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The world’s biggest processor of bauxite into alumina China has to contend with two realities: First, Beijing has introduced more stringent conditions since 2022 for investments in new alumina projects, including brownfield capacity expansion. This has implications for both operating groups and potential new investors. Second, Beijing in its campaign against pollution has not spared alumina making, which generates 1 to 2 tonnes of red mud for every tonne of smelter feedstock production. Red mud unless it is stored and disposed with care is a major environmental hazard.

The news that there is fire in the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine has sent ripples in the minds of people around the globe. Even though no radiation leak has been reported so far, but the danger cannot be ruled out till the fire is extinguished and the plant is finally inspected and given safety clearance by the IAEA. Accidents in the nuclear power plants have grave health and humanitarian consequences. This is well proved in the Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents. Therefore the global concern over this fire is genuine. The forces of peace and nuclear disarmament have warned of such an event since the outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine over two years ago. The nuclear plant has been under the control of Russia since 2022. Now both Russia and Ukraine are blaming each other for this fire. But whosoever may be responsible, if the fire in the plant increases the impact would be felt in the far flung areas.

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s meteoric acceptability is one side of the coin. The flip side is Kamala’s choice for Vice President, Tim Walz, who brought excitement to the Kamala Harris campaign, which the corporate media latched on to push Kamala’s case against Republican candidate Donald Trump, whose running mate JD Vance is the javelin's tip as far as the Trump-Vance ticket is concerned.

A marathon runner from Bhutan who finished the 42.195 km marathon at Paris Olympic in 3 hours 52 seconds and was the last one to finish the race received a rousing ovation from the spectators. Kinzang Lhamo finished the marathon 1.5 hours after the winner, who took the gold medal. Netherlands' Sifan Hassan broke the Olympic women's marathon record by completing it in 2 hours, 22 minutes 55 seconds in the Paris Olympics. But she was not the one who received the loudest of the applause. Just three seconds behind Hassan came Ethiopia's Tigst Assefa who clinched the silver and Kenya's Hellen Obiri defeated compatriot Sharon Lokedi with a four-second margin. But it was the 26-year-old Bhutan's Lhamo who finished last, among all the 80 participants who completed the race, who received a standing ovation from the Paris Olympic crowd.

Republican India on the 78th Independence Day on August 15, 2024 presents a grim picture. It’s leader the Prime Minister is heading a union government of a divided nation for which he is himself responsible as can be deduced from his divisive, communal and polarizing campaign hate speeches during the General Elections to the Lok Sabha 2024 that concluded in June 2024 and his government’s discriminatory and minority bashing actions since 2014. Even after the BJP has been reduced to minority and formed government on the crutches of three supporting parties from Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, his functioning as an autocrat has not mellowed as expected.

It was clear to everyone that SEBI was stonewalling a proper investigation into the charges levelled by the Hindenburg report, except those who had other reasons to pretend otherwise. But there was no clarity as to why SEBI was doing so. Now that Hindenburg has disclosed SEBI chairperson’s and her husband’s investment in one of Adani’s shadow companies the Adani group allegedly used to do questionable transactions, the jigsaw puzzle stands solved.

During the financial year 2023-24, bank loans worth Rs 1.70 lakh crore were written off, as revealed in Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary’s recent written reply in the Rajya Sabha. It makes the total written off amount to swell to Rs16.26 lakh crore since April 2014 to the end of March 2024. The biggest beneficiaries of these are big Indian corporates and businesses.

India seems to be filled with a giddy rapture as the Rs.11.12-lakh crore Tata group has ventured into semiconductor fab production by simultaneously taking up two projects – one in Gujarat and the other in Assam – to put the country on the world microchip makers’ map. The two plants will have a combined investment of Rs.1,18,000 crore. The government itself appears to be flushed with excitement as the country will soon have its own semiconductor fab production units. While the indigenously built Assam plant is expected to become operational next year, the giant Gujarat plant, in collaboration with Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (PSMC) from Taiwan, is likely to be in production by 2026 end.

The former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, abruptly left her country on August 5, causing immediate concern in her country and the region.

In the universe of metals ranging from aluminium to steel to copper, China has a domineering presence to the extent of it owning in many cases over half the global capacity and as a natural follow-up making more than half the production and using that locally. But as it would happen, this gigantic profile in metals is not backed by adequate domestic extraction and supply of minerals. Take bauxite for example, the raw material containing mostly aluminium oxide, from which is extracted alumina through Bayer process for finally white metal smelting.