Why Has Discussion and Protest Over Inflation Disappeared?

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The Oil Price Surge and the Silence of the ‘Expert’ Public

Good news for those who once declared they would happily pay Rs 500 a litre and still vote for Modi ji. That Rs 500-a-litre petrol may still be some distance away, but Delhi has already served up a delicious starter: petrol crossed Rs 100, and on 25 May alone it jumped by Rs 2.61 per litre, diesel by Rs 2.71. In just 11 days, petrol has shot up by Rs 7.94 and diesel by Rs 7.57. In Patna, petrol is now Rs 113 a litre; CNG in Delhi has sailed past Rs 81. The people, however, are not jumping up and down – at least not in protest. Their bouncing is happening on news channels, where they have miraculously transformed into global energy experts.

1. The Public’s Newfound Expertise: A Crash Course in Geopolitics

Switch on any news channel and you will find reporters thrusting microphones at people on petrol pumps. The responses are a masterclass in strategic patience. “The government’s hands are tied,” says one. “Until the war ends, the situation won’t normalize,” explains another. “We know crude has touched $100 a barrel, so prices will rise – but if the war ends, the government should reduce them quickly,” a third adds, suddenly sounding like a finance ministry spokesperson. The public has stopped wailing about inflation and started giving PowerPoint-worthy presentations on global supply chains.

This is a remarkable transformation. Before 2014, when the UPA was in power, the same public would take to the streets at the mere whisper of a price rise. The BJP’s leaders would dance to the song “Mehngai dayan khaye jaat hai” (the witch of inflation is devouring us). Today, that witch has been retired, and the public has enrolled in a crash course titled “Why the Government is Helpless”. They have internalized the global narrative so thoroughly that they now sound like spokespersons for the Ministry of External Affairs. The real breaking news is not the price hike – it’s the public’s newfound “understanding”.

2. Fear, Not Wisdom, Is the Real Reason

But let’s not mistake fear for wisdom. The same public that patiently explains crude oil futures is also learning a harsher lesson: the cost of protesting has become far higher than the cost of petrol. When Aamir Khan, a man seen in photo frames with chief ministers and the powerful, tweeted a song from his own film and then deleted it within hours, the question echoed – what was he afraid of? If a superstar cannot muster the courage, why should an ordinary employee filling petrol at a pump dare to show anger?

Consider Vedant Srivastava, a student who simply asked CBSE to recheck his physics paper. His tweet was seen by 2 million people, and the digital mob immediately branded him a “Pakistani”. His brother had to step in and publicly plead: “How can my brother be called a Pakistani?” A child, a student, labeled an anti-national for questioning an exam board. This is the atmosphere in which fuel prices are rising. When speaking out can get you investigated by the Enforcement Directorate, or turned into a “deshdrohi” overnight, silence becomes a survival strategy. Inflation may be burning holes in pockets, but the fear of the state’s machinery burns far deeper.

3. The Hidden Distress: Gold Loans and Default Warnings

Behind the smiling “expert” faces on TV, the ground reality is grim. On 28 April 2026, the Reserve Bank of India quietly asked banks to prepare for a spike in loan defaults by FY2027 and to set aside separate funds. A few weeks later, on 16 May, The Hindu Business Line carried an interview with George Alexander Muthoot, MD of Muthoot Finance. The headline said it all: “More people than ever are pledging gold for loans.” Muthoot Finance recorded a 48% jump in its gold loan business in FY2026. Mr Muthoot candidly admitted, “People’s purchasing power is declining; their incomes have been hit. But our business hasn’t been affected – in fact, more and more people are coming to us.” When gold loans surge 48% in a year, it means families are pawning their last assets to put food on the table, to pay school fees, to buy medicines. The smiling face on the petrol pump is the same person quietly removing his wife’s bangles from the locker.

The Chamber of Trade and Industry (CTI) wrote to Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, pleading for an emergency meeting of state finance ministers to cut VAT on fuel to 5% for three months – a move that could slash prices by Rs 10-15 per litre. Yet, the government, which can arrange a photo-op in minutes, cannot seem to arrange that meeting.

4. Oil Company Profits vs. People’s Burden: The Great Transfer of Losses

The narrative fed to us is that oil marketing companies are bleeding. Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri once claimed they were losing Rs 1,000 crore every day. But the numbers tell a very different story. In the fourth quarter of FY2025 (January-March 2025), the combined profit of IOC, BPCL, and HPCL jumped 41% to Rs 19,470 crore. For the full year 2024-25, profits surged by 130% compared to the previous year. In FY2024 alone, these three companies raked in Rs 81,000 crore in profit. Where did that money go? The losses, it seems, are always socialized; the profits are privatized.

