Economist, Mar 30, 2019 (II)

choi

On Mar 5, I posted "Economist, Mar 30, 2019 (I)," when the library was closing. I forgot to write that there was no need to read the rest of the text.


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There is no need to read the rest of text in none of the following.

(1) Banyan | Unclean; The huge challenge of purifying the world's most sacred river.
https://www.economist.com/asia/2 ... one-of-its-dirtiest

Two consecutive paragraphs:

"The whole river—from Himalayan glaciers across the vast North Indian plain to the filigree delta on the Bay of Bengal—is worshipped as a life-affirming goddess. The spiritual potency comes not from the Ganges's 2,500km length, which falls short of the world's longest rivers [longest: Niles 6,650 km; Yangtse 6,300 km]. Rather, its basin supports half of India's population of 1.3bn (plus nearly the entire population of Nepal and much of Bangladesh's). For its water and fertile sediment, no river is more important to humanity. And so for centuries Ganga jal has marked births, weddings and deaths. Scores of cremations take place daily on the riverside ghats in the city of Varanasi alone. Between January and early March, a temporary city sprang up on the banks of the river near Allahabad (recently renamed Prayagraj) for the Kumbh Mela festival, in which a staggering 240m devotees took to the river to wash away sins and human ailments.

"Yet the Ganges is likelier to add to the ailments than cure them.For decades, declining water volumes have been a growing worry, as hydropower dams have proliferated, wanton irrigation and industrial schemes have drawn water away and annual monsoon [the rainy season] has become more fickle. Three months before this summer's monsoon, the Ganges is a thin meander, much of its bed exposed, as it passes through Kanpur, the biggest city along its course.  Low flows not only harm the livelihoods of fishermen and farmers downstream. The also degrade water quality. Sewage is pumped directly raw into the stream.

Note:
(a)
(i)
(A) Ganges
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganges (table: Native name  Ganga; It is worshipped in Hinduism and personified as the goddess Gaṅgā
(B) Ganges (proper name; from Ancient Greek Gángēs, from Sanskrit gáṅgā, literally "swift-goer;" from verbal root √gam "to go")
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Ganges

In comparison, www.etymonline.com says the meaning of Ganges is "current" of the river.
(ii) Ganga jal (n; Hindi jal water)
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/ganga-jal

(b) "Scores of cremations take place daily on the riverside ghats in the city of Varanasi alone."
(i)
(A) ghat (n; etymology: Hindi from Sanskrit ghaṭṭa)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ghat
(B) One may search images.google.com with ghat, but a close-up is in Sethani ghat.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sethani_ghat
(ii) Varanasi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varanasi
(is the holiest of the seven sacred cities in Hinduism and Jainism; section 1 Etymology)

(c) "a temporary city sprang up on the banks of the river near Allahabad (recently renamed Prayagraj) for the Kumbh Mela festival"
(i) Allahabad
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allahabad
(section 1 Etymology: Mughal emperor)

Mughal: "less common spelling of MOGUL"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Mughal

But the firsts vowel of Mughal and Mogul is pronounced differently.
(ii) Kumbh Mela (proper name; etymology)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Kumbh%20Mela

(d)
(i) "Kanpur is the largest city in the state of Uttar Pradesh [capital: Lucknow] which literally means 'Northern Province.' * * * Kanpur is the economic and industrial capital of Uttar Pradesh. * * * The city's name is believed to be derived from Kanhiyapur meaning 'town of Kanhaiya (Krishna)': from the Web.
(ii) pur (Vedic)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pur_(Vedic)
(iii) In the 2011 census, City of Kanpur population was 2,765,348.

choi

(2) Hyundai Motor | In Need of a Tune-up; A superstar of South Korean industry struggles to reinvent itself.

three consecutive paragraphs:

"In 20 years Hyundai Motor (which also controls Kia) went from being barely known to the world's fifth-biggest carmakers by churning out decent if unexciting cars that were cheaper than similar ones produced by Japanese or Western competitors. * * * however, it has failed to keep up with the times.

"Hyundai's global sales were stagnant at 96.8ytn wo ($85bn) last year. Net profit declined in 2018 for the sixth year in a row. Since 2014 its shares have underperformed major peers such as Toyota, General Motors and Ford, measured in dollars. Some reasons for this lie beyond Hyundai's control. A weak yen boosted Japanese producers. * * * Its business in China was hit by a year-long Chinese boycott of South Korean products that followed a dispute over South Korea's new missile-defence system in 2017.

"Many problems, though, are home-grown. Hyundai's move upmarket in the past few years exposed it to fiercer competition. It missed the shift toward SUVS in Europe, America, and most recently China, Its Genesis brand [a 4-door, 5-passenger, rear or all-wheel-drive luxury sedan] has lagged behind in the highest-margin segment. Half of its productio capacity in China currently sits idle -- aggressive expansion may have more to do with this than the boycott, thinks James Lim of Dalton Investments, an asset manager. Rising labour costs at home, where it produces 40% of its output, have crimped Hyundai's ability to compete on price.  

choi

(3) Chinese trains | The Red-Train Blues; A giant Chinese trainmaker's push abroad is running out of steam. (in Business section).
https://www.economist.com/busine ... -the-buffers-abroad

Quote:

(a) "in Springfield, Massachusetts, famous for the rifles produced at its National Armoury, the arrival of a Chinese trainmaker has hit the buffers.  It is not that Springfield has no history of trainmaking; two centuries ago it built some of the first American-made railway carriages to replace British imports. The need for a local manufacturing base is what led CRRC, the world's biggest producer of locomotives and rolling stock, to set up shop there in 2017. Since then it has been attacked by the press as a threat to American jobs and national security. The firm was subsequently clobbered with tariffs [imposed Trump in trade war with China] on imported parts, and recently denied an exemption. Lawmakers in Washington, DC, are now trying to prevent federal funds from being spent on its trains.

