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India’s federal auditor, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), gave the Modi government a comfortable headline — the final cost of Rafale jets as negotiated by the incumbent government was cheaper than the deal struck by the previous Congress government. While the report deftly evaded the questions of alleged corruption, it has certainly exposed a set of serious problems in the way India buys its arms and ammunition, no matter which political party is in power. The issues highlighted by Rajiv Mehrishi, the CAG, not only indicate the room for and possibilities of corruption and kickbacks, it may also compel people to question if the country’s unsuspecting forces are wielding substandard equipment. Here are some of the shocking truths: 1. Requirements are changed to include or exclude specific vendors The rules mandate that the Indian Air Force must clearly state its needs in verifiable and measurable terms before inviting bids from suppliers. People do that even before buying phones-- have a clear picture of what features they need and a price range-- before going to a shop or a website to buy a phone. Here, we are speaking about defence equipment. But, the CAG report noted, the requirements of the Air Force are changed several times. The Air Force diluted its needs in the purchase of Attack Helicopter and the <keyword id="134615" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Doppler-Weather-Radar">Doppler Weather Radar</keyword> as no vendor could meet its requirement. What is worse? The audit noted that in case of acquisition of Apache Attack Helicopters and Chinook Heavy Lift Helicopters, “the Air Staff Qualitiative Requirements (ASQR) were aligned to products of a particular vendor.” 
 
 
 
 
 
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 India approved the purchase of Chinook Heavy Lift Helicopters and Apache Attack Helicopters from Boeing in 2015 for $2.5 billion under the Modi government. Boeing’s Chinook was up against Russian MI-26, which offered nearly double the capacity to transport weapons, supplies and soldiers. Suppose, forces have to be transported to a conflict zone, Chinook would take twice as many trips as the MI-26 would have. But the Air Force reduced its requirement which allowed for Boeing's bid to be accepted. Essentially, the needs of the Air Force were tweaked to match Boeing’s offering. 2. The decision to pick a certain aircraft, weapon or a vendor over another is often ad hoc In an ideal situation, the government would have a benchmark price set for a particular purchase, and the bids can be evaluated in relation to the benchmark. However, in many cases, the government changed the benchmark prices after opening the bids and ended up favouring one vendor over the others. In some cases like the procurement of Doppler Weather Radars and Apache Attack Helicopters, technical bids were rejected when the vendors failed to meet the parameters. But in other cases that included MMRCA, Heavy Lift Helicopters and C130 J30 aircraft, bids were technically qualified even when they did not meet critical ASQRs based on the assurance given by the respective vendors. 
 
 
 
 
 
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 3. A vendor is allowed to make changes even after placing a bid In the case of the Basic Trainer Aircraft supplied by Pilatus, the Swiss company was allowed to change its offer after the bids were received from all potential vendors. The two other vendors had offered a better price by including certain hardware within their bid that Pilatus hadn’t. 
 
 
 
 
 
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 However, instead of accepting one of the other bids, the government decided to seek a clarification from Pilatus and allowed it to make its bid competitive again. The contract was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security, under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government led by the Congress, in May 2012. 4. Vendors can get away giving assurances What’s more unfair than allowing vendors to change bids after submission? At times when the vendor does not meet the requirements still, the government has taken the supplier’s word for future improvements, while either undermining the needs of the forces, or putting lives at risk. Both MI-26 and Chinook were cleared based on the presentation/assurance of the vendor to rectify the ASQR non-compliance before delivery. 
 
 
 
 
 
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 The government does not even maintain proper records of the field trials of the equipments that were considered, making future reviews of such decisions difficult. 5. India could have bought weapons for cheaper prices but... Indians buying cars, or even two wheelers, are notorious for being penny wise. They not only consider the mileage but also the cost of maintenance before making their choice. Similarly, for defence equipment, mid-life upgrades for sustainment of the capabilities, if not for enhancement, should ideally be considered. However, the Indian government is a lot more lax, or selective in enforcing prudence. Out of eight cases, the government did not consider the costs that may be incurred during the life of the product purchased. For example, in 2017, the government decided that it <a href="https://www.defensenews.com/training-sim/2017/07/20/swiss-firm-not-extending-maintenance-deal-for-indias-pc-7-trainers/">cannot</a> continue using Pilatus’ trainer aircraft because the maintenance cost was raised too high. If this had been considered at the time of purchase, some other vendor may beat the Swiss manufacturer. 6. Endless delays The delay in decisions, signing of the contracts,and eventual procurement by the Indian government can be termed ‘proverbial’. “Against three years envisaged in Defence Procurement Process, four cases took more than three years and seven cases took more than five years to reach the contract conclusion stage. Delays in acquisition was essentially due to a complex and multi-level approval process, where objections could be raised at any stage,” the CAG report said. And delays cost money. 
 
 
 
 
 
 <div type="image" title="Doppler Weather Radar" msid="67982119" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The contract for Doppler Weather Radar was signed in 2012 and the actual delivery was in 2016.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>













 7. Unforced errors leading to higher cost India’s bureaucracy has also acted lazy at times. For instance, for all procurements from Russia or CIS countries, India allows for a 5% annual increase in cost, and for European suppliers the cost is allowed to increase by 3.5% every year of delay. The actual increase, going by market rates, would have been less than half. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/cag-rajiv-mehrishi-who-tabled-rafale-deal-audit-report-in-parliament/articleshow/67975553.cms">The man who audited the Rafale deal is now the subject of the controversy</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/cag-report-on-rafale-deal-tabled-in-parliament-says-jets-cheaper-under-modi-government-than-upa/articleshow/67970948.cms">CAG report on Rafale deal is a blessing for Modi government</a>

