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As s much research is going on, and we all the time get new information, I from time to time am writing new information in this answer. I am writing this as a Mini-Blog about covid-19.Edit 28. October 2020: The studies of Remdesivir is now finished, and it is proven Remdesivir shortens the time to improve if having a severe Covid-19 infection. It is not proven to enhance the survival rate.Edit 5. June 2020: MARVELLOUS NEWS! Learn the name REMDESIVIR, as it probably will be the new drug with effect on covid-19! This is originally a drug used against cancer. Now it is found to have anti-viral properties as well, along a different route than Remdesivir. Norway and Great Britain are about to start a joint study on patients hospitalized with covid-19. 60 patients will get the drug and 60 controls will not get the drug. It is a British study called ACCORD (Acclerating covid-19 Research & Development Platform). The Norwegian firm BerGenBio is producing Bemcentinib, which is chosen as the first drug to be tested against covid-19. The drug might be able to hinder the bodys immune system to be weakened by the virus. If it actually works, we will have two medicines with effect against covid-19. Edit 25. May 2020:About children and covid-19. There is still much we do not know, due to the need of far more tests in the population as a whole to really know whom has been infected, and knowing more of the routes of infection.What we do know, is fewer children are being infected compared with adults. Also in infection tracking, there is by far less people being infected by children compared with youths and adults, also when adjusted for fewer children being infected.In general children are being less ill when infected by covid-19. Of children being ill from covid-19, infants younger than 1 year of age had a higher rate of serious infections compared to children over 1 year of age.New York warns of children's illness linked to Covid-19 after three deathsThere has now has been rapported 73 cases in New York of children getting a very serious condition with toxic shock similar to what is called Kawasaki Syndrome. Still, it is not certain the condition was caused by the infection, as the Kawasaki Syndrome can happen to children without any infection, with an incidence rate ranging from about 9 to 20 per 100,000 children under 5 years of age. It may be these children would have gotten the Kawasaki Syndrome also if they had not been infected by covid-19. Still, the finding of this syndrome in ill children means we have to be alerted to the possibility of developing this possible complication in children.Edit 24. May 2020:There now is one more promising drug being tried out against covid-19. The place on our cells where the covid-19 is able to attach itself and enter the infected cell, is a cell surface protein called Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2, ACE2 in short.We have now been able to produce a solution of ACE2, this solution is called APNo1. It is produced by the Austrian company called Apeiron Biologics. It has already been tested in small pilot tests, and the testing till now has made it clear it is not harming the patient in any way.Now there is planned a larger scale scientific trial with 200 patients getting the drug and 200 controls. The clinical trials will be done at 10 sites together in Austria, Denmark and Germany.The possible working mechanism is if flooding our blood stream with artificial ACE2, the covid-19 viruses may connect to these free ACE2 molecules. If the viruses actually connects to these artificial ACE2 in the blood, they can not at the same time attach themselves to the ACE2 molecules on the host cells nor enter the host cells. If this drug actually works the way we hope, the drug will stop the viruses from infecting the body cells.In this way the APNo1 may shorten the time the person is ill from the infection, and may giving milder infections with less deaths.This is a very promising drug, but of course we have to await the results from the study.Edit 23.May 2020:The drug Remdesivir has a proven effect in hindering the covid-19 virus from multiplying. See details under the headline The work on antiviral Treatment.Also edit 23. May 2020: New information of how the covid-19 kills has been found. Among them there is multiple thrombosis in many of the smaller arteries to different organs, leading to the destruction of those organs in persons who have died from the disease. Due to this findings, there now is started clinical studies with more heavy anticoagulant treatment than before, to see if this can prevent the multi thrombosis, and thus lower the death rate.The results from these studies are not ready yet.By the 13. April 2020 Norwegian doctors came across a woman ill with covid-19 who tested negative on the ordinary covid-19 tests twice. The test swabs were taken from the pharynx.It turned out there was nothing wrong with the tests themselves.But further out when being ill and the infection having reached the lungs, there were no longer viruses in the pharynx. The viruses were only in the lungs.This lack of viruses higher up in the airways when the illness has progressed, makes it more difficult to get correct diagnosis.Testing for viruses from the lungs can only be done in hospital.Start of original answer:The picture shows doctor Li Wenliang. He is known to the world for privately warning others about the disease. He got ill himself and is now dead.If you were sure not to be one of those who are not being very ill by the virus, it could be a good idea just to expose yourself to the covid-19 virus and get immunity.But there are several reasons for this not being a good idea after all.Now it is