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While petrodollar recycling reduced the short-term recessionary impact of the 1973 oil crisis, it caused problems especially for oil-importing countries that were paying much higher prices for oil, and incurring long-term debts. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated that the foreign debts of 100 oil-importing developing countries increased by 150% between 1973 and 1977, complicated further by a worldwide shift to floating exchange rates. Johan Witteveen, the Managing Director of the IMF, said in 1974: "The international monetary system is facing its most difficult period since the 1930s." The IMF administered a new lending program during 1974–1976 called the Oil Facility. Funded by oil-exporting nations and other lenders, it was available to nations suffering from acute problems with their balance of trade due to the rise in oil prices, notably including Italy and the UK as well as dozens of developing countries. From 1974 through 1981, the total current account

 Chinese scientists have unveiled next-generation wearable tech in the form of flexible, breathable electronic fabric which serves as a wearable, washable, interactive display, with diverse applications from telecoms to medicine. Polymer scientists Peining Chen and Huisheng Peng at Fudan University in Shanghai achieved the remarkable feat by weaving electrically conductive transparent fibers and luminescent threads together with cotton yarn.  This intricate yet flexible framework could form the basis for ‘smart clothing’ to accompany the already largely ubiquitous smartphones and smart watches seen around the developed world today. The researchers produced a sheet of woven ‘smart’ fabric 20 feet long by 10 inches wide which can serve as a fabric display comprising roughly half a million pixels, one for each point of overlap between each of the different thread types.  Their wearable displays are reportedly about as bright as the average flat-screen TV and their performance prototype wi

Although the first prime minister of India Jawahar Lal Nehru was a self-proclaimed socialist-inspired during the days of the country’s freedom struggle by the transformation of the Soviet Union under a Marxist government, this did not ensure a close and cordial relationship with the USSR after independence. Stalin continued to view Nehru as a leader under the influence of the British and, the policy of non-alignment pursued by India also caused apprehensions in his mind. It was only after his death that there was a thaw in bilateral relations and a period of multi-dimensional economic and technical cooperation began when Khrushchev became the supreme leader. The USSR stepped in when the Western countries refused or were reluctant to help India with its economic development. The first steel plants (Bhilai), chemical fertiliser factories (Sindri), Heavy Engineering establishment (Haridwar and Bhopal) and units to produce life-saving drugs and vaccines (IDPL in Rishikesh) were set up with