By Gunjan Sharma <p>New Delhi, May 15 () It is not just scientists and leading technical institutions in the country who are aiding the fight against COVID-19 but also several school students who have come up with innovations such as sunglasses with distance sensors, portable ventilators and touchless doorbells.</p><p> Sarthak Jain, a class 11 student of Modern Public School in Delhi's Shalimar Bagh, has developed Arduino -- an automated touchless doorbell with ultrasonic sensors to ensure the visitor does not have to touch the bell and minimise chance of corona virus spread.</p><p>"As doorbell is a medium of transferring virus it is used maximum times in our daily routine and hence the chances of spreading the virus increases," he said.</p><p>"So, using Arduino, an open-source electronic prototyping platform, I have developed a doorbell with sensors which can detect presence of a person or object within a distance of 30 to 50 cm and produce a beep sound from the buzzer without the person having to ring the bell," he added.</p><p>Shivam Mukherjee, a class 9 student of Amity International School here, has invented a sanitisation band called 'Abhay'.</p><p> "It is a simple band that can be worn around the wrist. Equipped with an inbuilt proximity sensor and UV light, it can sense when the user's hand is near an object and automatically disinfects the object via UV light and alcohol-based spray," he said.</p><p>"The band is computer-controlled and can be operated via an app. Further more, it is refillable - when the spray is nearing empty, a reminder is sent on your mobile... I have named it Abhay which means00 fearless" Mukherjee said.</p><p>Implementing lessons from their robotics class 'RoboChamps', two brothers from Haryana's Ambala have come up with a portable ventilator made of wood which is uniquely designed keeping in mind the importance of social distancing between medical staff and COVID-19 patients.</p><p>"We have created a wooden structure in which the ball is fixed between two walls. When pushed, the ball gets pumped. The whole structure is fixed with a motor that moves automatically with the time set which is required to pump that ball and this whole circuit is programmed in a way that it works automatically," said class 8 student Kartik Tara.</p><p>"This ventilator is connected to a circuit and interfaced with a mobile app so that patients' health can be monitored closely through the mobile app," he added.</p><p>His younger brother Vinayak Tara, who studies in class 4 said, "The protoype has been tested in the city hospital and we are seeking suggestions from medical experts to make the prototype commercially viable".</p><p> The duo has also developed sunglasses which can help maintain a fixed distance between people at public places.</p><p> "These sunglasses are integrated with IR sensors in which a code is set for a particular distance. IR detectors are little microchips with a photocell that are tuned to react to infrared light. If someone comes closer than one metre the sunglasses will start beeping. It can also be modified to play music or voice message like 'please maintain some distance," 8-year-old Vinayak Tara said.</p><p> Universities and schools across the country have been closed since March 16, when centre announced a countrywide classroom shutdown as one of the measures to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.</p><p>Later, a nationwide lockdown was imposed from March 25, which was extended till May 17.</p> The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 2,649 and the number of cases climbed to 81,970 on Friday, registering an increase of 100 deaths and 3,967 cases in the last 24 hours since Thursday 8 AM, according to the Union Health Ministry. GJS RHL

Sunglasses with distance sensors to touchless doorbell: Students turn innovators to fight COVID-19

<br /><ul><li><strong>The British High Commission has announced a ‘High Commissioner of the day’ competition for Indian women.<br /></strong></li><li><strong>The initiative is focussed to promote girl rights and gender diversity across the country.<br /></strong></li><li><strong>The participants can apply to the opportunity by 10 September 2019 and the winner will be announced by 20 September via social media. <br /></strong></li><li><strong>To apply, they will have to record and send a one-minute video on why gender equality and post it across social media platforms.</strong></li></ul>On the heels of the <keyword id="1411936" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="International-Day-of-the-Girl-Child">International Day of the Girl Child</keyword>, celebrated on 11 October, the British High Commission has rolled out a competition for Indian women to become ‘High Commissioner for a Day’.<br /><br />
	
	<div type="twitter" handle="UKinIndia" handlename="UK in India🇬🇧🇮🇳" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1149578788235141120/Vbx58x9I_normal.png" favoritecount="67" retweetcount="33" status="Would you like to be 🇬🇧 High Commissioner for a day?  Come participate in the ‘High Commissioner for a Day’ competi… https://t.co/nsU94Udqsi" createdat="1566302668000" id="1163783857516081154"></div>





<br />“I am delighted to announce the <keyword id="8006351" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="high-commissioner-for-a-day-competition">High Commissioner for a Day competition</keyword> for the third year running,” said Sir <keyword id="3277271" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Dominic-Asquith">Dominic Asquith</keyword>, High Commissioner to India. <br /><br />“Improving the lives of girls and women is one of the UK’s top priorities globally. The competition is an important opportunity to talk about our world shapers and game changers, our future leaders – our young women,” he added.<br /><br /><strong>Heading a diplomatic mission </strong><br /><br />The competition is for women in the age bracket of 18-23 years, which will allow the winner to head a diplomatic mission for a day. That includes media interactions, handling the UK’s overseas network and stakeholder meetings among others.<br /><br />Candidates can apply by 10 September 2019. To apply, they will have to record and send a one-minute video on why gender equality is important and describing their inspiration on the same. The video should also be shared across social media platforms — <keyword id="6354616" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Twitter">Twitter</keyword>, <keyword id="6354576" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="facebook">Facebook</keyword> or <keyword id="819905" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Instagram">Instagram</keyword> — and will be tagged to the official handle of British High Commission in India — @UKinIndia and hashtag #DayoftheGirl. <br /><br />The initiative was first implemented in 2012. Last year, Esha Bahal of Amity University won the competition. “Acting as British High Commissioner for a day has been a great and really unique experience. I’ve learnt about the breadth and depth of UK-India relations – and had the opportunity to highlight the importance of gender equality and inclusivity, issues which are of great importance to me,” she said.<br /><br /><strong>Selection process:</strong><br /><br />The British High Commissioner jury will select and announce the ‘High Commissioner of the day’ via social media by 20 September.<br /><br />The participants will have to pass the copyright ownership of videos to the <keyword id="6941946" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="British-High-Commission-New-Delhi">British High Commission, New Delhi</keyword>. The videos may then be used to produce content for social media channels. Hence, the participants should also not share any personal information in the video.<br /><br /><strong>See also:</strong><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/18-indian-women-just-got-funding-for-their-technology-startups/articleshow/68671163.cms">18 Indian women just got funding for their technology startups</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india-wants-to-dramatically-speed-up-the-processing-time-of-patent-applications-filed-by-women/articleshow/67123051.cms">India wants to dramatically speed up the processing time of patent applications filed by women</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/here-are-6-female-executives-that-show-why-the-claim-that-male-dominated-boards-cant-find-qualified-women-candidates-is-totally-bogus/articleshow/69904100.cms">Here are 6 female executives that show why the claim that male-dominated boards can't find qualified women candidates is totally bogus</a><br />

Would you like to be India's British High Commissioner for a day?