Combined Profits of IOC, BPCL, HPCL (Rs crore)

FY2024

81,000

Q4 FY2025

19,470

Source: Company quarterly reports, various media compilations (The Hindu Business Line, 25 May 2026)

The table below exposes the brutal math of crude prices versus what the Indian citizen paid. When crude crashed, the government gobbled up the gains through excise hikes. When crude soared, the bill was instantly transferred to the public.

Year	Crude Price ($/barrel)	Petrol in Delhi (Rs/litre)	Central Excise (approx Rs/litre)	What Happened
2014	114	72	9.48	UPA era; excise moderate
2016	27	64	21.48	BJP raised excise 11 times; price barely fell
2020 (Covid)	20	~70	32.98	Record low crude, record high excise
March 2025	~75	94	9.98*	Pre-election excise cut of Rs 10
April 2025	~78	96	11.98	Government quietly added Rs 2 excise
May 2026	~97	103	11.98	Iran tensions; daily hikes; people pay more

*Estimates based on reported excise adjustments; data collated from Manik Tagore’s analysis and CAG reports.

When crude plunged from $114 to $27 between 2014 and 2016, petrol prices dropped by a mere Rs 8, while the government silently filled its coffers with over Rs 12 in additional excise. In 2026, when crude jumped to $97, the retail price was jacked up within days. This is the government’s definition of “citizens’ interest first”.

5. The Government’s Tax Game: Centre, States, and the Never-Ending Excuse

On 27 March 2025, with elections around the corner, the Modi government cut central excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 10. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal thumped his chest and declared, “Despite the global challenges, the Modi government has taken the loss upon itself to make citizens’ lives easier. Whatever the global challenge, the interest of Indian citizens comes first.” A grand narrative of sacrifice. But as soon as the elections were over, the government quietly added back Rs 2 per litre in April 2025, and by May 2026, daily price hikes became the norm. The “loss” they took upon themselves lasted just long enough for the polling booths to close.

States, too, have feasted on fuel taxes. After GST implementation squeezed their revenue, almost all states – except Kerala, as per CAG reports – made up the shortfall by increasing VAT and sales tax on petrol, diesel, and jet fuel. Today, in many states, nearly 40-50% of the retail price of fuel is tax. The central and state governments together have turned petrol pumps into tax collection machines. And when global crude prices rise, nobody talks about reducing that tax burden; instead, the public is lectured on “global challenges”.

6. What Other Countries Did: Tax Cuts, Not Excuses

While India’s public was being trained in geopolitical patience, governments around the world took real steps to cushion their citizens. In the past month alone:

• Pakistan cut petrol prices by Rs 6 per litre and diesel by Rs 6.80.
• Germany’s Finance Minister ordered oil companies to pass on discounts and slashed the energy tax by 17 cents a litre, along with a relief package of over $1.4 billion.
• Thailand saw oil companies reduce pump prices by 85 satang.
• Australia halved its fuel excise duty for three months starting 30 March.
• South Africa reduced its fuel tax for one month from 31 March.

India’s response? A pre-election cut that was reversed, followed by daily price hikes and a wall of “expert” public opinion manufactured on television. If Germany, Australia, and South Africa can absorb fiscal pain to protect their people, why can’t a government that claims to have made India the fifth-largest economy do the same?

7. Pre-2014 Modi vs. Post-2014 Modi: The Hypocrisy Laid Bare

Before 2014, Narendra Modi and the BJP turned every fuel price rise into a weapon against the UPA. Modi himself would thunder about the “mehngai dayan”, and his supporters would sing, dance, and demand the government’s resignation. Today, those same leaders cannot even hum that tune. The Enforcement Directorate and a barrage of investigative agencies ensure that the song remains buried. Opposition leaders, activists, and even film stars know that if they raise their voice, their next few years might be spent in legal battles rather than on the streets. The BJP’s pre-2014 “public interest” was nothing but a ladder to power. Once on the throne, they pulled the ladder up and set the dogs on anyone who dares to ask for it back.

8. Conclusion: When the People Sing Songs of Joy Amid Ruin

The public may have been conditioned to rationalize every price hike, but the market data, the gold loan queues, and the RBI’s quiet warnings tell the real story. Indians are burning their savings to survive, while the government and its oil companies burnish their balance sheets. The tragedy is not just that petrol is Rs 113 a litre; the tragedy is that the public has been so systematically terrorized that it now explains its own exploitation in the language of its exploiters.