Seven shocking truths about how India buys arms

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">AP Photo/Mulugeta AyeneInvestigators examine wreckage at the scene where the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed in Ethiopia in March 2019.</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>The US has long set the standard for aviation safety and leadership around the world. But its status is taking a beating after two fatal crashes of Boeing 737 Max planes.</li><li>The disasters have put a spotlight on the close relationship between the US government and Boeing, changing how the world sees American standards for flight safety, experts told Business Insider.</li><li>The fact that the FAA allows Boeing to approve its own airplanes looks like a conflict of interest.</li><li>Foreign airlines may also perceive Boeing's relationship with President Trump as being too cozy.</li><li>The US's reputation can recover if the FAA takes appropriate steps, experts tell Business Insider.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/">Read more stories on Business Insider's front page.</a></li></ul>The US's reputation as the gold standard for aviation is at a make-or-break moment, experts and lawmakers say, as it deals with the fallout from two fatal Boeing 737 Max crashes that killed almost 350 people in five months.Generations of American leadership have solidified the US aviation industry as the international standard for safety that others emulate.But the two fatal crashes that appear to stem from design flaws created by an American manufacturer have put a spotlight on how the US certifies planes, the potential conflict of interest between Boeing and the FAA which allowed Boeing to certify its own places, Boeing's relationship with President Trump, and the reputation of the US as the model for aviation safety.This has led to increased international scrutiny, a growing sense of mistrust, and a US Senate <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-737-max-faa-whistleblowers-say-safety-inspectors-lack-training-2019-4?r=US&amp;IR=T">investigation</a> into how the US certifies planes. The FAA's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ethiopian-737-max-pilots-followed-boeing-procedures-before-crash-preliminary-report-2019-4">preliminary report</a> into the crash found that the pilots followed Boeing's own emergency procedures but were unable to prevent the crash.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">ARIF ARIADI/AFP/Getty ImagesA wallet belonging to a passenger of the ill-fated Lion Air flight JT 610 floats at sea in Indonesia in October 2018.</div></div></div>Tom Farrier, a former senior safety analyst with government consulting firm JMA Solutions who advised the FAA, told Business Insider that US, as a standard-setter, "generally has been accepted and institutionalized across much of the globe."But the crashes have harmed the country's reputation: "As far as 'reputational' harm is concerned, that seems clear enough. In the near term, of course it will do damage."Michael Dreikorn, a former FAA official and former vice president of quality and compliance for jet-engine maker Pratt &amp; Whitney, told Business Insider: "I do believe the Federal Aviation Administration is taking a credibility hit globally as a result of this.""The US's reputation can take a hit. And it probably should take a hit."<h2>Some believe Trump is too 'cozy' with Boeing</h2>Ethiopia, for example, may have feared an investigation biased in favor of Boeing if the US was in charge.Alan Diehl, a former National <keyword id="34991" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="transportation">Transportation</keyword> Safety Board investigator, told Business Insider that the "close relationship with the administration and Boeing" may have led Ethiopia to send the black box to France for examination out of fear of potential US bias. Normally, the boxes would be sent to the US."We've all heard the president speak out on behalf of Boeing, and in this country Boeing is a revered institution," he said. "All of those factors that deal with the American administration's closeness to Boeing may have been a major factor in the decision to send the black boxes to France."Driekorn said that there was no suggestion of inappropriate behaviour by Trump, or any of his predecessors who praised and worked with the American manufacturer. But he said there may be a negative "perception in people's minds."Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-expected-to-submit-737-max-software-fix-in-weeks-2019-4" data-analytics-position="1">FAA expects Boeing to come up with new software to fix the grounded 737 Max in a matter of weeks</a>"I absolutely get what kind of a negative, or should I say inappropriate, perception it creates in light of the situation we have today."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">ReutersTwo workers walk under the wing of a 737 Max aircraft at the Boeing factory in Renton.</div></div></div><h2>'This action was a snub, that the Ethiopian authorities sent the message that they don't believe the US would be completely objective when it comes to interpreting the data"</h2>"The US government and Boeing have had a very cozy relationship for a long time. That relationship under Trump is a bit closer," according to Todd Curtis, a former Boeing safety engineer and the founder of air safety website AirSafe.com. And while there are no legal issues about this relationship, it meant that "Ethiopia would have issues other than getting to the bottom of the crash," Curtis told Business Insider."My opinion is that this action was a snub, that the Ethiopian authorities sent the message that they don't believe the US would be completely objective when it comes to interpreting the data."Diehl echoed Curtis' words, saying that "the close relationship with the administration and Boeing" may have been a factor for why Ethiopia did not turn to the US."We've all heard the president speak out on behalf of Boeing, and in this country Boeing is a revered institution. It's the company that built the bombers that won World War II and whose rockets helped carry our astronauts to the moon, and they had the first successful jetliner," he said. "There's a historic close relationship between all governments and Boeing, but in particular President Trump has expressed and exhibited an affection for Boeing."He described it as a "potential conflict" rather than one that actually exists, but said that other nations may have it in mind when dealing with the US aviation industry.Michael Dreikorn, a former FAA official and former vice president of quality and compliance for jet-engine maker Pratt &amp; Whitney, said "If I was Ethiopian Airlines, I would have done the same thing. Just to ensure a non-biased reading of the content," he said, also referring to the relationship between the government and Boeing as "cozy."<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-orders-300-airbus-planes-as-it-suspends-boeing-737-max-licenses-2019-3" data-analytics-position="3"></a>But Tom Farrier, a former senior safety analyst with government consulting firm JMA Solutions who advised the FAA, described Ethiopia's decision as one that was "both an impulsive, anger-driven insult and a deliberate setting-aside of long-held practices in investigation."<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-reveals-737-max-software-fix-and-training-update-2019-3"></a>"To date, I have seen no reason beyond <keyword id="6358883" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="politics">politics</keyword> and raw emotions for the recorders not to have been sent to the US," he said.And yet it happened anyway - a symbol of how deep the mistrust now goes.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">SAMUEL HABTAB/AFP/Getty ImagesMourners of victims of the crashed accident of Ethiopian Airlines react beside a funeral car during the mass funeral in Ethiopia in March 2018.