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Hi friends, thanks for reading Newley’s Notes, a weekly newsletter in which I share links to my stories and various items I think are worth highlighting.
I hope you had an enjoyable holiday period. Best wishes for a happy new year.
My apologies: This week’s Newley’s Notes is a couple of days late due to holiday travel.
A and I just returned to Delhi after an excellent stay at Neemrana Fort Palace, about three hours by car south of here.
It’s a 15th century fort that’s been turned into a hotel. It’s quiet, the countryside is beautiful, and there’s even a fascinating stepwell nearby. I highly recommended it for a quick getaway from Delhi.
Okay. On to this week’s edition.
WHAT I WROTE IN THE WSJ
– Uber’s Drive Into India Relies on Raw Recruits – This is a story I’d been working on for some time, and I was happy with how it turned out. It begins:
NEW DELHI—How do you train a million new Uber drivers in a country where most people have never driven a car, tapped on a smartphone or even used an online map?
Uber Technologies Inc. faces that daunting task as it tries to avoid its fate in China, where it decided this year to sell its business to homegrown champion Didi Chuxing Technology Co.
The $68 billion San Francisco startup has plenty of cash and cutting-edge technology to bring to its battle in India. Also, the country hasn’t thrown up the kind of regulatory hurdles that have hindered Uber’s growth in other regions. So the company’s ability to find and teach new drivers could decide whether Uber can dominate this fast-growing market.
Click through for the rest of the piece, along with a video narrated by yours truly.
I also wrote a sidebar titled “5 Ways Uber Is Tweaking Its Strategy in India.”. These localizations include accepting cash payments, going app-less, using motorbikes and more.
– Apple Is Discussing Manufacturing in India, Government Officials Say – A scoop with a colleague that was followed by Reuters and picked up by many outlets.
It begins:
NEW DELHI— Apple Inc. is discussing with the Indian government the possibility of manufacturing its products in the country, according to two senior government officials, as the company seeks to expand its sales and presence in the South Asian nation.
In a letter to the government last month, the Cupertino, Calif., firm outlined its plans and sought financial incentives to move ahead, the officials told The Wall Street Journal. Senior Trade Ministry authorities in recent weeks met to discuss the matter.
An Apple spokeswoman didn’t respond to requests for comment.
I’ve written, as you’ll recall, about Apple in India before. It’s a huge market for the firm’s potential future growth.
FIVE ITEMS THAT ARE WORTH YOUR TIME THIS WEEK:
1) Wait, there’s a new “Bladerunner” coming? How did I miss this news?
Longtime readers will know the 1982 Ridley Scott sci-fi classic is one of my favorite films.
Well, “Bladerunner 2049” will be here in October. The trailer’s on YouTube here. Wikipedia sums up the plot this way:
Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K (Ryan Gosling), unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what’s left of society into chaos. K’s discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.
The trailer: meh. The idea of “Bladerunner” returning? A slightly more optimistic meh. I feel like I should be excited about this.
2) An analysis by Quartz of 36 best books of the year lists shows the title most mentioned has been Colson Whitehead’s novel “The Underground Railroad.”
I haven’t read it. Have you?
3) Jerry Lewis is a tough guy to interview.
In this seven-minute video, the famed, 90-year-old comedian had a remarkably cranky exchange with The Hollywood Reporter.
His mocking laugh is my favorite part.
4) If the less-than-robust Mosul Dam breaks, a million and a half people could perish.
That’s the thrust of this illuminating piece by Dexter Filkins in The New Yorker.
5) Was 2016 an especially bad year for celebrity deaths?
This week brought us news of George Michael’s death. Then Carrie Fisher. Then Carrie Fischer’s mom.
Snopes.com answers the question.
6) SPECIAL BONUS LINK: DESPITE WHAT YOU THINK, THE WORLD IS GETTING BETTER. There was a lot of bad news in 2016, but these six charts serve as a reminder that the world is, in the aggregate, improving.
Over the last century, extreme poverty and child mortality are down drastically, while democracy, education, literacy, and vaccinations have flourished. More info here.
Thanks for reading. Happy 2017!
Love,
Newley
