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As I write, the COVID-19 contract dies, producing a large-scale 3D printer for the Pentagon. The last of the aluminum plates on the C-16 model are crushed and destroyed — as if to prove that death is permanent, this too is a loss, for the model’s forever. The Pentagon contract came at a point when 3D printers seemed about to explode in all directions, becoming, within a year or two, commonplace household objects. Carbon straightens out the production of metal parts. Dyson makes a new upright personal washer and dryer…

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This week Flipkart announced a new $35 million investment in fashion site Myntra, as the Indian e-commerce juggernaut tries to stay ahead of rival Amazon. To some extent the move is in response to that company’s huge investment in fashion — and its success in penetrating into a young population that would never otherwise spend a dime on clothes. But I suspect Flipkart will still need to make more moves like this in order to ensure its survival. The strength of Indian fashion e-commerce, which has powered Myntra’s growth, is…

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THE “confucius institute” has been a thing in China since at least the 1990s. With its outwardly reverential appearance, it projects an image of uncritical respect for Chinese history and culture: students visit them and there are students who can be seen eating their meals there, too. These institutes were usually housed in off-campus buildings, which in turn were closed off from the rest of the university. Universities with such a facility were able to assign slots for their students to study the Confucian texts taught in the institutes. As…

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Long before I settled in America in 1996, I’d heard from friends that India was home to thousands of well-educated, free-thinking, restless students eager to leave the dusty and oppressive journey of life in a family or village. Yet I had never seen it myself. Until last September, when I packed my bags for a trip to northern New Jersey, where there were thousands of young Indians already having settled in working-class places like Somerset County, and the not-so-struggling borough of Franklin Lakes, where I had grown up. There were…

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