</div></div></div><h2>The FAA allowed Boeing to test its own planes</h2>An international spotlight has been put on the Federal Aviation Administration's processes and the close ties between manufacturers and the FAA.The FAA's system of giving aircraft manufacturers the authority to examine and test their own products, which allowed Boeing to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/faa-let-boeing-self-regulate-software-believed-737-max-crashes-2019-3?r=US&amp;IR=T">oversee much of the certification of its own software,</a> is under scrutiny from lawmakers as they launch investigations into how the 737 Max was certified to fly.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ethiopian-737-max-pilots-followed-boeing-procedures-before-crash-preliminary-report-2019-4">The Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max pilots followed all the right procedures but crashed anyway, official report finds. Now the spotlight turns to Boeing</a>Driekorn said the close relationship between Boeing and the FAA is impacting country's views of the US: "The major underlying issue I think in this whole tragedy is how cozy is the relationship between the FAA and Boeing, and has that coziness had a direct or indirect impact on aviation safety."Driekorn described the FAA as being "reluctant to engage" with those who have "resented and laid out issues of that coziness" between Boeing and the FAA and "have done so years in advance of the 737 Max certification."Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-expected-to-submit-737-max-software-fix-in-weeks-2019-4" data-analytics-position="1">FAA expects Boeing to come up with new software to fix the grounded 737 Max in a matter of weeks</a><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri/File PhotoA passenger safety instruction card is seen at the scene of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 plane crash in Ethiopia in March 2019.</div></div></div><h2>The coziness between government and manufacturers may be harming how the US is perceived</h2>A 2012 watchdog <a href="https://www.oig.dot.gov/sites/default/files/files/I10A000073SINV%20ROI.pdf">report</a> from the Department of Transportation found that FAA employees viewed their management as "having too close a relationship with Boeing officials" and said management did not always supported employee efforts "to hold Boeing accountable," with some fearing retaliation for their efforts.Driekorn said that the program lacks accountability, as it "holds a major corporation accountable, which means everybody is accountable, which means nobody's accountable."Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/faa-let-boeing-self-regulate-software-believed-737-max-crashes-2019-3" data-analytics-position="2">FAA boss says it let Boeing partly self-regulate the software thought to be behind both fatal 737 Max crashes</a>Acting FAA head Daniel Elwell defended the system in the Senate as one that creates safe aircraft, and said that changing it would require more 10,000 new employees and an additional $1.8 billion. Business Insider has contacted the FAA for comment.The policy, mandated by Congress, was first ordered in 2003 in an effort to speed up the certification process and reduce costs."The major underlying issue I think in this whole tragedy is how cozy is the relationship between the FAA and Boeing?And has that coziness had a direct or indirect impact on aviation safety?" Dreikorn said.Democratic Sen. Tom Udall told Business Insider that an examination of the relationship was needed.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Gabriella Demczuk/Getty ImagesSen. Tom Udall on Capitol Hill in June 2016.</div></div></div><h2>"Fatally riddled with flaws"</h2>"Time will tell if there is long-term damage to the FAA's historic leadership role in global aviation, but in light of the recent accidents, it is essential that the relationship be closely scrutinized," he said.He said investigations into the relationship are necessary: "The Commerce Committee must continue to investigate these issues - and we need a report from the Department of Transportation Inspector General on the topic.""Safety is in industry's long-term interest as well, but sometimes short-term economic incentives become too powerful, and that's why we cannot stand by and continue to allow important regulatory agencies to be captured by the industries that they oversee." Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-737-max-faa-whistleblowers-say-safety-inspectors-lack-training-2019-4?r=US&amp;IR=T">Senate investigating whistleblowers' claims that government safety inspectors who approved Boeing's 737 Max plane lacked sufficient training</a>He told a Senate committee in March that changes were necessary to ensure that safety "remains the paramount interest, not the quarterly profits of this company."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">REUTERS/Joshua RobertsDaniel Elwell, acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, arrives to testify before a Senate Commerce subcommittee oversight hearing on aviation safety after two fatal Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft crashes since October on Capitol Hill in March 2019.</div></div></div>At that hearing, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said the "close relationship between industry and regulators" threatened to erode the public's trust while Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal pledged to introduce legislation to reform the system, which he called "fatally riddled with flaws."<h2>The US and the FAA can recover if the right actions are taken</h2>"In the short term, the perceived extent of FAA may take a hit," Curtis said. "But the things that make the US dominant have not changed," he said. "Boeing is not going anywhere. The FAA is not going anywhere."Diehl said the US's reputation will be safe if the FAA is seen to take action to address the issues: "If the FAA's actions are well-received by other countries and the jets are allowed to resume commercial service, the current problems and criticism of the US regulatory system will soon be forgotten."Driekorn said a change in FAA leadership in light of the company's cerification process is the best way to achieve this: "For a long-term fix for this whole problem I think heads need to roll."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">MICHAEL TEWELDE/AFP/Getty ImagesPeople stand near debris at the crash site of the Ethiopia Airlines flight in Ethiopia, on March 11, 2019.</div></div></div><ul class="read-more-links"><li>Read more about the Boeing 737 Max 8 crashes:</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-reveals-737-max-software-fix-and-training-update-2019-3" data-analytics-position="1">Boeing just unveiled how it's going to fix the 737 Max that was grounded after 2 fatal crashes in recent months</a></li><li><a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/southwest-airlines-cuts-forecast-after-grounding-of-boeing-737-max-2019-3-1028062427" data-analytics-position="2">Southwest Airlines slashes its forecast after the grounding of Boeing's 737 Max</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-ceo-letter-questions-mount-737-max-crashes-software-2019-3" data-analytics-position="2">'We are all humbled': Boeing CEO publishes contrite open letter as 737 Max crash investigations zero in on software linked to 2 plane crashes</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-orders-300-airbus-planes-as-it-suspends-boeing-737-max-licenses-2019-3" data-analytics-position="3">China signs $34 billion order for 300 Airbus planes as country suspends licenses for Boeing 737 Max aircraft after deadly crashes</a></li></ul>Get the latest Boeing stock price <a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stock/BA-Quote">here.</a> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-elon-musk-whats-going-on-sec-layoffs-tweets-2019-3">Layoffs, SEC battles, and Elon Musk's tweets: 2019 looks like another chaotic year for Tesla</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