<ul class="summary-list"><li>In 2014, Nickelodeon's "The Legend of Korra" gave its two heroines, Korra and Asami, a romantic resolution. Both creators of the series later confirmed that the characters were bisexual. </li><li>When the series' groundbreaking queer finale aired in 2014, it deeply resonated with me, a closeted teen who had never seen any bisexual characters on television before.</li><li>"Korra" served a crucial role in my queer coming of age, and it also helped set the tone for an increase in LGBTQ cartoon characters in the latter half of the 2010s.</li><li>As of August 14, "The Legend of Korra" is available on Netflix in its entirety.</li></ul><p>On December 19, 2014, "The Legend of Korra" made history. As I like to joke, it also made me bisexual.</p><p>The final shot of the "Avatar: The Last Airbender" sequel showed the series' heroines, Korra and Asami, facing each other, holding hands as they gazed into each other's eyes. Even without a kiss, the sequence felt decidedly non-platonic, and seemed to clearly parallel <a href="https://youtu.be/6LI8_cN_FK0?t=73">"Avatar's" romantic conclusion</a>. </p><p>Days later, the series' creators <a href="https://bryankonietzko.tumblr.com/post/105916338157/korrasami-is-canon-you-can-celebrate-it-embrace">confirmed that "Korrasami," as fans dubbed the relationship, was canon</a>, and that both characters were bisexual. </p><p>As a fan, I was thrilled to see my two favorite characters end up with each other — a possibility I hadn't even dared to entertain given the dearth of LGBTQ characters in <keyword id="19966" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="cartoons">cartoons</keyword> at that point. I was a 17-year-old queer woman who had barely come to terms with her sexuality, and "Korra's" finale struck me deep to my core.</p><p>"[The] Legend of Korra has ruined me," I <a href="https://twitter.com/haasch_palmer/status/545825349666611201?s=20">tweeted</a> on the night of the finale. </p><p>Now, as the series arrives on Netflix on Friday, it's worth remembering just how groundbreaking the moment was. "Korra" was one of the earliest dominos to fall in a wave of queer characters making their way into cartoons like "Steven Universe" and "She-Ra and the Princesses of Power." It had a major impact on me as a closeted teen, and in many ways, my own queer coming of age paralled the significant increase in LGBTQ representation in cartoons across the latter half of the 2010s.</p><h2><strong>As a teenager, I had a hard time wrapping my head around bisexuality — "Korra" helped change that</strong></h2><p><strong><div type="image" title="korrasami hug" height="1595" width="2127" msid="77552836" hostid="261"></div></strong></p><p>If you watch "The Legend of Korra" now, with knowledge of its finale, you'd be hard-pressed to miss Korra and Asami's love story, even if you didn't notice the signs the first time around. That kind of obliviousness is familiar to me. While it was easy to write off any instance of queer sentiment at the time, my crushes on female classmates or habit of searching out "am I gay?" quizzes online made things pretty obvious.<strong> </strong></p><p>My attraction to multiple genders wasn't something I knew how to grapple with. I knew precious few bisexual people in real life, and much of what I had heard about bisexuality suggested that it was little more than a pit stop before coming out as gay (<a href="https://i-d.vice.com/en_us/article/vbepea/the-real-life-impact-of-calling-bisexuality-a-phase">a harmful and false stereotype</a>). </p><p>As a result, I felt like my attraction to different genders was contradictory, rather than complementary, and that being bisexual meant that I'd be faced with scrutiny at every turn. Suspicious of my own feelings, I didn't think I'd be able to weather the pressure. </p><p>"Korra" was the first piece of media to change that for me by virtue of simple validation. Up until that point, I had never seen a bisexual character on television before, and <a href="https://bryankonietzko.tumblr.com/post/105916338157/korrasami-is-canon-you-can-celebrate-it-embrace">showrunner Bryan Konietzko's note after the finale</a> —  "Despite what you might have heard, bisexual people are real!" — struck a chord with me. </p><div type="image" title="korra and asami laughing" height="1607" width="2143" msid="77552845" hostid="261"></div><p>Crucial to my connection was the fact that the two women had fallen in love after each had her own relationship with Mako, the series' initial leading man. While Korra and Asami didn't get the on-screen kiss that each woman got with Mako earlier in the series, it still felt like the series weighed all of these partnerships equally.</p><p>"Korra" was far from the end all be all when it came to fully embracing my bisexual identity, but it planted an essential seed in my head. If two characters that I loved so dearly could fall in love even after meaningful relationships with men, maybe my attraction to men, women, and nonbinary people wasn't wholly incompatible at all.</p><h2><strong>Both cartoon representation and I made big progress in the years after the "Korra" finale, but I still had some anxieties about how people perceived me</strong></h2><p>It took a full year of college — and another full rewatch of "Korra" alongside my roommate, to boot — for me to come to terms with the fact that I wasn't straight. My coming out happened in staggered waves over the course of the following year, as I came out to friends with <a href="https://twitter.com/haasch_palmer/status/1120159395952910337?s=20">embarrassing PowerPoints</a> and my family with <a href="https://twitter.com/haasch_palmer/status/1120129204597796865?s=20">an even more embarrassing cake</a>. It felt euphoric.</p><p>It also mirrored a larger transformation. Shows like "Steven Universe," which premiered in 2013, pushed major advancements in LGBTQ representation through earnest, empathetic storytelling. It centered characters like Garnet, the literal embodiment of the love between Ruby and Sapphire — two female-coded characters who <a href="https://www.them.us/story/steven-universe-is-the-queerest-cartoon-on-television">get married in one of the series' most notable episodes</a> — and Stevonnie, who is <a href="https://twitter.com/interACT_adv/status/1143558877767540736?s=20">both nonbinary and intersex</a>. Other shows, like <a href="https://www.them.us/story/bubbline-is-canon-adventure-time">Cartoon Network's "Adventure Time,"</a> made it clear that members of its main cast were queer. </p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Tfv8CaPINWw" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>While finally coming out to those close to me was the biggest step, I was still terrified that people wouldn't see me as queer enough. Outwardly, I enthusiastically embraced my queer identity, trying to fulfill every possible stereotype I was aware of by chopping most of my hair off, keeping my nails short, wearing more flannel, and<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/how-hayley-kiyoko-became-lesbian-jesus-695667/"> talking a lot about how much I loved Hayley Kiyoko. </a></p><p>As I threw myself into LGBTQ media advocacy, <a href="https://www.glaad.org/blog/legend-korra-turf-wars-and-importance-all-ages-lgbtq-inclusive-programming">"The Legend of Korra" was my rallying cry</a> as I continuously preached, and joked, about the impact that it had on me.</p><h2><strong>Queer representation in cartoons continued to improve as I became more assured in my own identity</strong></h2><p>After being very publicly out for two years, I finally internalized the messages that I was preaching. Graduating college, I had a clearer grasp on who I was. My bisexuality started to feel like just another rote facet of my identity: one that I cherished, but not one that I felt like I needed to constantly defend to myself or others.  </p><p>At 22, I started to grow out my hair. Part of this was because I was floating from internship to contract job to freelance assignments in New York, and didn't want to spend the money to keep it short. But it also felt less intrinsically tied to my identity as a queer woman. It was a marker of how my own relationship to my queer identity had shifted — I was no longer craving the same kinds of external validation that I had as a teen.</p><p>In 2020, it's clear that queer characters — particularly those whose queerness is integral to the story at hand — are starting to become more common in cartoons, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2020-03-25/steven-universe-rebecca-sugar-lgbtq-legacy">largely due to the efforts of showrunners</a> and <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-features/she-ra-reboot-netflix-queer-creator-interview-1013623/">storytellers committed to telling their stories on screen</a>. </p><p>Dreamworks and Netflix's "She-Ra and the Princesses of Power," which concluded in May, told a sweeping love story between two women that was so interwoven with the fabric of the show itself that, <a href="https://www.glaad.org/blog/exclusive-she-ra-creator-noelle-stevenson-talks-glaad-about-final-season-queer-representation">as showrunner Noelle Stevenson told GLAAD</a>, there was no other way for the show to end. </p><p><a href="https://www.insider.com/the-owl-house-grom-lgbtq-amity-luz-lumity-representation-2020-8">Disney Channel's "The Owl House"</a> recently revealed that Amity, one of the show's main characters, was planning on on asking its protagonist, Luz, to the show's equivalent of prom. Creator Dana Terrace<a href="https://twitter.com/DanaTerrace/status/1292321440696422400?s=20"> tweeted after the episode</a>, "I'm bi! I want to write a bi character, dammit!"</p><p>It's nothing short of thrilling to watch characters like "She-Ra's" Catra and Adora or "Steven Universe's" Ruby and Sapphire get their due diligence on screen and know that another young, queer person's "Legend of Korra" moment is happening in real time. </p><p>While progress is fluid, and the work is never completely done, the leaps that have been made since 2014 are astounding: "Korra's" finale wouldn't be nearly as groundbreaking today as it was back then, and that's a good thing.</p><div type="image" title="korra and asami korra finale" height="1588" width="2117" msid="77552850" hostid="261"></div><p>Now 23, I'm far from the defensive woman I was at age 20, and the scared teen I was at 17. To this day, though,  "The Legend of Korra" is still the most important queer story for me. It came at a time when I needed it most, with two characters who I already felt a kind of kinship with.</p><p>To date, I still regularly crack tongue-in-cheek jokes that "Korra" made me bisexual, and I don't think the contact high of watching its finale for the first time will ever truly fade. </p><p>I'll be spending the weekend rewatching it. I can't pass up the chance to relive my own queer awakening.</p><p><em>"The Legend of Korra" is now available on Netflix. </em></p><ul class="read-more-links"><li>Read more:</li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/the-legend-of-korra-avatar-the-last-airbender-netflix-sequel-2020-5">After watching 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' on Netflix, follow it up with must-watch sequel series 'The Legend of Korra'</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/avatar-the-last-airbender-netflix-legend-of-korra-debate-2020-5">The return of 'Avatar' to Netflix reignited a debate about whether its sequel series 'The Legend of Korra' stands up to the cartoon classic</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/the-shadow-of-kyoshi-book-review-avatar-f-c-yee-2020-8">The latest book in the 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' universe gives us one of its most compelling relationships</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/avatar-netflix-watch-best-cartoon-tv-show-impact-last-airbender-2020-5">'Avatar: The Last Airbender' is on Netflix now, and it still stands up as on eof the best animated TV series ever</a></li></ul>

'The Legend of Korra' helped me accept my bisexuality when I was still a closeted teen. It also ushered in a new era for queer cartoons.