a big risk to expose oneself to the virus.You can be one of the more than 80 % who just get a weak disease.But you do not know if you one of those who are being very ill.We also wait for antiviral treatment which can relieve the illness. Until this is developed, it is better to try to avoid being infected.The more infected people there are at the same time, the more difficult it will be to protect the most vulnerable part of the population from being infected. This includes people with heart conditions, lung conditions and cancer. It is unethical to not try protecting our vulnerable fellow citizens from being infected.23. April 2020:Covid-19 gives rise to far more deaths than the common flu. This is most easily seen in graphs.London, showing all deaths every week for the last nine years:From New York State, weekly deaths from the flu the last five years compared with covid-19 deaths in 2020:April 2020: Why humanity will be less vulnerable to covid-19 after some years due to immunity against some of the antigens on the virus, even if some of the antigens are mutated:Humanity will get SOME immunity against this virus, even if the virus mutates.Viruses have many antigens on their surfaces. Usually we fight the viruses off by attacking the main antigens. This is what happens with the seasonal flu. The virus mutates those main antigens, making us vulnerable to it again, and making it necessary to make a new seasonal flu vaccine.But there is one BIG DIFFERENCE. We do not only create antibodies against the main antigens on the viruses. We make some antibodies against most of the antigens on the surface of the viruses.We still have some immunity against some of the less important antigens on the surface of the virus. The virus does not mutate them all at once.The reason for us not having ANY immunity against covid-19, is because this virus is totally new to humanity. Nobody have any immunity to any of its antigens.The same was the case with the bird flu and the swine flu: We were so vulnerable to the viruses due to the viruses being completely new to humanity, and nobody having immunity against any of the antigens on the surfaces of these viruses.The covid-19 virus probably will mutate its major antigens. But the virus will not mutate all of its surface antigens at once. This will in time render humanity less vulnerable to the virus compared to what the case is now.30. Mars 2020, Cultural differences in distancing:The Scandinavians have personal distancing as a way of life.The following gif picture shows Swedes at a bus stop - BEFORE the covid-19:About health resources:The Scandinavian Health authorities publishes the number of intensive care hospital beds with possibilities to use respirators. This number is enough under usual circumstances. But if too many people are being severely ill at the same time, the number of intensive care beds with respirators will be too few.Fun fact:In Norway the opera had to close due to the covid-19. The opera has seamstresses who usually are creating costumes for the opera.Now they have had to stay at home. But they were not idle! They started sewing re-usable protection coats for health personell as there was some shortage of protection clothing, especially in the care facilities for the elderly.The picture shows one of the opera seamstresses at her home, wearing one of the protection coat she has sewn to help in the covid-19 crisis.This is what she usually is creating:In Norway many people does work to help in the covid-19 crisis. Medical students gets extra education and then start working in medical receptions, taking covid-19 tests, and even working as ambulance drivers.The picture shows medical students in Bergen, Norway who are taking covid-19 tests.You see it is in a tent. This tent is placed besides the local emergency reception.In Norway all the health system is now organized to NOT mix covid-19 patients with other patients. Those suspected of being infected with covid-19 are not allowed entrance to the actual emergency reception or a doctors waiting room. This to protect other patients from infection:Sweden:HRH Princess Sofia of Sweden, Duchess of Värmland, married to Prince Carl Philip who is the forth in line to the crown in Sweden has taken a course in how to work in a hospital, and is actually working as and aid to the nurses and other staff to help in the crisis.Cudos to this fine Princess!She is doing real work, not just a publicity stunt!I can not help myself, but posting another picture of this fine Princess. This is from a Nobel Prize reception:The number being severely ill depends on the number of people being infected.Due to this, it will help the survival rate if the infection rate is slowed down, making the amount of severely ill at no time exceed the capacity of respirators and intensive care beds. This of course also is true in countries outside of Scandinavia, and is a good reason for slowing down the spread as much as we can.Italy has been hit hard. Alessandro Paronuzzi tells in a comment that Italy still have not been in need of rejecting patients. Patients are sent to other parts of the country which are less affected by the virus.The Italian doctors themselves have compared it with war-time circumstances.In war-times and in great crisis, the doctors may have to make decisions of which patients are to be treated. Then it is necessary to leave out those with small possibilities of surviving.Crisis selection of patients is one of the subjects we have in medical school.27. Mars 2020 How different countries handle the epidemics:Both Sweden and UK started with an idea of letting the young and healthy not protect themselves against the virus, thinking this would lead to herd immunity by the fall 2020. The goal was 40 - 60 % of