So, the next time you visit a petrol pump, pay Rs 500, fill exactly one litre, smile at the attendant and say, “I am very, very happy. Please keep the change.” That, dear viewers, is the true state of our democracy.

Criticisms

• The Modi government has turned fear into a state policy, ensuring that economic hardship is met with silence, not protest.
• BJP leaders who built their careers attacking UPA over fuel prices now cower behind “global factors” and use agencies to crush dissent.
• Oil PSUs are allowed to pocket record profits in good times and instantly pass on every loss to citizens, with the government’s full backing.
• The media behaves as a propaganda arm, airing staged “expert” vox pops while burying real stories of distress and state intimidation.
• Excise duty and VAT on fuel are regressive taxes that the poor pay, while the government pretends to be pro-poor.
• The selective tax cuts before elections and immediate rollback afterwards are a textbook betrayal of public trust.
• Despite ruling 21 states, the BJP refuses to coordinate a VAT reduction, exposing its complete disregard for citizens’ suffering.
• Calling a student a “Pakistani” for questioning an exam board is a direct outcome of the toxic nationalism this government has fostered.
• The narrative of “global helplessness” is a lie when other nations with fewer resources have cut taxes and cushioned their people.
• People have been reduced to smiling victims who dare not complain – and that is the greatest failure of Indian democracy under this regime.

AI generated, for reference only.

See All News by Ravish Kumar    « Previously

Rich and Spiritual: Be Both

Lessons in Investing    All Buddhist Stories    « Previously in Investing    « Previously in "Buddhism and Wealth"

PERSPECTIVE  /  PHILOSOPHY & WEALTH

The Soul
That Earns

Why spiritual people have a duty to be rich — and why the richest among us desperately need their souls back.

By Editorial ● 10 min read ● Philosophy & Personal Finance

“

Spirituality without money is socially impotent. Materialism without spirituality is simply poorer.

”

The Question Nobody Asks at Dinner

Here is a quick experiment. Ask the people around you how many consider themselves spiritual. Depending on the room, you might get a few shy hands. Yet if you put the same question to the internet, some surveys will tell you that more than 90% of the global population qualifies — because they belong to an organised religion.

That number, of course, says almost nothing meaningful. It simply tells us that spirituality and religion have been glued together so tightly in our minds that we have forgotten they are not the same thing.

So let us start by pulling them apart — and then take on a far more interesting question: do spirituality and materialism have to be enemies at all?

What Does "Spiritual" Actually Mean?

Strip away the incense and the scripture, and spirituality has a remarkably clean definition: you are spiritual when you are blissful, peaceful, and loving — without needing anything outside yourself to trigger those states.

Think about it this way. You feel happy on a dream holiday. Is that spirituality? No — it is circumstance. You feel at peace in a quiet garden. Is that spirituality? Still no — the garden is doing the work. You feel loving because someone gave you flowers. Beautiful, but not spiritual — the flowers are the trigger.

Spirituality is when those same qualities — bliss, peace, love — bubble up from the inside, unbidden and unconditional. When you are that way not because of something that happened, but because that is simply what you are.

◆ A SMALL PARABLE

A lamp is lit inside a lantern. Sunshine makes the room bright — but the lantern glows whether the sun is shining or not. Most of us are rooms waiting for the sun. A spiritual person is the lantern.

And "Materialistic" — Is It Really a Dirty Word?

The dictionary is not kind. "Materialistic" is defined as an excessive focus on money and possessions, often to the point of making them the most important thing in life. The framing is negative by design.

But consider a gentler, more honest definition: a material person is someone who enjoys and embraces physical prosperity without guilt. Not someone consumed by greed — just someone who is open to receiving abundance, comfortable with wealth, and willing to let money flow toward them and through them.

That reframing matters enormously, as we will see shortly.

Common Perceptions vs. A Richer Reality

	How They See Themselves	How the Other Side Sees Them	What They Are Missing
Spiritual Person	"I am beyond possessions. We are spiritual beings having a human experience."	"They cannot handle the real world and hide in abstractions."	The social and financial power to actually do good at scale.
Material Person	"I am open to abundance, building something real."	"They worship money and miss the point of life."	An inner anchor that makes success feel like something more than a scoreboard.