By <p>Shakoor Rather  </p><p>New Delhi, Jul 10 () As dengue season sets in across large parts of India with the onset of the monsoon, scientists warn that COVID-19 and the mosquito-borne disease have overlapping symptoms and worry the country's healthcare infrastructure won't be able to cope with this double whammy. </p><p>The impact of a 'dengue-COVID-19' season would entail two different diagnostic tests and extract a huge toll on patients too, each disease making the other more complicated to deal with and perhaps more fatal. </p><p>While the number of COVID-19 cases races towards the 8,00,000 mark with 7,93,802 cases on Friday and 21,604 fatalities, the incidence of dengue is also high. </p><p>Based on 2016-2019 data, virologist Shahid Jameel estimated that India gets about 100,000 to 200,000 confirmed cases of dengue each year. </p><p>According to the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP), 1,36,422 dengue cases were diagnosed in 2019 and an estimated 132 people died. </p><p>  "The virus is endemic and present around the year in southern India, and in monsoon and early winter in northern India," Jameel, CEO at DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance, a public charity that invests in building biomedical sciences and health research framework, told . </p><p>Both COVID-19 and have symptoms such as high fever, headache and body pain.  </p><p>The dengue season may aggravate the COVID-19 situation as both viruses may supplement each other, warned Dhrubjyoti Chattopadhyay, virologist and vice chancellor of the Amity University in Kolkata. </p><p>"This situation is not yet well studied. But the information available from South America is dangerous and found to create a major challenge to their medical infrastructure," he said.  </p><p>"The effect will be very critical. As major symptoms are overlapping, simultaneous infection will be much more fatal. Weakened immune systems will help the other to be more fatal." </p><p>Once the dengue season starts, added virologist Upasana Ray, the infection spreads aggressively due to high prevalence of its mosquito vector, aedes aegypti. </p><p>"Each season, we experience heavy loads in the hospital wards due to dengue outbreak and those times it gets almost unmanageable. So, have we thought about what will happen when we have two menaces to handle together? Both of them have overlapping symptoms. Are we geared to distinguish if a person has dengue or COVID 19?" asked the senior scientist, CSIR-IICB, Kolkata. </p><p>The challenges are many. </p><p>Almost each patient with a three-day fever would need to undergo a test for dengue and another for the SARS-CoV-2 virus which causes COVID-19. </p><p>"Considering the current numbers of COVID-19 patients, will our hospitals have beds available for dengue patients? Or will only severe dengue cases be handled at hospitals?" she asked. </p><p>Explaining how the viruses manifest in the human body, Jameel said the dengue virus enters via a mosquito bite through the subcutaneous layer of the skin from where it reaches the lymph nodes that are rich in types of blood cells called monocytes, macrophages and dendritic cells. </p><p>The virus, he said, primarily reproduces in these cells and can severely alter cytokine production by these cells, a fundamental response to injury and infection in the body. </p><p>On the other hand, SARS-CoV-2 enters the cells primarily through mucosal membranes of the mouth and nasal cavity and initially replicates in the epithelial cells of the upper respiratory tract. </p><p>"In some cases, however, the infection moves down the trachea into the lungs, where it infects the air sacs that exchange oxygen with blood. This causes inflammation as the immune system tries to fight the virus and leads to fluid accumulation in the lungs, which results in respiratory distress and oxygen demand. </p><p>"So, you see, both viruses infect via different pathways and different cell types. There would of course be overlaps in physiological effects and immunological responses. They would most likely make each disease worse than either infection alone," Jameel noted. </p><p>The most likely effect, he said, would be on healthcare capacity. </p><p>"Since initial clinical presentation is similar -- high fever -- one would be ignored at the expense of the other. With hospitals mainly in COVID-19 mode, they may also refuse dengue patients," Jameel said. </p><p>He said this has been already seen in connection with pregnancy care and deliveries, dialysis and tuberculosis  treatment. </p><p>"We need to be careful and deploy tests for dengue also for febrile illness. Thankfully, India makes some very good tests for dengue virus, e.g. NS1 antigen test that is positive on the first day of fever," said Jameel. </p><p>Ray pointed out that there is no vaccine available clinically for either and no specific antiviral to treat them. </p><p>"This infection may show low to severe forms of infection including simple dengue fever, severe dengue and the haemorrhagic fever," said Ray. </p><p>"We are already amidst the SARS-CoV2 pandemic and hospitals are running out of beds although the government is trying its level best. We are yet to attain enough facility to handle the increasing coronavirus cases every day in India," she said. </p><p>According to Ray, careful preparation is needed as the country has very little time before a full-blown dengue season starts. </p><p>"While many dengue patients don't end up in critical care units (CCUs), a good fraction do. Do we have enough ICUs and CCUs to tackle dengue and COVID 19 together? Do we have enough trained manpower?"   </p>Healthcare and research, she said, need to gear up to fight this "upcoming very realistic situation".  SAR MIN MIN MIN

Season of two viruses? Scientists worried that dengue outbreak may aggravate COVID-19 crisis

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/51039413.cms" /><br />
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Ringing+Bells">Ringing Bells</a>, the company that launched '<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Freedom251">Freedom 251</a>', the world's cheapest smartphone at an unbelievable Rs 251 has stopped taking orders for 24 hours due to overload. <br />
<br />
The Noida-based company launched the smartphone yesterday. Bookings started today morning at 0600 hrs. <br />
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"Dear friends, we are very grateful for your enormous response and your kind patronage and would submit that as of now we received approx. Six Lacs hits per second as a result of your kind overwhelming response, servers are over loaded," <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Freedom251">Freedom251</a> said on its website. <br />
<br />
"We humbly submit that we are therefore taking a pause and upgrading the service and will revert within or before 24 hours," it added. <br />
<br /> The company has been set up five months ago by Amity University graduate <keyword id="3250964" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Mohit-Kumar-Goel">Mohit Kumar Goel</keyword>. He launched the Freedom 251 at an event attended by BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi. <br />
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Image credit: Indiatimes<br />


Ringing Bells stops taking
orders for 24 hrs for Freedom251

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/51053539.cms" /><keyword id="6428840" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ringing-Bells">Ringing Bells</keyword>, which is selling world’s cheapest smartphone at Rs 251, claimed it received 30,000 confirmed orders and over six lakh hits before the site crashed on first day of the bookings.<br />
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Pre-booking started at 6 am on Thursday and stopped by mid-day after the website crashed due to overwhelming response.<br />
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Ringing Bells director Mohit Goel claimed 30,000 orders were booked on the first day.<br />
 <br />
"We are not hiding anything. The money collected is being kept in an escrow account and the company won't get the funds till the deliveries are done. Orders will be taken for a maximum of 25 lakh phones online and another 25 lakh offline. We are promising 100% deliveries to all 50 lakh bookings by June 30, starting from April," said Goel.<br />
 <br />
Meanwhile, the telecom ministry is keeping a close watch on the sales of the Noida-based Ringing Bells phone.<br />
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"An initial internal assessment of the ministry shows the price of the smartphone can't be less than Rs 2,300 but the government won't step in for now unless there's a proven case of wrongdoing,” ET quoted a person as saying.<br />
 <br />
Meanwhile, Mohit Goel, who is rolling out the world’s cheapest smartphone, belongs from Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh.<br />
 <br />
Mohit is the managing director of Ringing Bells and often helped his father at the grocery shop.<br />
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Mohit has done engineering from Amity University. <br />
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(Image: Indiatimes)<br />


World’s cheapest smartphone maker Ringing Bells under close watch; Website gets over 6 lakh hits on Day 1

