cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/25100231

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.07-144241/https://www.theverge.com/tech/639126/india-frankenstein-laptops

In a dimly lit, cluttered workshop in Delhi’s Nehru Place, the air hums with the sound of whirring drills and the crackle of soldering irons. Sushil Prasad, a 35-year-old technician, wipes the sweat off his brow as he carefully pieces together the guts of an old laptop. It is a daily ritual — resurrecting machines by stitching together motherboards, screens, and batteries scavenged from other trashed older laptops and e-waste — to create functional, low-cost devices.

“India has always had a repair culture … but companies are pushing planned obsolescence”

“Right now, there is a huge demand for such ‘hybrid’ laptops,” Prasad says, his hands swapping out a damaged motherboard. “Most people don’t care about having the latest model; they just want something that works and won’t break the bank.”

cross-posted from: https://rss.ponder.cat/post/151488

An Indian-made component was identified in a Russian weapon system for the first time, while nearly all American-made parts have been phased out, Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) reported on April 7.

"For the first time, a component made in India — a clock buffer from Aura Semiconductor — was found in a Russian weapon," HUR said in a Telegram post.

The discovery came as HUR documented nearly 200 newly identified parts across six types of Russian weaponry.

These include the CRP antenna from the Russian-modified Shahed drone, North Korea's KN-24 ballistic missile, the onboard computer in the X-47 Kinzhal missile, and several reconnaissance and attack drones — including the Supercam S350, Gerbera, and Zala.

The Iranian-designed Shahed-136 drone, known as Geran-2 when produced in Russia, has been widely deployed by Moscow for loitering kamikaze missions targeting Ukrainian cities, energy infrastructure, and frontline positions.

According to HUR, only two American chips remain in the latest CRP antenna design of the Geran-2, illustrating Russia's shift toward components from countries not enforcing sanctions.

In previous drone variants, antennas labeled in Chinese featured 13 out of 15 components made by Chinese firms, including key signal-processing chips from the Beijing Microelectronics Technology Institute.

For years, Russia has served as India's top arms supplier. However, the imposition of international sanctions has forced India to diversify its defense procurement and deepen its ties with Western arms producers.

While India has publicly urged a diplomatic resolution to Russia's war in Ukraine, it has also continued expanding trade with Moscow.

Russia's strongest economic and military partner remains China, with both countries conducting joint drills alongside allies like Belarus and Iran. Beijing has also emerged as one of Russia's leading sources of dual-use goods that feed the Russian defense industry.

Read also: US increasingly polarized over Ukraine support as Trump’s ‘America First’ deepens party divide

From The Kyiv Independent - News from Ukraine, Eastern Europe via this RSS feed

The section also gives tax authorities the power to “gain access by overriding the access code to any said computer system, or virtual digital space, where the access code thereof is not available.” That text appears in the same paragraph describing powers to break down doors or crack safes.

“Virtual digital space” is defined as follows:

Email servers; Social media account; Online investment account, trading account, banking account, etc.; Any website used for storing details of ownership of any asset; Remote server or cloud servers; Digital application platforms; Any other space of similar nature.

I honestly am speechless about this

Fictional movie "Santosh" by Sadhya Suri blocked for release in India because its portrayal of misogyny, Islamophobia and violence in the Indian police force is too close to reality.

Weeks after it made headlines for being the venue of podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia’s remarks, the Habitat Comedy Club in Mumbai now stands shut following vandalism, two FIRs and a political controversy surrounding Kunal Kamra’s performance at the venue.

Kamra had taken a jibe at defection politics in Maharashtra, among other subjects, with a modified version of a Bollywood song that appeared to reference Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. But hours after he uploaded a video clip from his show on YouTube on Sunday, scores of Shiv Sena workers descended on the venue and vandalised it during another performance.

Why exactly were they investigating suicide to begin with? Because his post mortem report says cause of death was hanging till death... and his body was also found hanging in his own bedroom.

At least now they should start investigation of murder, but entire bollywood PR machine is in action to make one think that the 34 year old actor probably died of old age.

Her husband had spent the day helping his family prepare an elaborate sadhya (feast) for Onam, smugly pointing out at the dining table that the mango curry was “all him”. Those at the table soon broke into a mock argument over who made what, but his son let out a snort of derision.

“This is nothing to be proud of, acha (father). You are being a beta,” the 12-year-old said.

Andrew Tate is just one member of the sprawling online ecosystem of ‘manfluencers’ that profits off men’s anxieties and promotes a distorted brand of masculinity as a solution.

Learning GIMP. Made a wallpaper from ISRO logo.

While the IT Ministry hasn’t sent an official notice to X Corp, a source told the news agency, “We are in touch, we are talking to them (X) to find out why it is happening and what are the issues. They are engaging with us.”

For the first time, the govt revealed that Ministry of Information and Broadcasting’s blocking/grievance redressal inter-departmental committee has members from Press Council of India, FICCI and CII. Rule 14 of IT Rules 2021 allows for this.

From @aditi_[email protected]

What are your views?
Especially on whether land and education reforms are needed.

10x is much stricter then what most people would expect.

The timing is significant as opposition parties have intensified allegations of voter fraud and manipulation involving duplicate voter IDs.

At least four officials said that the ECI’s intention was to always make Aadhaar-electoral rolls linkage mandatory, as reflected in the language of Form 6B, Form 6.

From @aditi_[email protected] & @[email protected]

The Centre appeals against HC's ruling on unconstitutional fact check amendment, asserting it targets intentional misinformation without violating free speech.