the population being immune. The old, sick and in other ways vulnerable was to be sheltered - this was not meant to let this part of the population ill and die.Both Sweden and UK have now changed their way of dealing with the virus, trying to slow down the rate of infections. The reason for this was they experienced the number of severely ill people in need of intensive care with respirators, and even dying, to be higher than they had expected. They saw that if they did not slow down the general rate of infections, they would get more severely ill patients than the health system could handle. This again would lead to more deaths compared with a policy of slowing down the infection rate in general.I have to add the Swedish state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell still does not agree they should try more to prevent infection among young, healthy people. But the actual politics in the country has changed in a more preventive direction, even though it is not as strict as in Denmark and Norway.Deaths per 100 000 inhabitants in Scandinavia per 29. April 2020:Sverige = Sweden, Norge = Norway, Danmark = Denmark, Island = Island,Finland = FinlandAs we can see, Sweden has far more deaths compared with the other Nordic countries. Still this is no proof Sweden is doing the wrong thing. There is for sure coming more waves with the virus, and then Sweden might have a population with higher resistance compared with the other Nordic countries. First after some years will we really know what is the better strategy.All the Nordic countries are cooperating with each other with research. Due to being small countries with a highly educated population and very well developed health system, the different ways of meeting the pandemic will be measured. This can later on give valuable information of what is the best way to meet pandemics.One thing do we know: Covid-19 is not going to be the last virus pandemic in the world!By 25. May 2020: The country in the world doing the worst possible thing in the covid-19 crisis is by now USA. Not having a central government supporting the states, supporting social distancing - and having created the situation of the States having to bid against each others to buy medical equipment such as ventilator - this artificially making the states getting less equipment for the money is incredible.This combined with holding back medical help to states if the president perceives himself as personally insulted by the state governor is also incredible.Suddenly one of the leading countries in the world is acting like a low level partial dictatorship without educated leadership.This has lead to US being the country in the world with most covid-19 deaths - over 90 000 deaths, even with a possible under-rating of covid-19 related deaths. Again, we have to await how the pandemic evolves. Can also US get a higher amount of people with resistance against the covid-19?The one thing which makes US for sure having more deaths than necessary, is the lack of ventilators and lack of protective clothing and masks for the health personell.27. Mars 2020 The special experiences in the city Vo in Italy:In the city Vo in Italy, they tested ALL inhabitants of the city. Then ALL the citizens was in home quarantine for two weeks. After that, ALL the citizens were tested once more.An unexpected finding was 70 % of all testing positive for the covid-19 virus, had no symptoms at all! We already knew some did not have any symptoms, but in no way the number being this high.The first reporters of the covid-19 virus:As Haodong Du states in a comment, it was other doctors, Dingyu Zhang and Jixian Zhang who kept reporting about the virus to the government through official channel to raise more attention, even under some pressure.About the covid-19 virus:New information is coming nearly by the hour now!It was found the covid-19 virus possibly had diverted into two different strains, the S- strain giving more serious disease and spreading more quickly, and the L-strain giving less serious disease and spreading less quickly. It was estimated 30 % of the cases being by the L-strain and 70 % of the cases being by the S-strain.What is a fact, is that the 21. January 2020 a man in USA tested positive for the covid-19 virus, and they found both the S-strain and the L-strain at the same time in this patient.Later research question both the difference in severity and the difference in spread ability of these two strains, even questioning it being correct to call it two different strains.This is in the study: Xiaolu Tang, m. fl: «On the origin and continuing evolution of SARS-CoV-2», National Science Review, 3. mars 2020:Response to “On the origin and continuing evolution of SARS-CoV-2”Edit 27. Mars 2020 about the covid-19 virus:The last findings are from Iceland, they studied the genetic details in the covid-19 viruses they had collected. There they found 40 different strains of covid-19 virus. They do not know if there is any difference in virulence or infectivity of those strains. They may have the same virulens and infectivity.Specialists in virology states that it is more probable for a virus to mutate and spread as a less virulent type, not a more virulent type. This is due to the “survival of the fittest”, which for viruses means the ability to multiply and spread. The more quickly the virus kills its host, the less time it will have to spread. Of course it is possible for the virus also to mutate into a more virulent strain.We have to expect still more news to come, and still quite quickly. Still news are coming nearly by the hour. We need to be open minded and re-evaluate our opinions as new information is emerging!Original answer by 27. Mars 2020 about the development of a vaccine