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5ad8f66a14b83fae668b47f3-2400/mg1605.jpg" border="0" alt="IMG_1605" data-mce-source="Knowledge @ Wharton" data-mce-caption="The 2017 Knowledge @ Wharton High School investment competition" /><p class="source"><span>Knowledge @ Wharton</span></p><p class="caption">The 2017 Knowledge @ Wharton High School investment competition</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><ul><li><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>One in five teenage students in the U.S. lack basic financial literacy skills, data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) showed.</strong></span></li><li><strong>Financial literacy is a basic life skill that is more than a nice to know, it's a need to know. And now it's more relevant than ever.</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span></li></ul><hr /><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Not everyone aspires to be an investment manager when they leave school, but the core elements of financial literacy should be common knowledge. <br /><br />This is particularly true today, in an increasingly global economy where people are spending more and living longer. Understanding how to manage personal finances is critical for anyone, and it helps to start young.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Unfortunately, we are not quite there yet. One in five teenage students in the U.S. lack basic financial literacy skills, data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) showed. Among adults, only 20% of those polled by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) in a study said they were offered and have participated in some form of financial education. It seems the country has a lot of work to do on the financial literacy front, and many teachers appear to agree. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">About 89% of Kindergarten through grade 12 teachers surveyed by the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) said that students should either take a financial education course or pass a competency test for high school graduation. Some states have taken this a step further and made personal finance courses a requirement for high school students. However, getting to where we need to be in financial literacy as a nation will take substantial effort. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Right now, only 17 states require personal finance courses, according to the Council for Economic Education's Annual Survey of the States. One reason for the gap could be the lack of teachers with the necessary background to teach personal finance topics, as only 20% of teachers in the NEFE survey said they believed they are prepared to do so if given the opportunity. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While progress is slower than we would like, we believe these steps are evidence that there are others who believe in the importance of financial literacy and preparing people during their youth to make informed financial decisions. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">CEO of the National Financial Educators Council Vince Shorb has said, "College graduates spent 16 years gaining skills that will help them command a higher salary, yet little or no time is spent helping them save, invest and grow their money."</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Former Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) Alan Greenspan noted it once too. He believed that the number one problem in today's generation and the economy is a lack of financial literacy. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">So how do we continue to build on the steps that have already been taken in financial literacy in the U.S. and move it forward? One method that we have found to be an effective way to get students engaged and learn about financial literacy is through an investment challenge known as the KWHS Investment Competition.<br /></span></span></p><h2>$100,000 portfolio</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5ad8f86c1b60b41e008b4983-2400/bev hendry hr.jpg" border="0" alt="Bev Hendry HR.JPG" data-mce-source="Aberdeen Standard Investments" data-mce-caption="Bev Hendry" /><p class="source"><span>Aberdeen Standard Investments</span></p><p class="caption">Bev Hendry</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Knowledge@Wharton High School (KWHS), a part of The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, hosts a free, global, online investment simulation for students in grades 9-12. Each team manages a portfolio of $100,000 in virtual cash and follows their investments over 10 weeks using Wharton's Online Trading &amp; Investment Simulator (OTIS). Participants then submit a final report detailing their investment strategy, analysis and overall competition experience, and the top teams are invited to present their strategies to a panel of judges at the global finale. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A keen proponent of financial literacy, Aberdeen Standard Investments partnered with KWHS in 2012 to help develop the investment competition because we believe in educating students at a young age and also support the focus of this challenge on learning as opposed to maximizing the growth of their portfolios.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the midst of trading hypothetical stock positions, students learn to work in teams, understand how various types of businesses are run, learn global economics and often a great deal about themselves and others. Students across the U.S. and around the world are allowed to enter, and it makes the students who participate that much more aware of the global community. Today, the competition reaches more than 3,000 students in 20 countries. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Not only do we learn new knowledge but also care about what is happening around us," said Si Hai Yi Xin from the Experimental Middle School attached to Hebei Normal University in China, who has previously participated in the competition. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Prophets team from the Amity International School, Section 43 in Gurgaon, India said, "we developed an inclination towards keeping in touch with the world around us, keeping an open eye towards all the possible developments, changes and growths in the market."</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One participant said learning how to invest meant they even could go back and teach their parents how to invest in the stock market and manage their own portfolios. Regardless of what the investment competition participants or any teenager wants to be when he or she becomes an adult, financial literacy is a basic life skill that is more than a nice to know, it's a need to know. And now it's more relevant than ever.<br /><br /><em>Bev Hendry is Chairman, Americas at Aberdeen Standard Investments.</em></span></p><p class="tagline">This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Business Insider.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/someone-has-designed-fixed-the-flip-flop-2018-4">A Portuguese company has fixed the most annoying thing about flip-flops</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/MTY7sedX-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

Financial literacy is a basic life skill and a need to know - and now it's more relevant than ever

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/44925402.cms" /><br /> The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to develop <keyword id="17425" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Allahabad">Allahabad</keyword> as an integrated industrial township like <keyword id="18858" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Noida">Noida</keyword>. It has come up with a proposal to develop Allahabad as an “access-controlled township that will have 4G network and full <keyword id="47655" type="TECHNOLOGY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Wi-Fi">Wi-Fi</keyword> connectivity with homogeneity of design for all building structures,” an official release said.<br />
 <br /> The Samajwadi Party government led by Chief Minister <keyword id="6355031" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Akhilesh-Yadav">Akhilesh Yadav</keyword> has been promoting its development agenda to win back support after its dismal performance in the Lok Sabha elections.<br />
 <br />
A presentation on the plan of the new city was made to senior officials from the infrastructure and industrial development department and Uttar Pradesh State Industrial Development Corporation during a meeting last week.<br />
 <br />
“Around 25% area of the township would be reserved for industries with dedicated power supply, prepaid electricity meters, provision for 100 per cent water harvesting, zero-discharge mechanism, and CNG supply network,” said Sanjiv Saran, principal secretary, industrial development.<br />
 <br />
Amity University, Fortis Healthcare and Maruti Suzuki have already expressed interest to invest in the state and the government is considering to allot them land in Allahabad.<br />
 <br />
“The education department has been asked to prepare a proposal to develop the university in 40 acres of land,” an official statement said.<br />