The Celebrity in the Empty Room

Consider the most visible evidence that money alone does not complete a person. Some of the most celebrated entertainers in the world — actors, comedians, musicians at the absolute peak of their careers — have publicly spoken about profound depression, emptiness, and a sense that something essential is missing from their lives.

We have watched icons walk away from everything at the height of their fame, or worse, make irreversible decisions in moments of inner collapse. These were not people who lacked wealth or recognition. They had everything that materialism promises — and they found the room empty.

The lesson is not that success is bad. The lesson is that success without an inner life is a house without a foundation. The grander the structure, the more dangerous that gap becomes.

And there is another, quieter anxiety that wealth brings: the anxiety of staying at the top. The number one position in any field — business, sport, entertainment — is uniquely uncomfortable because it feels permanently under threat. That insecurity, felt by kings throughout history and startup founders today, is precisely what spiritual grounding is designed to dissolve.

"Richness can give you sadness. The number one position is the hardest to hold — you always feel like you're about to lose it."

The Case for Spiritually Responsible Wealth

Now flip the lens. Why should a spiritual person care about money?

Consider this: there is a finite pool of wealth circulating in the world at any given time. If the people who are ethical, compassionate, and spiritually grounded all refuse to engage with that pool — because they believe money is beneath them — then who accumulates it? The answer is obvious and uncomfortable.

Think of it as Spiritual Social Responsibility — a counterpart to the Corporate Social Responsibility that profitable companies are legally required to practise. A spiritually awakened person has a moral obligation to participate in prosperity, because money in conscious hands is used differently than money in unconscious ones. It funds better institutions, kinder enterprises, and more equitable communities.

Poverty is not a spiritual credential. It is simply a constraint that limits how much good you can do in the world.

Three Reasons Spiritual People Should Pursue Wealth

01

Good money needs good hands. When ethical people step away from wealth-creation, that vacuum is filled by those with fewer scruples. The spiritual argument for prosperity is partly an argument about stewardship.

02

You cannot inspire the young from a position of lack. Young people drawn toward spiritual inquiry are quickly turned off when spirituality appears to require giving up a good life. Successful, grounded, prosperous spiritual people are the only effective ambassadors for this way of living.

03

Financial security removes the noise. Abraham Maslow mapped this long ago. When basic needs are met — and the EMI is not a monthly source of dread — a person is genuinely free to ask the deeper questions: What is my purpose? What do I want to give? Who am I beyond my profession?

A Life Lived in Both Worlds

The argument for marrying these two paths is not purely theoretical. It plays out in real lives.

Imagine a young man who loses his father suddenly — the sole breadwinner of a family of six — while still in school. The shock of financial vulnerability does not break him; it crystallises a lifelong resolve. He studies hard, enters one of the country's most competitive management programmes, and on his very first salary begins a habit that will define his financial life: spend less than you earn, invest the rest, make money work harder than you do.

Over ten years, disciplined saving and investing moves him from hardship to independence. A decade later, his own management consultancy takes him from independence to abundance — working on projects he believes in, contributing to public institutions, earning well doing work that is also self-expression.

Then, at the height of material success, he spends twelve days in a retreat in Maharashtra — ten of them in complete silence. No phone, no food after noon, no paper, no pen. A ten-by-ten room. Solitary confinement by choice.

Those ten days teach him something no business school can: how to be comfortable inside your own head. How to look inward rather than reflexively outward. How to find a quality of being that does not depend on what is happening around you.

He returns to his consultancy — and finds that he earns just as well, with noticeably less effort, less anxiety, and far more clarity about what he is and is not willing to trade his time for.

■

Years later, the ultimate test arrives: a dream contract with one of India's largest industrial conglomerates. The project is everything he is good at. The money is excellent. And the client has fifty more such projects lined up, enough to keep a team of seventy employed for a decade.

He walks away from it.

Not because the work is bad — it is excellent. But because the client's rhythm does not respect the boundaries he has set for his life: no last-minute calls after six in the evening, no next-morning flights because an email arrived at seven-thirty. His work has to fit his life, not the other way around.

The client is baffled. "You don't understand how big this is." He understands perfectly. He simply values something more.

That is what a genuinely integrated life looks like: not the absence of ambition, but ambition held lightly, in service of a larger set of values.

Building the Critical Mass

There is one more dimension to this conversation that rarely gets enough attention: scale.