The US's reputation as the gold standard for aviation safety is at a make-or-break moment as the 737 Max crashes prompt questions about Boeing's conflicts of interest

The Truth About Marissa Mayer: An Unauthorized Biography

<ul class="summary-list"><li>This post originally appeared in the Insider Today newsletter.</li></ul>Almost Friday! Death. Taxes. Costco's $1.50 hot dog deal. The bargain meal has been around for nearly 40 years, with Costco's founder <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/costco-founder-warned-ceo-not-to-raise-hot-dog-price-2020-9">threatening to kill someone</a> who suggested raising the price. But now it seems the combo meal <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/costco-hot-dog-soda-combo-deal-wont-be-around-forever-2024-3">might not be around forever</a>.In today's big story, we're looking at why Zyn nicotine pouches are becoming <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/zyn-pouches-become-popular-some-workers-2024-3">the go-to alternative for workers looking for a boost</a>.What's on deck:<ul><li>Markets: The stocks no one can agree on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stocks-to-buy-contrarian-investing-strategy-wall-street-analysts-ubs-2024-3">might be your best bet</a>.</li><li>Tech: How <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-employees-feel-numb-latest-political-attacks-washington-2024-3">TikTok employees are feeling</a> as a potential US ban looms.</li><li>Business: When the push to land your dream job <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ambition-breakup-burnout-depression-anxiety-pandemic-layoffs-creator-economy-2024-3">ultimately becomes a nightmare</a>.</li></ul>But first, a Zyn a day keeps the cigarettes at bay.If this was forwarded to you, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subscription/newsletter/insider-today">sign up here.</a><h3>The big story</h3><h2>Zyn for the win</h2><div type="image" title="Illustration of ZYN in collage with an office background." height="975" width="1300" msid="108499961" hostid="261" sizebytes="121554"></div>Forget cigarettes or a cup of coffee. Some workers find all the inspiration they need in a tiny pouch that fits inside their lips.Zyn, a brand of nicotine pouch, has quickly gained a loyal following among some workers looking for a boost during the day.Its users often view it as <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/zyn-pouches-become-popular-some-workers-2024-3">a healthier alternative to nicotine products they'd previously used</a>, like cigarettes, chewing tobacco, and vapes, Business Insider's Sarah Jackson and Tim Paradis write.And they aren't necessarily wrong. One expert told Sarah and Tim a nicotine pouch is a "pretty clean product," but also acknowledged it's still early days.While Zyn has been available in the US for a decade, it's really exploded over the past year. There was a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/zyn-nicotine-pouches-huge-increase-us-shipments-2024-2">62% year-over-year bump</a> in the amount of flavored nicotine pouches shipped in the US in 2023.But what's more interesting is how concentrated it is among certain groups. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wall-streets-underground-drug-abuse-culture-cocaine-adderall-zyn-mushrooms-2024-1">Wall Street traders</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chuck-schumer-nicotine-zyn-republican-right-wing-2024-1">Republican lawmakers and their aides</a> are among the product's biggest fans.That's not entirely surprising considering the pressure and stress in those jobs, with Zyn being viewed as a way to help. Of course, it also has other uses — like socializing with people at kids' birthday parties, one person told Sarah and Tim.<div type="image" title="Containers of &quot;Zyn&quot; nicotine pouches." height="1500" width="2249" msid="108499965" hostid="261" sizebytes="200840"></div>Zyn, like any other nicotine product, raises addiction concerns.One Zyn user told Sarah and Tim he'll typically go through a little over a can, which has 15 pouches, each workday.As someone with friends who know their way around a dip can, I did some research. When I asked them about their Zyn usage, the responses weren't what I expected.One friend was using Copenhagen, a smokeless tobacco, to kick his Zyn habit. He said the nicotine pouches were too accessible and gave him migraines.Another had used Zyn to quit his tobacco usage but ultimately found Zyns to be a harder vice to give up, something echoed by the others.A third was using Zyn to quit vaping, but was already finding it addictive and was contemplating going back to cigarettes.Such a small sample size isn't meant to illustrate everyone's experience or suggest that Zyns are ultimately bad. But it goes to show the potential risks of trading one addiction for another.<h2>3 things in markets</h2><div type="image" title="New York Stock Exchange, Wall St, New York, USA." height="1414" width="2121" msid="108499969" hostid="261" sizebytes="315084"></div><ol><li>Controversial stocks can equal concrete returns. Stocks that analysts can't seem to agree on historically perform better than ones that are consensus picks, be it good or bad, according to a UBS report. Electronic Arts, Verizon, and Ford are among <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stocks-to-buy-contrarian-investing-strategy-wall-street-analysts-ubs-2024-3">30 stocks that Wall Street is split on</a>.</li><li>Reading the tea leaves on what recent Fed comments mean for rate cuts. The market thinks rate cuts are coming in June, but there are no guarantees. Here's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/economic-outlook-fed-rate-cuts-inflation-jobs-powell-central-bank-2024-3">a collection of comments from central bankers</a> since their last meeting that could provide some clues.</li><li>Get ready for a massive crash, Mark Spitznagel says. The "Black Swan" fund manager told BI that he expects the current market euphoria to last a little longer before <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biggest-stock-market-crash-since-1929-coming-mark-spitznagel-interview-2024-3">stocks suffer their worst collapse since 1929</a>. Spitznagel has been warning about the bursting of a credit bubble since last year.</li></ol><h2>3 things in tech</h2><div type="image" title="An illustration of an hourglass with the TikTok logo in it." height="1500" width="2000" msid="108499972" hostid="261" sizebytes="614630"></div><ol><li>A TikTok ban just got one step closer. The House of Representatives <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-ban-house-vote-results-uncertain-in-the-senate-2024-3">passed a bill effectively "banning" TikTok</a> in the US, but there's no guarantee the bill will survive a Senate vote. And while <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-could-bring-potential-house-congress-ban-legal-battle-2024-3">TikTok appears to be preparing for a legal battle</a> in the event of a ban, some employees said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-employees-feel-numb-latest-political-attacks-washington-2024-3">it's still "business as usual."</a></li><li>Angela Chao's death reveals Tesla's long-standing reverse gear issues. Chao drowned last month after accidentally backing her Tesla into a pond. For years before her death, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/angela-chao-death-tesla-accident-reverse-gearshift-issues-2024-3">Tesla owners had raised concerns about design flaws</a> and seeming malfunctions that caused them to accidentally drive in reverse.</li><li>The sky's the limit for Nvidia, according to Bank of America. Analysts said on Wednesday that the chipmaker still looks undervalued at its $2.3 trillion valuation, <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/nvidia-stock-price-outlook-ai-woodstock-1100-price-target-valuation-2024-3">flagging the "AI Woodstock" event it's hosting</a> next week as one catalyst that could drive shares even higher. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nvidia-stock-price-cisco-siegel-dot-com-bubble-ai-tech-2024-3">Wharton professor Jeremy Siegel is even more bullish</a>.</li></ol><h2>3 things in business</h2><div type="image" title="An illustration of a person surrounded by social media &quot;reactions.&quot;" height="1000" width="2000" msid="108499975" hostid="261" sizebytes="404884"></div><ol><li>The cost of ambition. One man's ambition helped him land a dream job, start a successful newsletter, and become an Oxford fellow. But he said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ambition-breakup-burnout-depression-anxiety-pandemic-layoffs-creator-economy-2024-3">it ultimately took a destructive turn</a>, affecting his mental health.</li><li>Welcome to the age of "flash fads." First it was Stanley cups. Now it's Trader Joe's tote bags. Americans are suddenly <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trader-joes-mini-tote-bags-stanley-cups-tiktok-consumerism-marketing-2024-3">obsessed with mundane status symbols</a> — and it's an example of just how fast today's consumer fads can come and go.</li><li>Airlines are turning on Boeing. The planemaker's well-publicized troubles are disrupting airlines' plans to grow capacity, with its 737 Max 10 and Max 7 jets yet to be certified by regulators. "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boeings-problems-have-airline-ceos-changing-plans-for-growth-2024-3">We all need Boeing to be better</a>," Southwest CEO Bob Jordan reportedly said.</li></ol><h2>In other news</h2><ul><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/drake-bell-brian-peck-letters-of-support-2024-3">Documentary reveals stars including James Marsden and Alan Thicke wrote letters of support for the acting coach charged with sexually abusing a 15-year-old Drake Bell</a>.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-don-lemon-canceled-erratic-consistent-twitter-x-2024-3">Of course Elon Musk bailed on Don Lemon. It's what he does</a>.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-georgia-became-green-manufacturing-capital-2024-3">How Georgia became America's green-manufacturing capital</a>.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alternative-to-high-interest-mortgages-could-be-dutch-style-mortgages-2024-3">One way to help American homebuyers? Do what the Dutch do</a>.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/south-by-southwest-texas-governor-greg-abbott-us-army-support-2024-3">SXSW weighs in after Texas governor tells artists pulling out of the music festival because of the US Army 'don't come back.'</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-economy-building-trade-route-train-rail-india-iran-2024-3">Russia's grand railway plan to get around Western sanctions is about to get even bigger</a>.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/healthcare-startups-grabbing-more-venture-funding-2024-3">Healthcare deals are picking up as VCs finally reopen their wallets. Here's what they are betting on</a>.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/quit-full-time-job-diversify-income-streams-2024-3">I earn 6 figures working just 10 hours a week. Here's how I rate my 8 income streams based on difficulty and earning potential</a>.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-texted-elon-musk-after-lawsuit-openai-2024-3">Sam Altman said he texted Elon Musk after the billionaire sued him</a>.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-rocket-launch-watch-live-2024-3">Will Starship explode again, or will it finally reach orbit? Watch the launch live and see for yourself</a>.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/choose-wealth-crypto-x-community-notes-nick-oneill-interview-2024-3">This guy is serious about crypto, but his joke character has gone viral</a>.</li></ul><h2>What's happening today</h2><ul><li>Today's earnings: <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/earnings-calendar">Adobe is reporting</a>.</li><li>The Senate HELP subcommittee is holding a hearing on 32-hour work weeks.</li></ul>The Insider Today team: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/dan-defrancesco">Dan DeFrancesco</a>, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/hallam-bullock">Hallam Bullock</a>, editor, in London. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/jordan-parker-erb">Jordan Parker Erb</a>, editor, in New York. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/george-glover">George Glover</a>, reporter, in London.