"Some of the hostility is down to CRRC's sheer size. Founded in 2015 frm teh merger of China's two biggest train manufacturers, CRRC controls over 90% of the Chinese railway market -- which also happens to be the world's biggest. With its domestic business cornered, the company set its sights abroad. Liu Hualong 刘化龙, CRRC's chairman, went about this by setting up overseas subsidiaries to handle some of the support and assembly operations. * * *  

"CRRC now employs 180,000 people worldwide and post annual avenues of $30.6bn, around a tenth of which comes from outside China. Between 2013 and 2017, CRRC made 44% of the world's electric train and a whopping 71% of its high-speed ones, estimates Maria Leenen of SCI Verkehr, a railway consultancy in Hamburg. * * *

"America is an especially attractive market, owing to its preference for customised trains, which fetch a premium over the off-the-yard variety favoured elsewhere in the world. * * *

(b) "CRRC's manoeuvres has spooled its Western rivals. Siemens and Alstom have cited the threat posed by the Chinese firm's overseas expansion in defence of the attempted merger of their rail divisions, which the European Commission last month vetoes because it feared it would hurt competition. * * *

Note:
(a)
(i) CRRC won the bid of Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (a Massachusetts state government's agency), beating Hyundai Rotem, Bombardier and Kawasaki Rail Car (all bidders were foreign). Hyundai sued in vain, contending CRRC wsa subsidized by China and therefore could afford to bid lower.  
(ii) "CRRC MA, the corporation's first North American office, was established in 2014 in Boston, Massachusetts [MA pr Mass for short] upon award of the MBTA Orange [and] Red railcar contract" to assemble 404 subway cars with local labor but with parts from China (that;s where tariff applies (at CRRC expense) for a total of $566 million.
CRRC MA Corp, undated.
http://www.crrcgc.cc/ma/g10008.aspx
(iii) rollin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_stock

(b) National Armoury is a misnomer (British spelling aside). It should be Springfield Armory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield_Armory
(1777-1968; federal government's property throughout; to "manufacture cartridges and gun carriages" but not muskets during Revolutionary War)

(c) "the arrival of a Chinese trainmaker [at Springfield, Mass,] has hit the buffers"
(i) Terms and Phrases from Trains and Railways. Oxford Dictionaries, undated (blog)
https://blog.oxforddictionaries. ... -railways-language/
(sectional heading: Hit the buffers)
(ii)
(A) buffer (n):
"1: a person or thing that reduces a shock or that forms a barrier between incompatible or antagonistic people or things
        1.1 (buffers) British  a pair of shock-absorbing pistons projecting from a cross-beam at the end of a railway track or on the front and rear of a railway vehicle
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/buffer
(B) buffer stop
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffer_stop

(d) "It is not that Springfield has no history of trainmaking; two centuries ago it built some of the first American-made railway carriages to replace British imports."
(i) "Springfield was founded in 1636 by English Puritan William Pynchon as 'Agawam Plantation' [Agawam was name of a tribe around there] under the administration of the Connecticut Colony. In 1641 it was renamed after Pynchon's hometown of Springfield, Essex, England, following incidents, including trade disputes as well as Captain John Mason's hostilities toward native tribes, that precipitated the settlement joining the Massachusetts Bay Colony."  en.wikipedia.org for "Springfield, Massachusetts."
(A) I am clueless about captain Mason's role in the quotation. See John Mason (governor)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mason_(governor)
(1586–1635; governor of Newfoundland Colony 1615–1621; Mason never set foot in New England)
(B) Springfield, Essex
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield,_Essex
(ii) history of Springfield, Massachusetts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Springfield,_Massachusetts
("Wason Manufacturing Company [founded by Wason brothers] of Springfield – one of the United States' first makers of railway passenger coach equipment – produced America's first sleeping car in 1857 (also known as a Pullman Car [named after American inventor George Pullman, of sleeping car])" ) (citation omitted).

(e)
(i) Europe-China Rail Competition – 'Bigger Is Better'? Institut Montaigne, Feb 11, 2019
https://www.institutmontaigne.or ... ition-bigger-better
("On February 6th, the European Commission blocked the Alstom-Siemens merger * * * The [2015] merger has created a giant [CRRC] with an annual revenue greater than Siemens, Alstom and Bombardier combined, and a 30 percent share of the global rail market given its monopoly of the vast Chinese domestic market")
(ii) Founded in 2000 and based in Paris, "the Institut Montaigne think-tank - its name recalling an earlier French thinker called Michel de Montaigne": from the Web.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_de_Montaigne
(1533 – 1592; a French philosopher)