UP Govt To Develop Allahabad Like Noida

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5c6c65c52628985a777d6140-2400/gettyimages-515034125.jpg" border="0" alt="great white shark" data-mce-source="Westend61/Getty Images" data-mce-caption="Scuba divers in shark cage with white shark, Carcharodon carcharias, in the foreground near Guadalupe, Mexico." /><p class="source"><span>Westend61/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">Scuba divers in a shark cage observe a great white shark near Guadalupe, Mexico.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>In 1916, four people - including a 10-year-old boy - were killed in shark attacks along the New Jersey shore.</li><li>This <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/florida-shark-attack-expert-tips-how-to-avoid-2019-7">series of attacks</a> inspired <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jaws-1975-trailer-spielberg-2015-6">Steven Spielberg's "Jaws"</a> decades later. In the blockbuster film, a fearsome great white shark terrorizes the citizens of Amity Island.</li><li>But according to a shark expert, there have only been two incidents in recorded history in which a single shark has <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=shark+attack+business+insider&amp;oq=shark+attack+business+insider&amp;aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60l3.3553j0j7&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8">attacked multiple people</a>.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>The great white shark of "Jaws" fame, which loses a game of oceanic cat-and-mouse after eating several people, is a legendary Hollywood monster.</p><p>The hellish creature didn't come solely from writer Peter Benchley and director Steven Spielberg's imaginations: It was in part based on a shark that killed four people along the New Jersey coastline in 1916.</p><p>The spate of attacks that partially inspired "Jaws" culminated in the town of Matawan, where a 10-year-old boy was killed on July 12, 1916, while swimming in an inland creek more than 10 miles away from the nearest ocean bay.</p><p>However, the scenario in the 1975 film and the real-life events that inspired it are highly unusual, according to George Burgess, the former director of the Florida Shark Research Program.</p><p>"Animal populations, much like humans, sometimes have deranged individuals," Burgess told Business Insider.</p><p>In fact, the 1916 attacks were only one of two times in recorded history that a single shark perpetuated multiple attacks on humans, Burgess said. Typically, sharks avoid humans, and the rare cases in which these predators do chomp on a swimmer are usually hit-and-runs.</p><h2>'<span>Ferocious man-eating sharks</span>'</h2><p>On July 1, 1916, Charles Vansant was maimed in the water in front of a hotel in Beach Haven, New Jersey. He died as a result of his wounds. Less than a week later, Charles Bruder perished in Spring Lake, just 50 miles up the Jersey Shore. His legless body was pulled from the water. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d446223100a24285f5ef82a-312/njsharkattackmap.png" border="0" alt="shark attack map" style="float: right;" data-mce-source="Kmusser/Wikimedia Commons" data-mce-caption="A map of the 1916 New Jersey shark attacks." /><p class="source"><span>Kmusser/Wikimedia Commons</span></p><p class="caption">A map of the 1916 New Jersey shark attacks.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Then 10-year-old Lester Stilwell was bitten and dragged under the water while playing with his friends in Matawan Creek. <span>A 24-year-old local, </span><span>Watson Stanley Fisher,</span><span> hurried into the creek to look for Stilwell's body, but he, too, was mauled by the shark and eventually died. </span></p><p><span>That same day, just a mile downstream, 14-year-old Joseph Dunn was also bitten. He survived the attack.</span></p><p>These third and fourth deaths thrust New Jersey's shark problem into the national spotlight, and marked a turning point in America's collective psyche, according to Burgess: Sharks were no longer just interesting marine animals, they could be killers.</p><p>President Woodrow Wilson allotted federal aid to<span> "drive away all the ferocious man-eating sharks which have been making prey of bathers," <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/07/150702-shark-attack-jersey-shore-1916-great-white/">the </a></span><a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/07/150702-shark-attack-jersey-shore-1916-great-white/">Philadelphia Inquirer reported on July 14, 1916</a>. </p><p><a href="https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045211/1916-07-15/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=1916&amp;index=0&amp;rows=20&amp;words=15+July+sharks&amp;searchType=basic&amp;sequence=0&amp;state=Pennsylvania&amp;date2=1916&amp;proxtext=July+15+shark&amp;y=0&amp;x=0&amp;dateFilterType=yearRange&amp;page=1">The Philadelphia Evening Ledger said</a> on July 15 that "the shark menace was formally discussed the day before at a Cabinet meeting in Washington." The newspaper reported that a ship would be dispatched to cooperate with the Coast Guard, and "active warfare against sharks instituted."</p><p>Meanwhile, New Jersey <span>fishermen, Coast Guard members, and townspeople threw sticks of dynamite into Matawan Creek and used wire nets to try to capture the offending animal.</span></p><p><span>Local fishermen <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/dec/01/egypt-closes-beaches-shark-attacks">ended up catching various shark suspects</a>, including a 215-pound, 9.5-foot-long female shark <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Shore_shark_attacks_of_1916#/media/File:PhiladelphiaInquirerJuly151916.gif">with 12 babies in her belly</a>. </span></p><p><span>Finally, New Yorker Michael Schleisser caught and killed an 8-foot, 325-pound great white just a few miles from where Stilwell and Fisher were attacked. </span><span>The creature had 15 pounds of human remains in its stomach. </span></p><p><span><em><strong>Read More:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/florida-shark-attack-expert-tips-how-to-avoid-2019-7">3 people have been bitten by sharks in Florida over 3 days. Experts share tips for minimizing your risk of a shark attack.</a></em></span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d443702100a24255e5a9ce4-2272/matawancreekmouth.jpg" border="0" alt="Matawan_Creek_mouth" data-mce-source="Mr. Matte/Wikimedia Commons" data-mce-caption="Photo showing the Matawan Creek near its mouth in Keyport and Aberdeen Township, New Jersey. Photo taken from the Front Street/Amoby Road (County Route 6) bridge looking north." data-link="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Matawan_Creek_mouth.jpg" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Matawan_Creek_mouth.jpg">Mr. Matte/Wikimedia Commons</a></span></p><p class="caption">The Matawan Creek, near its mouth in Keyport and Aberdeen Township, New Jersey.</p></div><p></p></div></div><span></span></p><p>No further incidents occurred after Schleisser's catch, Burgess said, so most shark experts agree that it was indeed the perpetrator. Some scientists, however, argue that a bull shark could have been responsible, since those sharks prefer brackish water habitats like Matawan Creek more than great whites do. </p><p>Regardless of the species, the 1916 attacks were "a very unusual situation that's unlikely to happen again," Burgess said.</p><p>"Most sharks aren't going to be serial killers of humans," he added.</p><h2>There was only one other known case of multiple attacks by the same shark</h2><p><span>Burgess said that in the 50 or so years he's studied sharks, he's aware of just one other incident that involved a series of bites by a single animal. In 2010, the Egyptian government requested Burgess' assistance after a series of attacks on tourists near the Sharm el-Sheikh resort in the Red Sea.</span></p><p><span>Four people were attacked along the coast there on December 1, and three of the swimmers lost portions of their limbs. Four days later, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/dec/05/tourist-killed-sharm-shark-attack">a shark bit off a German woman's arm</a> while she was snorkeling in the area, and she died.</span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d44660e100a24294779a2c9-2400/oceanicwhitetipsharkatelphinstonereef.jpg" border="0" alt="Oceanic_whitetip_shark_at_Elphinstone_Reef" style="color: #000000;" data-mce-source="Alexander Vasenin/Wikimedia Commons" data-mce-caption="An oceanic whitetip shark at Elphinstone Reef in the Red Sea, 18 miles northeast of Marsa Alam, Egypt." data-link="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oceanic_whitetip_shark_at_Elphinstone_Reef.jpg" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oceanic_whitetip_shark_at_Elphinstone_Reef.jpg">Alexander Vasenin/Wikimedia Commons</a></span></p><p class="caption">An oceanic whitetip shark at Elphinstone Reef in the Red Sea, 18 miles northeast of Marsa Alam, Egypt.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><span>Using photographic evidence, scientists were able to ascertain that the same oceanic whitetip shark carried out all the attacks, Burgess said. T</span>he shark in question had followed a boat from New Zealand that was transporting sheep. As it traveled, the boat had been dumping the livestock's waste, as well as sheep that died along the journey, into the water, so the shark had been getting free food. Once the easy meals dried up, Burgess said, the animal "had to find food in a strange place." </p><p>A shoreline replete with swimming tourists may have been the most promising area to look. </p><h2>But sharks don't like to eat humans</h2><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jaws-1975-trailer-spielberg-2015-6">In the Universal Studios trailer for "Jaws,"</a> here's how the narrator describes the great white shark: "It lives to kill. A mindless eating machine. It will attack and devour anything. It is as if God created the devil and gave him jaws."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d44361b100a2400e663628d-2400/great white shark.jpg" border="0" alt="great white shark" style="color: #000000;" data-mce-source="Martin P/Shutterstock" data-mce-caption="A great white shark biting down on a piece of bait." data-link="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-3633167p1.html" /><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-3633167p1.html">Martin P/Shutterstock</a></span></p><p class="caption">A great white shark bites down on a piece of bait.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>But that's quite far from the truth, according to Burgess.</p><p>"Sharks aren't after humans as a regular prey item," he said, adding that the animals would rather hunt familiar fish and seals.</p><p>Imagine, Burgess said, someone "putting some strange dish in front of you for a meal versus your favorite dish and having you choose which one you want." That's the choice sharks face with humans. </p><p>But it's still good to be aware of the inherent risks of swimming in water that we share with sharks, he added. </p><p>"The ocean is a wilderness, not a backyard swimming pool," Burgess said. "It includes animals like sharks, sting rays, and jellyfish that can, and occasionally do, hurt us."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/new-england-beaches-have-more-great-white-sharks-2017-7">A shark expert says this US coastline could be the next danger zone for great white shark attacks</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/e5MZrAz7-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

The movie 'Jaws' was inspired by a real shark: In 1916, New Jersey residents engaged in 'active warfare' with a shark that killed four people