Why Zyn nicotine pouches are all the rage among workers looking for a boost

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="1565164" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Jeff-Lawson">Jeff Lawson</keyword> is the CEO and cofounder of Twilio.</li><li>The following is an <keyword id="1591634" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Excerpt">excerpt</keyword> from his new book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ask-Your-Developer-Software-Developers/dp/0063018292/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&amp;keywords=ask+your+developers&amp;qid=1608582476&amp;sr=8-16&amp;sr=8-1">Ask Your Developer: How to Harness the Power of Software Developers and Win in the 21st Century</a>.</li><li>In it, he says he made the mistake of not listening to his engineers once, and it cost Twilio over $1 million of startup money. </li></ul>So you run an experiment and one of three things can happen. You strike gold; you strike out; or you find yourself somewhere in the fuzzy middle.One way to break through the problem of the fuzzy middle and find out if you should scrap an experiment is to Ask<div type="image" title="Ask Your Developer jacket" height="702" width="477" msid="80753328" hostid="261"></div> Your Developers.It may be that nobody is making a decision because nobody wants to tell the business leader the honest truth. It's just human nature; a lot of human beings do not like to be the bearer of bad news. But one thing you might have gleaned from reading about Patrick McKenzie, Ryan Leslie, Leah Culver, and Chad Etzel is that the engineering mindset is often predisposed to (a) having strong opinions and (b) not keeping those opinions to themselves. To engineers, facts matter. I just think of it this way: engineers hate BS.So if you need someone who will tell you the truth, even if it's ugly - go find a frontline engineer.Jeff Immelt faced a situation like this when he was CEO of GE, doing a product review with a group of executives about a problem with the design of the brand new engine that GE had developed for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Engineers had narrowed the cause down to a critical flaw in the low-pressure turbine design. Now GE was facing a potential crisis. The company had spent five years and over $1 billion developing the engine. The market for this engine was worth $50 billion.Jeff watched and listened as people debated how to proceed - and then something dramatic happened. One of the frontline engineers who worked on the turbine stood up. He was not a manager, not an executive. He was just an individual <keyword id="1635141" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Contributor">contributor</keyword>. He said something that most people probably did not want to hear: "This is wrong," he said. "We designed it wrong. It's not working the way it's supposed to be working, and this is going to cost us hundreds of millions of dollars, but we have to do it over."Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/akerna-ceo-jessica-billingsley-first-woman-cannabis-company-trade-nasdaq-2021-1">Akerna CEO Jessica Billingsley on jumping from a career in tech to becoming the first woman to lead a cannabis company to trade on the Nasdaq</a>As Jeff recalls, "This was a master technologist, a guy who would not even think about being politically correct. He said this with such conviction. He knew the consequences of this decision were going to cost the company probably $400 million to fix."Jeff took that engineer's advice. It was a costly but correct decision.This story shows why it helps to have engineers who are building the experiments to give their point of view, as they're deep in the details. Sadly, experiments in jet engine design are a lot more expensive than most decisions we make in software.<div type="image" title="Jeff Lawson _Twilio" height="1500" width="2000" msid="80753329" hostid="261"></div>I made this mistake once. Early in Twilio, we struck a deal with a major phone carrier to build several communications apps for their small business customers. It was pretty outside of our core business, and the developers I asked to build them really questioned the wisdom. I heard their concerns, but I asked them to build the apps anyway because it could open a broader relationship with the carrier. "Strategery," I told them.Over the greater part of a year, they dutifully built the apps even while they continued to question the decision. Literally, the day before launch, a senior executive at the carrier changed his mind and pulled the plug. Our developers' work never saw the light of day. Nobody said it, but "I told you so" was clearly on their minds.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prezi-ceo-gave-up-coffee-during-pandemic-how-runs-meetings-2020-9">How the CEO of a startup challenging the dominance of Microsoft Powerpoint conquered his quarantine mornings</a>From this experience I learned two things. One, this wasn't an experiment. Due to the contract, we were all in, building blindly without any customer validation. The developers building it knew this. Second, I should have listened to the frontline engineers, who thought the apps were worthless and the business judgment unsound. We wasted over a million dollars of our precious startup cash on this misadventure. We could have avoided that if I'd paid attention to my frontline developers.Excerpted from the book <a href="https://www.askyourdeveloper.com/">ASK YOUR DEVELOPER: How to Harness the Power of Software Developers and Win in the 21st Century</a>. Copyright © 2021 by Jeff Lawson. The book was published on January 12, 2021, by Harper Business, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Reprinted by permission.Jeff Lawson is a serial entrepreneur who cofounded the cloud communications company Twilio during the Great Recession of 2008. He's the author of ASK YOUR DEVELOPER: How to Harness the Power of Software Developers and Win in the 21st Century, with a foreword by Lean Startup author Eric Ries. Lawson is donating the proceeds of the book to organizations that teach underrepresented populations to code.