against the covid-19:It is NOT more difficult to develop a vaccine against covid-19 compared with developing vaccines in general. There are no previous vaccines against this virus, making it necessary to create a new vaccine. Creating a new vaccine usually takes three years. The reason for this is the need for long term tests on human subjects to ensure both the vaccine protecting people from being infected by the disease, and at the same time the vaccine not giving any severe side effects.The vaccine is first tested on cell cultures, then tested on more organized cell cultures, then on animals, then on a smaller group of human test objects. First when all this have went well, the main testing on humans starts. We have to see that antibodies are produced. Then we have to see these antibodies actually help in not getting the disease. And the long term testing is needed to se there being neither short term harms or long term harms from the vaccine.It is quite easy to make a vaccine prototype, many firms already have done so. But a vaccine prototype is not a vaccine ready to be used on the population.The two firms by now leading in the race, is the Boston based firm Moderna and the German firm CureVac.Sara Lourenço has given an update about Trump and the company CureVac:There were rumors Trump has tried to bribe CureVac into only giving their vaccine to US when it is ready, but CureVac’s CEO later denied such rumors ('There was and there is no takeover offer': German coronavirus vaccine company CureVac is shooting down viral reports that Trump tried to buy it). Bill Gates has given a substansial contribution to CureVac, and made sure the vaccine will be distributed to those who need it the most.Moderna has as its vaccine prototype a strand of messenger RNA which codes for the main gluco-protein spike on the surface of the virus. The reason for choosing mRNA is this mimicking a real infection, and thus maybe giving a stronger immune response.Moderna has the 16. Mars 2020 started the first tests on volunteer test subjects. This was done in Seattle, USA. The trial includes 45 healthy adults ages 18-55 and last for approximately 6 weeks as volunteers will receive two shots about a month apart.This picture shows the very first vaccine set on a voluntary human test object.We expect the results of this first study to be ready in July or August 2020.If all goes well, we expect a working vaccine to be ready in 12 - 18 months from now.14. April 2020 about the development of a vaccine against covid-19:By 10. April 2020 Nature published 78 vaccine projects was ongoing. Even 37 more projects are in an early stages of development.The University in Oxford, three Chinese research groups and two American companies including the firm Moderna have started the first trials on human volunteers.Edit 22. April 2020: The Oxford University has worked with a vaccine prototype being a synthetic version of the virus. In April 2020 dr. Sarah Gilbert, professor in vaccines at Oxford, states to The Times she believes there is 80 % probability for the vaccine to work.500 persons age 18 – 55 years of age have volunteered to participate in the test for the vaccine, this testing will start 23. April 2020. The vaccine may be ready already the autumn 2020 to be ready for production. The time for production comes after the testing period is finished. If this test is successful, the British authorities has confirmed being willing to buy several millions vaccines.To speed up the process, some scientists have suggested to expose the vaccinated volunteers with the virus. The reason for this is the studies need to see if those getting the test vaccine actually are protected from being infected. If this is not done in the study, we will wait to see what happens if they only by chance are infected.One of those who suggests this is Nir Eyal, professor in bio ethics at Rutgers University. He emphasizes such volunteers have to be young and healthy, they have to have access to intensive care treatment and have to be medically looked well after.This is not a generally accepted way of speeding up the process. Professor Adam Finn at the University of Bristol says we have to think this through before we do this, due to the risk for the test subjects.Bill Gates is supporting different teams in creating the vaccine. He has told he is willing to support the work of developing a vaccine, also supporting companies where the efforts turn out to not be of use.About sham treatments and false information:By now, we now should NOT be apologetic and tolerant of false information or of sham treatments.In less severe situations the only harm this does, is not helping. But in the situation we are now, false information and sham treatments create a real danger. False information and sham treatments will make it difficult for people to get the correct information they need to keep them healthy and safe.About the use of face masks:The important thing to know, is the difference between wearing a face mask to protect yourself against being infected by air, and wearing a face mask to lower emitting airborne infection from yourself to others.Wearing a face mask to protect yourself does not work. It has to be special masks, such as the N95 mask. It has to be put on correctly, and to only be worn once and then disposed of. Because of the shortage of these special masks, they should be left for those who are working with covid-19 sick patients, or work with test samples.To protect the airborne infection to spread to others from you is a completely different matter.The viruses have to be emitted into the air by droplets though coughing, sneezing or even talking, for creating an airborne infection.An ordinary face mask will stop or at least diminish the