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5bebcb4db73c286da4605413-2400/ap18318139314501small.jpg" border="0" alt="APEC 2018" data-mce-source="AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein" data-mce-caption="Security officials stand outside a perimeter fence for a secured area ahead of the APEC Economic Leaders' Week Summit in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018." /><p class="source"><span>AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein</span></p><p class="caption">Security officials stand outside a perimeter fence for a secured area ahead of the APEC Economic Leaders' Week Summit in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>This weekend, 21 world leaders will make their way to Papua New Guinea for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, an event marked by controversy and questionable fashion photo ops.</li><li>The Pacific region is quickly turning into a contest for influence aligning China against everyone else.</li><li>China is winning for now, but impoverished nation's like Papua New Guinea often come out the loser.</li></ul><p>The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders' Summit or APEC, if you're feeling a little lost amid the proliferation of global get-togethers is the one where all the leaders line up afterward in colorful shirts, looking - as some commentators have quipped - out of place.</p><p>Usually that's APEC's key takeaway - how out of place everyone is in the Pacific.</p><p>This weekend, 21 world leaders will make their way to the faraway host of the annual APEC summit, an event often mired in controversy.</p><p>This year, that diplomatic jostle will take place in Port Moresby, the dilapidated capital of perhaps the regions most resource-rich, yet poverty stricken state, Papua New Guinea (PNG).</p><p><span>PNG is the poorest nation of the entire 21-country APEC bloc and its crime-</span>riddled capital, beset by health challenges and institutional corruption, is the fifth least-livable city in the entire world.</p><p>The summit's timing could certainly not be more interesting for struggling APEC nations keen to make the most out of the emergence of a sudden race for influence.</p><p>In just the last week, the Pacific's simmering struggle for aid, loans and what is being termed "debt diplomacy" has suddenly gone on the boil.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5bebcd94beb6706dc073c944-2343/gettyimages-916122896small.jpg" border="0" alt="Mike Pence Shinzo Abe" data-mce-source="Carl Court/Getty Images" data-mce-caption="Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (left) and US Vice President Mike Pence (right)." /><p class="source"><span>Carl Court/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (left) and US Vice President Mike Pence (right).</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>Superpowers jostling for position</h2><p>China, Australia, Japan and the US have all thrown down the gauntlet in the stampede to embed themselves in regional infrastructure projects and aid funding.</p><p>On Thursday, Australia pledged $3 billion in what has been called Prime Minister Scott Morrison's "Pacific Pivot."</p><p>On Friday, that pivot segued into a trilateral project as China pushed for cooperation and not competition in the Pacific.</p><p>Over the weekend, as Vice President Mike Pence makes his circuitous way to Moresby (via Cairns) he is reported to be carrying the prototype of America's Indo-Pacific strategy, rumored to be based on $60 billion in regional assistance.</p><p><a href="https://english.kyodonews.net/">Kyodo News of Japan</a> reports the $60 billion announcement is a bid to diminish China's rising influence  through the extension of its One Belt One Road development strategy.</p><p>The final piece of the Pacific puzzle, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will this<span> Saturday, fly into Port Moresby's Chinese-built Jackson airport to share his two yen at the APEC summit.</span></p><p><span>Likewise, Abe will be visiting friends and striving to bind new allegiances to counter China's successes in the Pacific, from the South China Seas to Fiji.</span></p><p>So, with new acquaintances to make and money for sale, Port Moresby's flourishing corruption and eye level impoverishment will be the more than appropriate backdrop for the 21 world leaders' awkwardly iconic fashion shoots that traditionally close out the summit.</p><p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/south-china-sea-energy-reserves-china-wants-to-block-outsiders-2018-11">The South China Sea is fabled for its hidden energy reserves and China wants to block outsiders like the US from finding them</a></em></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5b8045dd2be4ab1a008b5711-1620/2018-08-19t120213z172824989rc1d979abc60rtrmadp3china-politics-defence.jpg" border="0" alt="Xi Jinping" data-mce-source="Damir Sagolj/Reuters" data-mce-caption="Chinese President Xi Jinping inspects troops at the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Hong Kong Garrison in one of events marking the 20th anniversary of the city's handover from British to Chinese rule, in Hong Kong" data-link="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2018%3Anewsml_RC1D979ABC60%3A172824989&amp;search=all%3Axi%20jinping" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2018%3Anewsml_RC1D979ABC60%3A172824989&amp;search=all%3Axi%20jinping">Damir Sagolj/Reuters</a></span></p><p class="caption">Chinese President Xi Jinping inspects troops at the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Hong Kong Garrison in one of events marking the 20th anniversary of the city's handover from British to Chinese rule, in Hong Kong</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>Chinese President Xi Jinping has a head start</h2><p>In fairly contrasting optics, Xi will arrive and stay in Moresby for a full state visit, the first by any Chinese president.</p><p>The US President Donald Trump isn't attending at all.</p><p>But Pence has decided that rather than stay in Port Moresby at all, he will fly in and out of Cairns in Northern Australia, a 180-minute commute.</p><p>During his historic stay, Xi will attend the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting from November 17 to 18 and he will also meet the eight leaders of the Pacific Island countries that have diplomatic ties with China.</p><p>Xi will then continue on to Brunei and the Philippines shoring up relations there, according to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang.</p><p>China has also responded to concerns of its growing debt diplomacy in the region.</p><p>"China has no intention to touch the cheese of any country, instead China is committed to make the pie of cooperation larger," Chinese vice minister of foreign affairs Zheng Zeguang said on Tuesday.</p><p>"No country should try to obstruct the friendship and cooperation," Zheng said when asked about the expansion of Australian aid in the Pacific.</p><p>Then in a fairly extraordinary opinion piece published on Wednesday in the <a href="https://postcourier.com.pg/set-sail-new-voyage-relations-china-pacific-island-countries/">Papua New Guinea Post-Courier</a>, and addressed to the people of PNG, Xi Jinping spoke of t<span>he "rapid growth of China-Papua New Guinea relations is an epitome of China's overall relations with Pacific island countries."</span></p><p>The president said that first off China and the islands "need to bring our strategic trust to a higher level." </p><p><span>"China will stand firm with Pacific island countries and all other developing countries. Following a policy of pursuing the greater good and shared interests under the principles of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith, China will enhance solidarity and cooperation with Pacific island countries, support their development, and help narrow down the development gap between the North and the South."</span></p><p><span>"China will work with Pacific island countries to build a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind."</span></p><p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/australia-wants-to-challenge-chinese-influence-in-south-pacific-2018-11">Australia's new prime minister sounds like he wants to take on China's growing influence in the South Pacific</a></em></p><p>However welcome the intent, the goals are not so easy to kick in a region beset by inequality, poverty and corruption.</p><p>To the chagrin of most observers and a small contingent of striking workers, PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has gone on a bit of a wild spending spree ahead of the summit.</p><p>With a tight budget, some workers downed tools when Maseratis began arriving in numbers at Jackson International airport, brought in for the leaders.