Twilio cofounder Jeff Lawson: Business leaders should listen to their engineers about when to scrap a project

Nikola, the electric-truck startup that found itself in a full-throated yelling match with a short-seller last Thursday, has been playing defense this week — and it's not clear if investors are completely convinced.After initially promising a tit-for-tat rebuttal <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/status/1304081904677904390?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">within the day</a>, the company, presumably on the advice of well-heeled counsel, released <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nikola-response-short-seller-hindenburg-admits-promo-truck-couldnt-drive-2020-9">a full response</a> on Monday to Hindenburg Research's <a href="https://hindenburgresearch.com/nikola/">allegations</a> of lies, deception, and outright fraud. For the most part, the company's response flatly denied most of the accusations against it — but many require a little nuance.Perhaps most notably, the company would like you to know that its truck did, in fact, simply roll down a hill for a video shoot. However, the video was not a lie, Nikola said, because it was shot by a third party and never insinuated the truck was actually moving on its own power.As for the other allegations, even Wall Street's top analysts have brushed off most concerns in the Hindenburg allegations, given that they had to do with things that occurred before Nikola's full launch or at founder Trevor Milton's previous companies. Still, investors haven't been fully won over, and the stock is at its lowest levels since July — well before Nikola's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gm-nikola-announce-2-billion-partnership-2020-9">$2 billion deal</a> with General Motors deal was announced.Board member and early investor Jeffrey Ubben was <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nikola-board-member-my-fault-company-went-public-too-soon-2020-9">also on the defense this week</a>, saying he pushed Trevor &amp; Co. to go public too soon. The real story here, he told Bloomberg and the Financial Times, is Nikola's plans for hydrogen sales — not the trucks that have made up its only announcements and products so far.Read on below for more news from this week, including new data that could be good news for weary travelers, Uber's continued struggles in London and Arizona, cruise lines, U-Haul, and more. And if you haven't yet, <a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/4np/shiftinggears">sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox every week</a>.<h2>Airline workers have lower rates of COVID-19 than the general population — and airline CEOs say it's proof that flying is safe</h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/airline-workers-covid-rates-is-flying-safe-2020-9">Some (perhaps surprising) data from airline workers</a> shows that flight attendants and other airline employees have had a lower incidence of COVID-19 than the general population. Airline executives and union leaders say that's a sign that the safety measures airlines are taking on airplanes are having an effect.Data from the Association of Flight Attendants shows that a little over 1,000 flight attendants nationwide have tested positive for COVID-19, or a 0.8% incidence rate, if we count it from the roughly 122,000 US flight attendants as of the end of 2019. The number includes the association's members, as well as members of other unions and nonunionized workers.There had been a total of 6.6 million confirmed cases in the US as of Thursday, according to data from <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html">The New York Times</a>, putting national incidence rates at about 2%.<h2>Uber's struggles continue in Arizona and London</h2>Two long-running Uber storylines are drawing nearer to an end.In Arizona, the driver of a self-driving car that struck and killed a pedestrian in 2018 <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fatal-uber-self-driving-autonomous-crash-driver-charged-negligent-homicide-2020-9">was charged with negligent homicide.</a> Rafaela Vasquez, who was found to have been watching a video on her phone at the time, pleaded not guilty. The case is likely to set many precedents for our driverless future, since it is likely the first case of a death caused by self-driving vehicles. Uber notably was already chided by the <a href="https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/HAR1903.pdf">National Transportation Safety Board</a> last year for an "inadequate safety culture."And across the pond, the company's fighting for its life in London. This week, it <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-handing-passenger-driver-data-to-the-british-police-report-2020-9">agreed to hand over private data on drivers and riders to police</a> as part of efforts to keep its license in the city. Uber's eventual fate there is set to be decided on September 28. <h2>Everything else:</h2><ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/delta-furloughs-pilots-flight-attendants-coronavirus-2020-9">Delta will avoid involuntary furloughs for most frontline workers when federal aid expires, but pilot layoffs remain likely</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/uhaul-budget-prices-california-los-angeles-san-francisco-moving-trucks-2020-9">Renting a U-Haul to move out of California can be 4 times more expensive than moving in due to high demand</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gm-ceo-stands-by-nikola-deal-short-seller-fight-intensifies-2020-9">General Motors CEO says the company stands by its Nikola deal as the startup's short-seller fight intensifies</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/2020-kia-telluride-review-price-specs-suv-horsepower-three-row-2020-9">REVIEW: The $47,000 Kia Telluride is perfect for buyers craving a luxurious 3-row SUV without the luxury price tag</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/canoo-replace-car-loans-netflix-style-subscriptions-2020-9">The CEO of Canoo thinks the electric-vehicle startup has the key to fixing the problems Mercedes-Benz and Cadillac have faced with Netflix-style car subscriptions</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nissan-z-proto-prototype-debut-concept-prototype-new-specs-400z-2020-9">Nissan just showed off a stunning design prototype for the future of its most iconic sports car — check out the Z Proto</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-737-max-report-faa-flaws-oversight-2020-9">A blistering House report slams Boeing and the FAA over 'serious flaws and missteps' that led to two deadly 737 Max crashes</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/southwest-block-middle-seat-november-thanksgiving-coronavirus-air-travel-2020-9">Southwest will leave its middle seats open through at least November, offering social distance to anxious Thanksgiving travelers</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-truck-drivers-prime-transportation-strategy-2020-9">Amazon is scrambling to find truck drivers, and now forced to turn to the big trucking firms it has previously shunned</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/private-jet-execs-reveal-how-keeping-long-range-jets-flying-2020-8">Private jet execs reveal how they're navigating international travel restrictions to ferry the wealthy using long-range jets</a></li></ul>