Pursuing fossil fuel expansion alongside an ambitious 600 GW renewables target renders India's energy policy a paradox of competing priorities

New: IT parliamentary committee on wants MIB to introduce Broadcasting Bill in parliament at the earliest. In Jan submission to the committee, for the first time, MIB acknowledged the existence of the 2024 draft.

From @aditi_[email protected]

Honestly, instead of bringing starling to India, Jio should start making their cell service better for indoor coverage. Also, with how much pollution Starlink causes, I would never use it.

The Climate March 2025, organised by COHAS and led by the Public Transport Forum saw hundreds rallying from Chatth Ghat, ITO, calling for urgent policy reforms to ensure better, more accessible urban mobility.

More than 400 citizens, including young people, workers, students, activists, members of various organisations united to demand a robust, accessible and affordable public transport system for Delhi. They believe that a strong and affordable public transport network makes cities more inclusive, climate friendly and prevent working-class communities from being pushed to the margins.

Lets submit a India entry - [email protected]

We will submit a song (by replying to this post) - and others should vote (upvote or downvote) any existing submission they would like to too - the most upvoted song across all three India communities (listed below) will be considered as our submission. Song requirement is basically - Something released in last 1 year (basically Jan 2024 to March 2025) which is openly accessible (that is not paywalled, so anything on youtube works, and so does non premium spotify, patreon, etc. stuff)

Crossposted to - [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

A copy of the body of the post linked for details

Hey everyone!

I hope you’ve had a wonderful year and are ready to discover new music, because the Lemmyvision song contest return now for its second edition! For those not in the loop, read below to learn more about this Lemmy Event:

TL;DR

From right now and until April 1st, discuss with your country’s community on Lemmy about which song to send to the contest. Submit the song in this community by makign a new thread. On April 2nd, voting will begin, where you will rank your favourite songs in a form. Any song not submitted by this date will not be featured. On April 8th, results of everyone’s favourite songs will be published. You can use [email protected] for any question, this will be the community for updates and results, make sure to subscribe if you’d like to stay in the loop. What is Lemmyvision?

Lemmyvision is inspired from Eureddision (itself a reenactment of the Eurovision song contest) which was held on r/europe some years ago, and based on the participation of national communities / instances and the delicate musical taste of their members (you!).

Every country/community is welcome to participate! The contest follows the rule of “national languages only” but regional languages are welcome too, if your community would like to feature a song in a regional language of your country, that’s awesome. The aim is to promote different languages and cultures from around the world, to share more between our online communities across Lemmy, and discover songs from lesser known artists.

Last year, an exception was made for the programming.dev Lemmy community to participate by sending a song related to their main interest (they sent a video game soundtrack), if your community does not represent a specific country or language but wants to participate by sending a song related to your instance center of interest, you’re welcome to do so! For example, lemmy.blahaj.zone could send a song composed by a Queer person!

How it works:

This post, and the [email protected] community will be open until April 1st, and I will start promoting the event on various instances and communities. Lemmy communities who want to participate have the responsibility to gather its members and vote on a single song to send for the contest. On April 2nd, the songs will be locked in. A playlist will be created to allow you to listen to all of the submitted songs, and communities will be invited to vote on their favourite. The voting is estimated to last for about a week. On April 8th the results will be published, with a ranking of everyone’s favourite songs!

I don’t expect countries with a “small” population to be accurately represented on Lemmy, so no worries if you don’t have a community and are just a small group of people, or if your country is not even on Lemmy but another platform (Kbin and whatnot), I can make exceptions, just reach out!

Regional languages are welcome as well! Basque, Welsh, Cherokee… You’re welcome to promote a non official language instead!

Song submission:

Each Lemmy community is responsible for their own organization. Only one (1) song is to be sent to represent your community. If the song contains vocals then it must be in (one of) the official language(s) of your choice, or a regional language of your choice. Songs must have been released within the last year (after January 1st, 2024). Songs must not be international hits[1]. Submit your songs in their own thread in this community Verification will just require a link to the discussion thread created within your community, to ensure it’s a community (not a single person’s) decision. [1] this is to prevent drama that happened in the past on Reddit, where Germany sent a Rammstein song and obviously won. It’s up to my own appreciation of what international hit means, because it’s hard to measure (metrics on youtube or spotify aren’t the same), but I’m pretty lenient, just ask me if you’re not sure, better to discuss it than argue

Voting:

Voting will be done through a form created on tally.so. I will set up the form near the end of the month, and share it in a new announcement post when the time has come. If you’re worried about privacy, there will be no questions about personal data, and last year I deleted the form and its results a week after the event was done. On Federation:

I don’t discriminate based on instances, if your account is not on the same instance as your community, that’s totally fine. Additionally, if you’re on another Fediverse/Activitypub platform and would like to participate, and you’re able to federate with your representing Lemmy community, you’re welcome to join us, I’d just like to keep organization within Lemmy so it’s easier to track participations.

Would you like to help?

Last year went really well, and I managed to handle the thing alone. Programming.dev even helped with setting up the playlist! If you’d like to help in any way, please feel free to reach out, I’d love to have as many people as possible involved!!

Cheers!

Video title: D.Y. Chandrachud on the Ayodhya verdict, Article 370, and judicial transparency | BBC News India Video description: India’s former Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud sits down with BBC journalist Stephen Sackur to discuss landmark cases and his tenure. From the abrogation of Article 370 to the Ayodhya verdict, Chandrachud explains the reasoning behind some of his decisions.

Reliance Jio chairperson Akash Ambani had earlier asked the government to update the draft of the National Data Centre Policy so that Indian data remains within Indian data centres.

At least one lawyer present in the consultation on Tuesday said that the localisation mandate is ultra vires (exceeds the scope) of the parent act. The DPDP Act allows the Centre to blacklist territories outside India where personal data cannot be transferred.