</p><p>Despite more than one-third (37%) of his country according to the UN Development Program living way down below the poverty line, O'Neill decided to welcome leaders with several Bentleys and the extra 40 luxury Maseratis specifically flown in for the meetings.</p><p>PNG, which is the one nation (aside from the wayward Australian state of Victoria) signed up to China's One Belt One Road initiative, has been a key beneficiary of Chinese investment and many of it's infrastructure projects will be in display in Port Moresby.</p><p>Beijing has fixed bits of the airport, had a crack at some transport infrastructure without enormous progress, donated a squad of fire trucks, somewhere near 50 coaches and 35 mini-buses to shuttle officials to and from the a $35 million convention center built with Chinese money by Chinese companies and workers.</p><p><span>Dr. Graeme Smith, a research fellow at the Australian National University's Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs told Business Insider that it is likely China has invested somewhere around double the $3 billion it is rumored to have staked in PNG.</span></p><p>To keep its hands clean in a time of added scrutiny, neighboring Australia, PNG's biggest aid-donor and former colonial power broker, is not providing any direct financial assistance for the APEC summit, but is flexing its security muscle and military ties, providing assistance to the tune of $130 million of APEC's total costs.</p><p>Some 4,000 members of the PNG disciplinary forces and their international counterparts will be patrolling the city for the summit, including 1,500 Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel supporting PNG's Joint Security Task Force, with just under 500 of those on the ground in Port Moresby.</p><p>For back up, Australia has mobilized up to 16 Super Hornet aircraft to be based near Cairns and three Royal Navy ships are stationed off Port Moresby, accompanied by one helicopter landing dock and several patrol boats.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5bebcbfd8c35ab6fe7211193-2400/ap18318165432799small.jpg" border="0" alt="APEC 2018" data-mce-source="AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein" data-mce-caption="A worker adjusts a rope line outside of APEC Haus, the main venue of the APEC Economic Leaders' Week Summit as a military ship is anchored just offshore in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018." /><p class="source"><span>AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein</span></p><p class="caption">A worker adjusts a rope line outside of APEC Haus, the main venue of the APEC Economic Leaders' Week Summit as a military ship is anchored just offshore in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>So who is coming this year?</h2><p>Almost 30 years old, APEC began in 1989, to encourage tighter regional economic integration for the Pacific Rim.</p><p>Most of the 21 APEC members are from this pacific region with the addition of Russia, United States, Canada, Mexico, Chile and Peru, together accounting for 2.7 billion people - more than a third of the world's population.</p><p>Headlining in 2018 is undoubtedly China's Xi Jinping.</p><p>Japan's Abe, Canada's Justin Trudeau, South Korea's Moon Jae-in and New Zealand's Jacinda Ardern will also be there alongside the new Australian leader Scott Morrison.</p><p>While Pence is standing-in for Trump, so too will Vladimir Putin's proxy, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, fly the Russian flag.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5bebcc76110d4c01ea439f84-2400/ap18318164874303small.jpg" border="0" alt="APEC 2018" data-mce-source="AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein" data-mce-caption="Workers put up a billboard reading &amp;quotThe world is watching, keep our city clean an safe&quot; on a wall along a street ahead of the APEC Economic Leaders' Week Summit in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018." /><p class="source"><span>AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein</span></p><p class="caption">Workers put up a billboard reading "The world is watching, keep our city clean an safe" on a wall along a street ahead of the APEC Economic Leaders' Week Summit in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>Putting Papua New Guinea on the map</h2><p>PNG's Prime Minister Peter O'Neill says he expects $85 million will be spent by leaders during the time of APEC alone and that playing host will put PNG on the map.</p><p>O'Neill, whose first move as prime minister was to scrap the anti-corruption body <a href="http://www.devpolicy.org/drowning-not-waving-an-update-from-pngs-taskforce-sweep-20151113/">Taskforce Sweep</a> that ushered him into power and then began looking into his own affairs, has allocated around $350 million for the event.</p><p align="JUSTIFY">Responding to some of the considerable flak that has come his way, O'Neill says PNG is in fact hosting the cheapest APEC meeting compared to other countries.</p><p align="JUSTIFY"> O'Neill said PNG is on the cusp of hosting one of the cheapest APEC Leaders meetings in history.</p><p align="JUSTIFY">"We were given the green light to host APEC in October 2016 and in the same year, we budgeted ($US7.5 million) K25 million towards APEC."</p><p align="JUSTIFY">That seems unlikely considering the summit's APEC house centerpiece is thought to have cost $75 million alone.</p><p>Stephen Howes, the Director of the Development Policy Centre and Professor of Economics in the Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU says the timing is not so great for a PNG facing mounting debts and rising corruption. </p><p>"Excessive borrowing in the boom years has now come back to haunt the government following a collapse in revenue," wrote in the ANU's <a href="http://www.eastasiaforum.org/">East Asia Forum</a>.  </p><p>But in the second most rural country worldwide, Howes added that there is a stronger, more damning indicator for how things are faring in PNG.</p><p>What has really caught the public's attention is the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-27/polio-outbreak-declared-in-png-18-years-after-polio-free-status/9913684">return of polio</a>, previously eliminated from PNG about 20 years ago.</p><p>"PNG is one of only <a href="http://polioeradication.org/polio-today/polio-now/">five countries in the world</a> experiencing a polio comeback."</p><p>"That the other members of this club are the Democratic Republic of Congo, Niger, Nigeria and Somalia - all four wrought by violence - shows the extent of the health crisis that PNG is facing," Howes said.</p><p>"The most recent symptoms of this crisis include the resurgence of  malaria and leprosy, and reports of <a href="http://www.devpolicy.org/severe-drug-and-equipment-shortages-port-moresby-general-hospital-20180523">worsening drug shortages</a>."</p><p>Australian freelance journalist Jo Chandler herself contracted drug-resistant tuberculosis while investigating the growing crisis.</p><p>So what does Howes expect will come of PNG's APEC?</p><p>APEC he says will deliver a mild economic stimulus, and is expected to be accompanied by a round of "announceables."</p><p>This is perhaps more likely than ever as the four regional pacific powers make their various bids for lasting influence.</p><p>"These may come from China or resource projects. Perhaps PNG will get more aid, but any <a href="https://www.businessadvantagepng.com/oneill-to-announce-preliminary-agreements-for-papua-lng-and-wafi-golpu-to-coincide-with-apec-leaders-meeting/?utm_source=Business+Advantage+PNG+weekly+update&amp;utm_campaign=0341d77c97-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_10_23_02_52&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_02084d248f-0341d77c97-412884301">resource project agreements</a> will be ones that were already in the pipeline.</p><p>Howes says that it is widely accepted (including by the government) that PNG needs to get a better deal from its resource projects. Rushing agreements so that they can be announced at APEC only weakens PNG's negotiating hand.</p><p>"By the same token though, APEC is meant to be about reform and development. PNG could have used its hosting of APEC to push through important change in a range of critical policy areas. It hasn't."</p><p>"Whatever happens at the leaders' meeting this year, in this fundamental sense APEC 2018 is a lost opportunity for its host."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/deadly-life-boston-gangster-whitey-bulger-2015-9">The true story behind Boston gangster Whitey Bulger</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/EeNuVKfk-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