Insider Transportation: Nikola's rebuttal, Uber's fight for its life, and safety data for wary air travelers

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="1334" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="China">China</keyword>'s leaders regularly tout their country's fighter jets as symbols of military capability.</li><li>But China's fighter jets have long had a major shortcoming: a lack of quality engines.</li><li>China's defense industry has struggled with that flaw, but Beijing is working hard to fix it.</li></ul>Of all the fighters in China's arsenal, none are as important as the <keyword id="1609350" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="J-20">J-20</keyword>.The fifth-generation fighter also known as the "Mighty Dragon" is more than just a stealth fighter. It's an example that China, like the US, can build some of the best military technology in the world.It has become a symbol for the Chinese Communist Party, shown proudly at military parades and mentioned repeatedly in Chinese defense publications.After a brutal brawl with Indian troops on the countries' disputed border last year, China <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2020/08/17/chinese-stealth-fighters-head-west-to-confront-india/?sh=76bb9e251b85" target="_top">sent</a> two J-20s to airbases in Xinjiang.That deployment was too small to be of any real strategic significance, but the fact that China deployed its best <keyword id="70380" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Fighter-jet">fighter jet</keyword> to a remote area in the Himalayas showed its seriousness. The J-20's <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3020346/china-deploys-j-20-stealth-fighter-keep-tabs-taiwan" target="_top">deployment</a> to China's Eastern Theatre Command is meant to send a similar message to Taiwan, Japan, and the US.But the J-20, like all Chinese aircraft, has been hobbled by a lack of efficient and durable, high-performance jet engines.That problem has plagued China's defense industry for a long time, and it's one Beijing is working hard to fix.<h2>A long-standing problem</h2><div type="image" title="J-20 stealth fighter china" height="902" width="1500" msid="83296160" hostid="261"></div>China's difficulties with jet engines may be surprising given <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/new-pentagon-maps-show-chinas-increasing-military-power-and-reach-2020-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the country's massive and successful military buildup</a>.It's also no secret that China is skilled at reverse-engineering foreign technology to make domestic copies. Virtually every Chinese fighter jet is based on stolen or reverse-engineered designs.There <a href="https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/how-british-turbojet-allowed-russias-mig-15-fight-the-air-26385" target="_top">is precedent</a> for reverse-engineering jet engines, but while China has plenty of access to Russian jet engines, Beijing's attempts to produce its own domestic designs have been largely unsuccessful.One of its earliest versions of a domestically designed engine, the WS-10A, regularly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/24/AR2010122403009_2.html" target="_top">broke down</a> after just 30 hours of use.There are many reasons for these failures. First, Russia is aware China has stolen its intellectual property before and is reluctant to sell Beijing its best engines. Moscow also doesn't sell standalone engines, instead including them on existing jets, which makes copying them difficult.Second, reverse-engineering skill doesn't easily translate into proficiency at developing new jet engines from scratch. That requires technological know-how that takes years of intensive learning to develop and generations to perfect.<h2>The 'apex' of technological manufacturing</h2><div type="image" title="J-20 stealth fighter china" height="833" width="1500" msid="83296161" hostid="261"></div>Perhaps most important, manufacturing jet engines is just <a href="https://thepointsguy.com/news/how-jet-engines-work/" target="_top">extremely complicated</a>."There are a few technologies that are really at the apex of technological manufacturing," and jet engines are one of them, Timothy Heath, a senior <keyword id="6356001" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="international">international</keyword> and defense researcher at the Rand Corporation think tank, told Insider."These high-end technologies are so difficult to master that very few countries succeed. Many have failed," Heath added.The main difficulty lies in the metallurgy and machining. A <a href="https://blog.klm.com/jet-engines-are-hot-in-at-least-4-ways/" target="_top">single engine</a> on a civilian Boeing 747 airliner, for example, has at least 40,000 parts. Temperatures in that engine can reach as high as 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, and its fan blades can spin well over 3,000 times a minute during an hours-long flight.Blueprints for such an engine can be copied, but the secrets to producing and shaping metal parts that can withstand those temperatures and spin at such tremendous RPM over thousands of hours - not to mention external factors like wind resistance and corrosion - without breaking aren't easy to find.Another disadvantage for China is that the entities tasked with developing these complex machines are state-owned enterprises.Historically speaking, SOEs struggle with innovation and developing cutting-edge technology. The reliance on reverse-engineering shows that this is the case with China, though there are certainly exceptions."They're better at just reverse-engineering simpler components and building simpler things," Heath said. "All this requires a level of expertise and competence that SOEs just often are not very good at. You have to recognize the limitations of the SOEs in China when it comes to innovation."<h2>'Crucial technology cannot be bought'</h2><div type="image" title="China J 20 Stealth Fighter" height="868" width="1157" msid="83296162" hostid="261"></div>China is more than aware of its engine problems.Liu Daxiang, the deputy director of the science and technology committee at the state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China, last year <a href="https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3114338/china-faces-urgent-unprecedented-challenge-develop-jet" target="_top">called</a> the development of domestic jet engines "a serious and urgent political task" and said China was facing an "unprecedented challenge.""The established countries in aviation have become more strict with us when it comes to technology access," Liu said, adding that recent US efforts to restrict opportunities for the Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei "tells us that crucial technology cannot be bought, even if you spend big."In an attempt to get direct access to the secrets of jet manufacturing, the Chinese state-owned aviation firm Skyrizon, which has been blacklisted by the US government, tried to acquire a controlling stake in Motor Sich, a Ukrainian company that is one of the largest producers of engines for helicopters, jets, and missiles.But the Ukrainian government this year <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-seizes-motor-sich/31161801.html" target="_top">stopped the deal</a>, most likely because of pressure from the US.Despite the setbacks, China has made some progress. Modern variants of the WS-10 have progressed enough that some Chinese jets <a href="https://www.defensenews.com/global/asia-pacific/2021/05/11/china-fields-j-10-jets-powered-by-homemade-engine/" target="_top">are being fitted</a> with them, including numerous J-20s.Chinese sources have <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-j20-fighter-jet-purpose-built-engines-in-2-years-2021-4" target="_top">said</a> that the WS-15, an engine designed specifically for the J-20, "may be finished within one or two years" and that once those engines are installed, the J-20 will be "on a par" with the US's fifth-generation F-22 Raptor.<h2>Ballpoint pens, microchips, and jet engines</h2><div type="image" title="J-20 stealth fighter china" height="978" width="1304" msid="83296163" hostid="261"></div>But many challenges remain. The complexity of the materials and metallurgy process, the costs of acquiring and maintaining the scientific and machining expertise, and the reluctance of other countries to assist China for fear of intellectual-property theft are but a few of them.China faces a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-03-01/china-can-t-churn-out-chips-like-other-wares-they-re-too-complex-and-costly" target="_top">similar predicament</a> in manufacturing high-end microchips and semiconductors. Despite hundreds of millions of dollars and major efforts by state-owned enterprises, China has not been able to create its own computer chips."It's just that some of these technologies are extremely difficult to do, and it doesn't matter how much money you throw at it - if you don't have the right combination of people, technologies, and skills, it's just not going to come together so easily," Heath said.But China doesn't give up easily. In 2017, a Chinese state-owned firm announced plans to mass-produce ballpoint pen tips for the first time. China already made billions of pens, but only after a five-year, multimillion-dollar effort did it develop the technology to make tips for those pens domestically."All these elements can be reached only through long-term investment and incremental development," a Chinese researcher <a href="http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2017-01/18/content_27985815.htm" target="_top">s</a><a href="http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2017-01/18/content_27985815.htm" target="_top">aid</a> at the time.