Even optimistic estimates suggest that deeply spiritual people — in the genuine sense, not the affiliated-with-a-religion sense — make up a small fraction of the population. For spirituality to actually change the texture of society, that fraction needs to grow significantly. Spirituality needs to become accessible, attractive, and compatible with an aspirational life.

Right now, the most common image of a spiritual person is someone who has renounced things — possessions, ambition, comfort. That image is a wall for the young. It says: to walk this path, you must give up the life you want to live.

The antidote is not better messaging. It is more visible examples of people who have both — the inner life and the outer one. People who meditate and close deals. People who are generous and financially secure. People for whom life and lifestyle are not competing goods but complementary ones.

One More Thing About Meditation

Before we close, a note on a common misconception: that meditation and spirituality are the same thing. They are not.

Meditation can be a profound gateway for many people — a daily practice that quiets the mind and opens something deeper. But it is one ladder to the roof, not the only one. For some, the same arrival happens through music. For others, through dance, long walks, painting, or the wordless absorption of skilled craft.

The destination is the inner quality — the bliss, peace, and love that arise without a trigger. The path you take to get there is yours to choose. Not meditating does not disqualify you. Performing a ritual does not automatically qualify you either.

Ritual is not spiritual. And meditation, practised without genuine inner inquiry, is just another ritual.

“

Spirituality gives you life. Materialism gives you lifestyle. Today's world wants both — and it is right to want both.

”

The Synthesis

What Materialism Needs

• An inner anchor that makes success feel meaningful
• Equanimity at the top, where insecurity is highest
• The ability to give from abundance, not fear
• A definition of "enough" that is not always receding

What Spirituality Needs

• The financial power to actually do good at scale
• Visible success stories to attract the next generation
• Freedom from the anxiety of unmet material needs
• The courage to engage with the world, not retreat from it

The modern Buddha does not sit alone under a tree. They might be closing a meeting at 5:55, switching off the laptop at six, and walking to the garden in the quiet that follows — fully present, fully alive, and, yes, fully prosperous.

That life is available. It just requires choosing it.

Lessons in Investing    All Buddhist Stories    « Previously in Investing    « Previously in "Buddhism and Wealth"

DeepSeek V4 Pro -- The AI Model That's Changing the Game on Cost, Performance, and Chip Independence

See All on AI Model Releases    « Previously

DeepSeek V4 Pro: The AI Model Redefining Cost-Efficiency, Performance, and Chip Independence

Published: May 24, 2026  |  Reading time: ~8 minutes  |  Topic: Artificial Intelligence

Key Takeaway: DeepSeek's V4 Pro model has surged to the top of global cost-efficiency rankings after a permanent 75% price cut. Independent evaluations by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) confirm it's the most capable Chinese AI model ever tested — though it still trails top U.S. models by about 8 months. Meanwhile, V4's architectural breakthroughs and its optimization for Chinese-made chips signal a strategic pivot that could reshape the global AI landscape.

Introduction: Why DeepSeek V4 Is Making Headlines

In April 2026, Chinese AI startup DeepSeek released V4, its long-awaited flagship model — and the tech world took notice. Building on the momentum of its earlier R1 model (which stunned the industry in January 2025), DeepSeek V4 arrives with two variants: the full-power V4 Pro and the lighter, faster V4 Flash. Both are open-weight, meaning anyone can download, use, and modify them.

But what's really turning heads isn't just the performance — it's the price tag. On May 24, 2026, DeepSeek made a 75% promotional price cut permanent, catapulting V4 Pro to the top of third-party rankings for "intelligence per dollar." In an era where cutting-edge AI models often come with eye-watering API costs, DeepSeek is offering frontier-level capability at a fraction of the price.

1. The 75% Price Drop That Changed the Conversation

According to the South China Morning Post, DeepSeek's official API pricing for V4 Pro is now as low as:

• $0.0036 per 1 million cached input tokens
• $0.87 per 1 million output tokens

To put that in perspective, running the respected Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index benchmark on V4 Pro costs just $268. The same benchmark on OpenAI's GPT-5.5 costs roughly 12 times more (~$3,216), and on Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.7 it costs about 19 times more (~$5,092).

Cost to Run the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index Benchmark (USD)

DeepSeek V4 Pro

$268

OpenAI GPT-5.5

~$3,216

Claude Opus 4.7

~$5,092

Bar widths are proportional to cost. Claude Opus 4.7 = 100% (baseline). Data source: SCMP / Artificial Analysis, May 2026.