The poorest nation in the Pacific will host its richest economic get-together, and it could descend into a dash for cash

<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54ada721eab8eaf356aff2c7-800-563/2010425kcikpa586.jpg" border="0" alt="North Korean General Kim Yong Chol"><p class="source"><span>KCNA</span></p><p class="caption">North Korean General Kim Yong Choi.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div>In a fast-changing region, one thing has long been a constant: the utter disregard that the mafia dynasty ruling North Korea evinces for the welfare of ordinary people. So growing evidence of liberalising reforms in North Korea is tantalising.</span></p><p>"Reform" remains a taboo word in the North. But new measures in the countryside appear to sanction people farming for the market rather than for the state. It represents a tacit abandonment of state collectives in favour of family farming, and seems already to have had an effect.</p><p>For the first time in decades, North Korea grew nearly enough to feed itself last year. Thanks to better harvests, the North Korean economy could grow by 7.5% this year, compared with annual growth of little more than 1% for a decade, reckons the Hyundai Research Institute, a think-tank in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. Asia's basket case could prove to be its fastest-growing economy.</p><p>Caveats abound. North Korea divulges little useful data, and last year the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) was not allowed in to conduct field checks. Many homes still have too little to eat--North Koreans on average consume a little over half the number of calories of their rich brethren in South Korea (for other comparisons, see chart on next page). Still, anecdotal evidence suggests that change in this benighted country is under way.</p><p>The agricultural experiment seems to have been devised in secret after Kim Jong Un came to power just over three years ago following the death of his father, Kim Jong Il. It was set in motion from 2013. Initially, it allowed groups of about a dozen labourers to register as agricultural work teams, effectively reorganising the big socialist collectives that have been a feature of North Korean agriculture since the 1950s. Farmers were also allowed to retain 30% of a new quota on production--a much bigger share than before. In addition, they could keep (ie, sell on the market) any excess harvest above the quota. Previously any surplus would have gone to the state.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5494838ceab8ea2d5046e3c3-1200-800/rtx12250.jpg" border="0" alt="North Korea" style="color: #000000;"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Jason Lee </span></p><p class="caption">Labourers work at a construction site in Pyongyang July 28, 2013.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Under a plan referred to as the May 30th measures, those teams were shrunk again last year, to the size of a typical family, while their share of the quota was enlarged to 60%. Even the permitted size of families' kitchen gardens, which are far more productive patches than land tilled for the state, have been expanded dramatically, from 100 square metres to 3,300 square metres. For Andrei Lankov, a longtime watcher of North Korea at Kookmin University in Seoul, the new measures, a quasi-privatisation of state land, are nothing short of revolutionary.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">A second area of experimentation, in state industry, is equally striking. Under the May measures, state factory managers may appoint their own employees, set workers' salaries, buy raw materials on the market and sell part of their production there too. Like farmers, managers will need to pay their dues to the state. Yet, says Mr Lankov, that is not so different from paying corporate taxes in a capitalist economy.</span></p><p>The regime is also promoting special economic zones (SEZs) with gusto, thanks to a new law on them. Andray Abrahamian of Choson Exchange, a non-profit group that organises business workshops in North Korea, describes a "palpable energy and excitement" among officials in charge of SEZs.</p><p>The oldest zone is the export-processing hub of Rason, in the north-east of the country near the borders with Russia and China. It was set up in 1991 and languished for years. But recent development has been swift. Chinese firms have paved roads linking its port to the Chinese border. Last July a new port terminal, linked to a freight railway to Russia, was launched. At a recent forum in Seoul on doing business in North Korea, Mark Kim, a Korean-American who operates a shoe factory in Rason, said his football boots were "selling like hot cakes" in the North (though he has yet to make a profit). Rason has also become the first place in North Korea where you are allowed to own your home.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54948389ecad04cf3f46e3ca-1200-858/rtr30la1.jpg" border="0" alt="North Korea" style="color: #000000;"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Bobby Yip</span></p><p class="caption">A waitress at a restaurant watches a state media television broadcast of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attending a party meeting in Pyongyang April 11, 2012.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The government has announced a further 19 SEZs since 2013, small hubs of between two and four square kilometres for everything from tourism (Chinese occasionally holiday in the North) and software development, to fertiliser- and rice-production. Nearly every North Korean city now has one or two zones (though, Mr Abrahamian says, they remain "underfunded and underconnected").</p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Reforms have been announced before, in 2002. Aiming to motivate labourers by aligning state and market prices, Kim Jong Il declared that subsidies to state-owned firms would be withdrawn, while farmers could sell any extra produce in small-scale markets. Yet by 2005 these measures had been rolled back. </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">This time round, comparisons to China's economic lift-off from the late 1970s are being made more readily.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Though his father died peacefully in his bed, Kim Jong Un may think his only chance of survival is change. Some analysts argue that he shows far more desire to improve livelihoods than his father ever did. Pak Pong Ju, the architect of the 2002 experiments (who has seen the fruits of Chinese reforms for himself), has re-emerged from the political wilderness and is now Mr Kim's prime minister. Mr Kim visits orphanages and amusement parks, and regularly speaks of improving people's quality of life. He has positioned himself as the champion of a growing urban consumer class in the capital, Pyongyang.</span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/549483886bb3f7870f2b2094-1200-800/rtr30jp2.jpg" border="0" alt="North Korea" style="color: #000000;"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Bobby Yip</span></p><p class="caption">Workers prepare the plot at Daedonggang Fruit Farm, with 125 hectares (309 acres) of apple trees, on the outskirts of Pyongyang April 10, 2012.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Yet there are grounds for scepticism. Perhaps the best that can be said of the new measures is that they try to narrow the gulf between the regime's upbeat propaganda ("Make fruits cascade down and their sweet aroma fill the air on the sea of apple trees at the foot of Chol Pass!") and the sordid reality of the lives that many North Koreans lead.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">A new generation of North Koreans has little recollection of families depending on the state for all their needs, says Sokeel Park of Liberty in North Korea, a group that works with defectors. A disastrous currency confiscation in 2009 hit small traders hardest, cementing distrust of the state. It even instilled a degree of defiance in those who had to work against the state system to survive.</span></p><p>Young urban North Koreans recently defecting to the South claim not to have been afraid to criticise the Kims among close friends and family. This group, hooked on foreign media being smuggled into the North, now refers to itself as "awoken", says Mr Park.</p><p>As ever more information from outside is ferreted into the country on DVDs and USB drives, state rhetoric and reality grow further apart. Parts of the regime understand this. Some of the impetus for the market-oriented measures, says Christopher Green of Daily NK, a news source with informants in the North, is to bring rhetoric and reality closer into line.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54948386ecad04994046e3c8-1200-800/rtr2sakp.jpg" border="0" alt="North Korea" style="color: #000000;"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Damir Sagolj  </span></p><p class="caption">Pak Su Dong, manager of the Soksa-Ri cooperative farm in an area hit by floods and typhoons shows damage to agricultural products in the South Hwanghae province September 29, 2011. In March 2011, the World Food Programme (WFP) estimated that 6 million North Koreans needed food aid and a third of children were chronically malnourished or stunted.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>In other words, the regime may not be leading change so much as responding to it. The collapse of the public distribution system, through which the command economy used to apportion goods, including food, was both a cause and consequence of the famine. Informal trading and smuggling networks, and black markets for food, sprang up as a result of it. The state has on occasion tried to suppress these markets, but has no more succeeded than with its attempts to reinstate the distribution system.</p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Today, three-quarters of what most people earn probably comes from an unregulated private economy. A forthcoming book, "North Korea Confidential", by James Pearson and Daniel Tudor (a former correspondent for The Economist), says that nearly all North Koreans lead a "double economic life", supplementing measly rations and puny state wages of as little as $1 a month with extra work in their spare time.</span></p><p>To an extent, the recent top-down measures may be an acknowledgment that the bottom-up change of the past 15 or so years is irreversible. In fact, the regime has a growing interest in the non-state economy. Officials tolerate private trade partly because they get a cut--in effect running a protection racket. Many have become entrepreneurs themselves, managing state firms for private profit. The Kim family itself gets money from such firms. To the extent that the state has recently cracked down on smuggling from China, it is in order for Mr Kim and the elites around him to get a bigger share of the pie, according to Kim Kwang Jin, an analyst and North Korean defector who once worked in the regime's "royal-court" economy.</p><p>Yet official corruption and protection rackets point to the limits of reform. There are rumours of local officials taking a cut of farmers' crops. Concerned about losing influence and privileged access to food, some officials are also trying to revive the state plan, says Randall Ireson, an expert on North Korean agriculture. Meanwhile, farmers will continue to depend on ropy government agencies for essential materials such as fertiliser and oil. As for last year's higher yields, they come at a price: emptying water reservoirs during a dry spell has left the country facing even more severe shortages of electricity than usual.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54948383ecad04d73f46e3cd-1200-800/ap581303578647_15.jpg" border="0" alt="North Korea"><p class="source"><span>AP Photo/David Guttenfelder</span></p><p class="caption">In this June 20, 2014 photo, young North Korean schoolchildren help to fix pot holes in a rural road in North Korea's North Hamgyong province. The Associated Press was granted permission to embark on a weeklong road trip across North Korea to the country's spiritual summit Mount Paektu. The trip was on North Korea's terms.  An AP reporter and photographer couldn't interview ordinary people or wander off course, and government "minders" accompanied them the entire way. </p></img></div><p></p></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">There is a deeper lesson from the Chinese reform path. It is that real, sustained improvements to a decrepit economy are possible only with outside expertise and capital. Yet, fearful of political meddling, the North remains deeply suspicious of foreign investment. Commercial relations with China, supposedly an ally, are abysmal, with Chinese mining and trading companies complaining of broken contracts and outright theft by their North Korean state partners.</span></p><p>Even Rason, at the forefront of North Korea's economic experiments, has yet to receive promised Chinese electricity from neighbouring Jilin province. A third bridge being constructed over the Yalu river, which separates the southern end of the two countries' border, was set to open in October; yet roads linking it to transport networks on either side are unfinished, and work on it has stalled.</p><p>But it is North Korea's nuclear-weapons programmes that do most to darken its relations with the outside world, above all South Korea, America and Japan. (Only with Russia is North Korea on good terms, and since that amity is based on hopes of aid, it is not likely to last, given Russia's straitened finances.) The programmes have brought <keyword id="6356001" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="international">international</keyword> sanctions down on North Korea, but the North gives no impression of abandoning them.</p><p>Indeed, according to a report by the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC, North Korea's stockpile is poised for rapid expansion. From about a dozen weapons today, North Korea could build 100 within five years, even without a fourth nuclear test. Its plutonium-based weapons, the report claims, have already been miniaturised to carry on medium-range ballistic missiles.</p><p>It may be that the regime wants to develop the economy. But it is certainly not going to do so at the expense of developing nuclear weapons--or of lessening the repression and state violence by which it stays in power. It underscores the dead end into which its leaders have driven North Korea. Even if the current reforms are maintained, the improvement to the livelihoods of North Koreans is bound to be limited, no matter which Kim is in power.</p><p>Click <a href="https://subscriptions.economist.com/nwcd">here</a> to subscribe to The Economist</p><p> </p><p>This article was from The Economist and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-headphones-tricks-2015-2">14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="o2OGM3czpWcydnvhjbkDBd6feXPuExiD" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'o2OGM3czpWcydnvhjbkDBd6feXPuExiD',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

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