How China is trying to fix the biggest problem plaguing its fighter jets

Ken Burns on 'Muhammad Ali,' his new 4-part documentary on the life of the late boxing legend

A recent study by Britain’s ministry of defence has predicted that India is likely to be among the top three military powers in the world by 2045, along with the US and China, with a projected defence outlay of $654 billion. Though India’s military-industrial acumen is unlikely to surpass technological sophistication of the US by 2045, it may, along with China, rival it in terms of size. It is also likely to surpass Japan, Australia and South Korea (which will be ahead of other regional military powers) by developing sizeable and technically advanced armed forces, including ocean-going navies, capable of delivering an enduring and capable maritime presence both regionally and further afield, according to the study titled ‘Global Strategic Trends – Out to 2045’. 
 This projection explains why the Narendra Modi government is aggressively pushing its defence agenda. Recently the <keyword id="754702" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Defence-Acquisition-Council">Defence Acquisition Council</keyword> (DAC) cleared purchases worth Rs 80,000 crore, including six submarines worth Rs 50,000 crore. DAC also approved purchase of 8,356 Spike anti-tank guided missiles and 321 launchers from Israel. Modi’s reaction to the recent Pakistan-engineered skirmish on the Kashmir border—which resulted in the death of hordes of civilians besides forcing hundreds of villages to flee their homes as troops exchanged fire in perhaps the worst violence in the region in a decade—also amply demonstrated that India is posed to strongly defend its borders and foil any peer attempt aimed at weakening its military might. Modi not only asked the army to retaliate befittingly, but warned Pakistan that its military infiltration may cost the neighbour more than what it imagines. Pakistan’s subsequent retreat showed that it was sort of taken aback by the strong, calculated response from the Indian side. India’s ‘retaliation response’ to Pakistan followed its equally strong reaction during the recent border standoff with Chinese forces that overshadowed Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to India aimed at deepening commercial ties between the two countries. The Modi government also unveiled plans to build 54 more border posts in Arunachal Pradesh and strengthen <keyword id="6392347" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Indo-Tibetan-Border-Police">Indo-Tibetan Border Police</keyword>, which guards the Indo-China border. In another geopolitical move, India said it will supply naval vessels to Vietnam and help it modernise its defence system during the India visit of Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. All these recent moves are early signs of India’s determination to strengthen its defence prowess and slowly emerge a top <keyword id="423175" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="military-power">military power</keyword> globally. 
 
While the US will continue to be a key partner in India’s quest to emerge a global military power, as reflected by the Modi government’s recent decision to acquire Boeing's Chinook and Apache helicopters in a deal worth $2.5 billion, what is more important is India’s growing defence alliance with Israel. The fact India chose to buy anti-tank guided missiles worth $670 million from Israel, rejecting a rival US offer despite US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel’s ‘unprecedented’ offer to co-develop and co-produce US’ Javelin missiles in India during his recent India visit, reinforces that Israel is likely to be a crucial defence ally for India going ahead. 
 
A key feature of Modi’s government’s defence strategy is to indigenously develop military equipment as part of its broad ‘Make in India’ strategy—the decision to build six submarines in India at a cost of about Rs 50,000 crore is a clear deviation from the hitherto followed strategy of sourcing military equipment from outside. However, the government will find it difficult to convince the top honchos of armed forces which want sophisticated, ready-to-use foreign weaponry, than trying to develop it locally which may involve a lot of time and effort. The Modi government also has to keep lobbyists for foreign manufacturers of defence equipment at abeyance. 
 
While study by the Britain’s ministry of defence portrayed a bullish future for India as a military power, it warned that the country has to “overcome domestic political issues and improve the way it invests to attain the capabilities needed to project conventional military power globally”. One hopes that PM Modi is listening.

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