This "bang-for-buck" approach to comparing AI models has gained traction amid a global compute supply crunch. And DeepSeek isn't alone — other Chinese firms like MiniMax (M2.7) and Xiaomi (MiMo V2.5 Pro) also rank near the top of cost-efficiency charts. Even Alibaba slashed prices for its Qwen3.7 Max model by 50% in a promotional campaign running through June 22, 2026.

What this means for you: If you're a developer building AI applications, the cost barrier to using top-tier models just dropped dramatically. You can now access near-frontier intelligence without the premium price tag that U.S. providers charge.

2. What the U.S. Government's Evaluation Found (NIST/CAISI)

In May 2026, the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) — part of the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) — published its independent evaluation of DeepSeek V4 Pro. The findings are nuanced: V4 is genuinely impressive, but it's not quite at the frontier.

Key Findings from CAISI:

• DeepSeek V4 is the most capable Chinese AI model CAISI has ever evaluated, spanning five domains: cyber, software engineering, natural sciences, abstract reasoning, and mathematics.
• It lags behind leading U.S. models by approximately 8 months. CAISI's aggregate analysis shows V4 Pro performs similarly to GPT-5 (released ~8 months earlier), not the latest GPT-5.5.
• DeepSeek's self-reported benchmarks paint a rosier picture than CAISI's independent tests. On benchmarks not featured in DeepSeek's own report — like the held-out PortBench and the ARC-AGI-2 semi-private dataset — V4 Pro showed weaker performance.
• It's more cost-efficient than comparable U.S. models. Compared to GPT-5.4 mini (the closest U.S. model in capability), V4 Pro was cheaper on 5 out of 7 benchmarks, ranging from 53% less expensive to 41% more expensive.

CAISI Benchmark Performance Comparison

Domain	Benchmark	GPT-5.5 (xhigh)	Opus 4.6 (max)	DeepSeek V4 Pro (max)
Cyber	CTF-Archive-Diamond	71%	46%	32%
Software Engineering	SWE-Bench Verified	81%	79%	74%
	PortBench	78%	60%	44%
Natural Sciences	FrontierScience	79%	72%	74%
	GPQA-Diamond	96%	91%	90%
Abstract Reasoning	ARC-AGI-2 semi-private	79%	63%	46%
Mathematics	OTIS-AIME-2025	100%	92%	97%
	PUMaC 2024	96%	95%	96%
	SMT 2025	99%	94%	96%
IRT-Estimated Elo Score		1260	999	800

Green cells = top performer. Elo scores reflect aggregate capability across all benchmarks. Higher is better. Source: NIST/CAISI, May 2026.

Important context: The NIST/CAISI evaluation used DeepSeek's original pricing (before the 75% cut). With the new permanent price reduction, V4 Pro's cost-efficiency advantage is now even more dramatic than what the NIST report describes.

3. Technical Breakthroughs: Smarter Memory, Longer Context

As MIT Technology Review explains, one of V4's standout innovations is its approach to long-context processing. Both V4 Pro and V4 Flash can handle 1 million tokens at once — enough to fit all three volumes of The Lord of the Rings plus The Hobbit combined.

But the real magic is how DeepSeek achieved this. Traditional AI models struggle with long contexts because their "attention mechanism" — the part that relates each word to every other word — becomes exponentially more expensive as the text grows longer. DeepSeek's innovation was to make V4 more selective about what it pays attention to:

• Instead of treating all earlier text as equally important, V4 compresses older information and focuses only on the parts most likely to matter right now.
• Nearby text is still kept in full detail so the model doesn't miss important nuances.

The results are striking. In a 1-million-token context, V4 Pro uses only 27% of the computing power required by its predecessor (V3.2) and cuts memory use to just 10%. For V4 Flash, the savings are even larger: 10% of the computing power and 7% of the memory.

In plain English: This means developers can build tools that work across enormous amounts of material — like an AI coding assistant that reads an entire codebase or a research agent that analyzes a decades-long archive of documents — without the model getting confused or the costs spiraling out of control.

4. The Strategic Pivot: Moving Beyond Nvidia

Perhaps the most consequential aspect of V4 is what it signals about China's AI hardware strategy. V4 is DeepSeek's first model optimized for domestic Chinese chips, specifically Huawei's Ascend 950 series.

