Co-operation and Sustainability, India's leadership is making BRICS more action-oriented while advancing the vision of a fairer, more balanced global order.

The crucial question, however, is whether BRICS can translate this wide-ranging agenda into a common political outcome. The challenge is particularly significant because geopolitical differences, including disagreements over the West Asia conflict, have already made consensus difficult at some ministerial meetings. India's task as chair is consequently not to eliminate differences among members but to find enough common ground for a credible summit declaration.

 

Janmashtami.

No one remembers the baby girl born on the same day who was interchanged with Krishna, a baby boy, to save his life. The boy's life was precious but the girl was born to sacrifice her life. Janmashtami is not only the birthday of Krishna but also of Yogamaya.

It is said that Yogamaya flew off to the heaven freeing herself from the clutches of Kansa while announcing to him that his killer has been born. Scriptures do not clearly mention that she too got killed  like the other siblings of Krishna.

Yogamaya was also an incarnation of Shakti who came to be born along with the incarnation of Lord Vishnu to keep some old promise. When Kansa caught her by her feet and hurled her to the ground, she flew toward the heaven, saying "Kansa, your killer has already taken birth. I could have also killed you but since you caught me by my feet, I take it as your expression of humility and am pardoning you".

Krishna was born in the darkness of the night, into the locked confines of a jail.

However, at the moment of his birth, all the guards fell asleep, the chains were broken and the barred doors gently opened.

Similarly, as soon as Krishna (Chetna, Awareness) takes birth in our hearts, all darkness (Negativity) fades.

All chains (Ego, I, Me, Myself) are broken.

And all prison doors we keep ourselves in (Caste, Religion, Profession, Relations etc) are opened.

And that is the real message of Janmashtami. 

Adieu Gloria Steinem!

The trouble with putting people on a pedestal is that their follies tend to get magnified. So it was with Gloria Steinem, the ground breaking feminist activist whose death at 92 was announced yesterday. But even those who find her work for the CIA projecting American ideas during the Cold War problematic cannot begrudge her formidable work for women's causes. Her activism, from undercover reporting as a Playboy Bunny to championing laws against discrimination and sexual violence, inspired women around the world.

She admittedly learnt about grassroots activism during the years she spent in India in the late 1950s on a fellowship, when she saw Vinoba Bhave's Bhoodan movement up close. 

On her passing, the world would do well to reassess what it still needs to do to bridge the gender gap.

Adieu Gloria! My tears and prayers. 

Toady's revelation.....

The CJP is nothing but filled with guys from the Aam Admi Party. The idiot, Arvind Kejriwal, still hasn't learnt his lesson after the hard whack that he got from the people! The party has split into two - CJP and CJP (Democratic).

The guys have already called off their agitation that they had planned for the 5th of September. 

Meanwhile, RaGa and Akhilesh Yadav are on a tour of the US to meet Sorros and such other guys to collect moolah as the UP state assembly elections is drawing close.

These guys never understand......

Did you know how your organs weighed?

* Spleen                                   150 g

* Kidneys                                 150 g each

* Heart                                     300 g

* Lungs                                    1.3 kg

* Brain                                     1.4 kg

* Liver                                     1.5 kg 

Just a few!