This isn't just a technical footnote — it's a strategic milestone. Since 2022, U.S. export controls have cut Chinese firms off from Nvidia's most powerful chips. Beijing's response has been to accelerate the push for a homegrown AI stack, from chips to software to data centers. According to MIT Technology Review, Chinese authorities have reportedly:

• Banned foreign-made chips in state-funded data centers
• Introduced sourcing quotas favoring domestic alternatives
• Recommended that DeepSeek integrate Huawei chips into its training process

DeepSeek's technical report reveals that V4 uses Chinese chips for inference (responding to user queries), though the model may still have been trained primarily on Nvidia hardware. The company has also tied future price reductions to Huawei's hardware roadmap, saying V4 Pro costs "could fall significantly" once Huawei's Ascend 950PR supernodes "ship at scale" in the second half of 2026.

Why this matters globally: If DeepSeek can demonstrate that Chinese chips are viable for cutting-edge AI, it could fracture the current Nvidia-dominated ecosystem and create a parallel AI infrastructure — with profound implications for the global tech supply chain.

5. Visualizing the Data: Cost vs. Capability

Output Token Pricing (per 1M tokens)

V4 Pro (post-cut)

$0.87

V4 Pro (pre-cut)

$3.48

GPT-5.4 mini

$4.50

GPT-5.4 mini = 100% width baseline. Source: NIST/CAISI & SCMP.

Aggregate Capability (IRT Elo Scores)

GPT-5.5

1260

Opus 4.6

999

V4 Pro

800

GPT-5.4 mini

749

GPT-5.5 = 100% width baseline. Source: NIST/CAISI, May 2026.

Estimated Capability Lag: Chinese vs. U.S. Frontier Models

U.S. Frontier — leads by ~ 8 months — PRC Frontier (DeepSeek V4)

Based on CAISI's aggregate capability analysis across 16 benchmarks and 35 models. Every 200-point Elo increase = ~3x higher odds of solving a given task. Source: NIST/CAISI.

Citations & References

1. South China Morning Post — "DeepSeek V4 Pro tops global bang-for-buck ranking after 75% price cut" (May 24, 2026).
   https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3354668/deepseek-v4-pro-tops-global-bang-buck-ranking-after-75-price-cut
2. NIST / CAISI — "CAISI Evaluation of DeepSeek V4 Pro" (May 1, 2026, Updated May 2, 2026).
   https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2026/05/caisi-evaluation-deepseek-v4-pro
3. MIT Technology Review — "Three reasons why DeepSeek's new model matters" (April 24, 2026), by Caiwei Chen.
   https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/04/24/1136422/why-deepseeks-v4-matters/

Conclusions: What DeepSeek V4 Tells Us About the Future of AI

DeepSeek V4 isn't just another model release — it's a signal of where the AI industry is heading. Here are the key takeaways:

• Cost-efficiency is the new battleground. Raw intelligence still matters, but in a world of compute scarcity, "intelligence per dollar" is becoming the metric that developers and businesses actually care about. DeepSeek's permanent 75% price cut puts immense pressure on U.S. competitors to justify their premium pricing.
• The capability gap is real but narrowing. NIST's 8-month lag estimate shows that Chinese models are not yet leading the frontier — but they're close enough to be viable alternatives for most real-world applications. In mathematics, V4 Pro even ties or nearly ties the best U.S. models.
• Architectural innovation, not just brute force. V4's selective attention mechanism proves that clever engineering can dramatically reduce computing costs without sacrificing performance. This "do more with less" philosophy is a direct response to chip sanctions — and it's producing genuinely useful breakthroughs.
• The Nvidia moat is being tested. V4's optimization for Huawei's Ascend chips is an early indicator that China is serious about building a parallel AI hardware ecosystem. If Ascend supernodes deliver on their promise in late 2026, the competitive landscape could shift significantly.
• Open-weight models are winning mindshare. By making V4 freely available for download and modification, DeepSeek is betting that an open ecosystem will attract developers faster than closed, proprietary alternatives — and the strategy appears to be working.

In short, DeepSeek V4 matters because it proves that you don't need the biggest budget or the most advanced chips to build a world-class AI model. That's a lesson the entire industry is now absorbing — and it could reshape who wins the AI race in the years ahead.

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Artificial Intelligence DeepSeek Open-Source AI NIST Cost-Efficiency Huawei Ascend AI Benchmarks

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Money from a Spiritual Perspective

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Money Through a Spiritual Lens: Finding the Sacred Balance

We often wrestle with the role of money in our lives. Is it a tool or a trap? A blessing or a poison? From a spiritual perspective, the answer isn't about choosing one extreme, but about discovering a middle path where financial security supports inner growth without becoming the centre of our existence.

The True Goal of Spiritual Practice

At its heart, spiritual life aims to calm the restless mind, open the heart, and nurture genuine kindness. The goal is to become a good human being — someone with a clear, peaceful mind and a compassionate presence. Money, in this context, is never the destination. It can be a companion on the journey, but when it becomes the sole focus, we lose sight of what makes life meaningful: human connection, inner peace, and the capacity to care for others.

Can Money Buy Happiness?

I once watched an interview with a very wealthy individual. When asked if money made him happy, his answer was striking. He explained that wealth certainly makes life easier and more convenient. But ease and convenience, he noted, do not automatically translate into happiness. That distinction is profound. A comfortable chair doesn't guarantee a quiet mind; a full bank account doesn't fill an empty heart. Money solves external problems efficiently, yet the internal landscape — our sense of purpose, love, and contentment — requires a different kind of nourishment.

The Danger of Extremes

When we treat money as everything, life shrinks. We risk losing our ability to see human value beyond a price tag. Compassion and kindness erode when profit becomes the only metric. This obsession brings anxiety, comparison, and a never-ending hunger that no amount of wealth can satisfy.

But the opposite extreme — declaring money a poison, cultivating hatred or aversion toward it — is equally unbalanced. Anger toward money doesn't free us; it just adds another layer of inner conflict. The reality is, we all need resources to survive. Food, shelter, clothing, and the ability to support our loved ones require a healthy relationship with material means. Renouncing money completely is noble only if one has reached a very high level of realisation, where survival is sustained without attachment. For most of us, rejecting money outright simply creates unnecessary suffering.

Visualising the Balance: Life Satisfaction Across Attitudes

The chart below illustrates how our relationship with money impacts overall life satisfaction and inner peace. A balanced approach consistently leads to a richer quality of life than either extreme.

Money Obsession

Low peace / High stress

Balanced View

High satisfaction & meaning

Money Aversion

Inner conflict / Survival strain

Comparing the Three Mindsets

Aspect	Money Obsession	Balanced Approach	Money Aversion
View of money	Ultimate goal, source of identity	Practical tool, not the purpose	Poison to be avoided
Impact on mind	Restlessness, greed, comparison	Calm, responsible, content	Anger, denial, survival anxiety
Relationships	Often transactional	Nurtured with care	Strained by ideology
Spiritual growth	Stunted by attachment	Supported through conscious use	Hindered by aversion
Daily experience	Chasing, never enough	Gratitude, sufficiency	Constant internal battle

Finding the Sacred Middle Ground

True balance means holding money lightly. You use it with awareness, without letting it define your worth. You earn, save, and spend in alignment with your values. You don't worship wealth, nor do you demonise it. This middle path allows you to engage fully with the world while keeping your heart free. You can provide for your family, enjoy simple pleasures, and contribute to others — all while remaining rooted in compassion and inner stillness.

A Lighthearted Mantra?

Sometimes spiritual seekers secretly hope that mantras will bring material gain. I recall a playful joke: "Om Mani Padme Hum" might be transformed by the wishful mind into "Om Money Coming Home." It's a humorous reminder of how even sacred practice can be co-opted by desire. The real mantra doesn't summon cash; it summons clarity and compassion. That is the wealth that never fades.

Conclusion

Bringing spirituality and money together isn't about guilt or renunciation. It's about conscious, kind engagement. Here are the key takeaways:

• Money is a tool, not the goal — the real goal is a calm, kind heart.
• Wealth brings convenience, but not automatic happiness; inner peace must be cultivated separately.
• Extreme obsession with money destroys human values and breeds discontent.
• Aversion to money creates anger and struggle; we need resources to live responsibly.
• Balance is the essence: use money mindfully without letting it own your mind.
• A spiritual practice is about transforming the heart, not manipulating lottery numbers.

Citations & References

1. Interview insight from a wealthy individual (documentary-style media), highlighting that money eases life but does not create happiness — a perspective echoed in numerous studies on the hedonic treadmill and subjective well-being (e.g., Kahneman & Deaton, 2010).

2. Buddhist teachings on the Middle Way, which caution against both extreme attachment to sensual pleasures and extreme asceticism, encouraging a balanced relationship with material life (Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta).

3. The mantra "Om Mani Padme Hum" is a traditional Tibetan Buddhist mantra embodying compassion; its humorous twist used here illustrates the tendency to spiritual materialism.

Disclaimer: This article is generated using DeepSeek (AI) and an AI can sometimes make mistakes.

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