amount of emitting these droplets into the air.Also in this case, the face masks should only be used once, due to the risk for yourself being infected if the masks have viruses on them. The face masks we buy, are usually to be disposed of after use.If people used face masks made of cotton cloth - cotton because cotton can take high temperatures being washed - we would lower the amount of airborne infections.If every person had three cotton cloth face masks, they could wash by 70 degrees Celsius the used mask in the evening, and drying it. They then every day would have a clean, virus free face mask to put on. This would lower the amount of airborne infection.About the work on antiviral treatment:Edit 22. May 2020:ABOUT REMDESIVIRhttps://The large National Institutes of Health (NIH) study that enrolled over 1,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients across 22 countries. To qualify, patients had to be hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 and have evidence of lung involvement, such as an abnormal chest X-ray or needing supplemental oxygen. possibility of actually getting a working antiviral treatment gives us reason for trying to contain the spread of the covid-19 virus until we actually have a treatment. An early analysis of the data, which did not include patients enrolled later in the trial, found that median time to recovery was 11 days for patients on remdesivir and 15 days for patients on placebo. It also suggested a lower death rate, 8 percent on remdesivir compared to 11.6 percent on placebo, but that difference was just short of statistical significance.UCSF Medical Center and Zuckerberg San Francisco General were among the hospitals that participated in the NIH remdesivir trial. A COVID-19 accelerated care unit is set up outside the hospital at Parnassus.This is breakthrough, as it is the first medicine with any proven effect against covid-19. Even though the effect is not great, it gives something to start with.GENERAL ABOUT ANTIVIRAL MEDICATIONS AGAINST COVID-19A link about this work: It’s going to take a lot longer to make a COVID-19 vaccine than a treatmentQuote from the link: “The leading candidate is a drug called remdesivir, which was developed by the pharmaceutical company Gilead. Research showed that it could block SARS and MERS in cells and in mice. In addition, remdesivir was used in a clinical trial looking for treatments for Ebola — and therefore, it had already gone through safety testing to make sure it doesn’t cause any harm.That’s why teams in China and the US were able to start clinical trials testing remdesivir in COVID-19 patients so quickly.”In Norway there is being done research now on antiviral therapy against the covid-19 virus. The following picture shows the platform they are working from. It shows how far the work has come with different antiviral medications against different corona virus strains.It is very interesting to really study this chart. For example, just by looking at this chart you can see that Tilorone already is approved for use against MERS.You also can see, in the first column, how far the testing of different antiviral substances have come against covid-19.Remdesivir is in Phase III. Two more phases needed before it can be used - if it at all passes the next level of tests :Paul Peterson shared the following information about antiviral medication. I am copying his comment here:“I am glad to see chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine on the chart as under testing for covid-19. I read these are “ionophores” for zinc ions…meaning they help “shuttle” zinc into (infected) cells, where zinc then blocks “RNA-dependant replicase” (enzyme) from reproducing viral proteins (slowing the rampant spread of a person's viral load. Apparently chloroquin diphosphate (a related form ) is being used in S. Korea (500 mg. per day) and China (500 mg. X 2 daily), and S. Korea has a very low death rate…Italy's fatality rate is 8 times higher (hypothesis).”ABOUT HYDROXYCHLOROQUINEEdit 22. May 2020At first it was suggested Hydroxychloroquine might help against covid-19, but we knew we needed scientific clinical trials to see if this was the case.The conclusion was hydroxychloroquine did not help against covid-19, in fact it was dramatically raising the death rates due to heart arrhythmias.The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) had a study of covid-19 ill patients treated with hydroxychloroquine together with a control group not getting the drug. In the study of 368 patients, 97 patients who took hydroxychloroquine had a 27.8% death rate. The 158 patients who did not take the drug had an 11.4% death rate. This means the death rate was nearly doubled for the patients given hydroxychloroquine compared with patients not given that drug.The patients in this study were very ill.In Sweden they conducted a multicenter clinical trial on patients hospitalized for the covid-19 infection. These were not that ill patients, as it was only generally hospitalized patients, not the critically ill patients. All the patients had cardiac surveillance. During the study the doctors noticed many of the patients who got hydroxychloroquine developed dangerous heart arrhythmias, the arrhythmias being possibly lethal. Due to this the study was stopped from ethical reasons. The Swedish health authorities also published a prohibition to use hydroxychloroquine in covid-19 ill patients, both against the use in trials or for treatment.Conclusion:Hydroxychloroquine does NOT help against covid-19. It in stead represents a risk of higher mortality rate in covid-19 ill patients.Original answer:Ways the hydroxychloroquine might work against covid-19:Hydroxychloroquine has a slight antiviral property. The drug is used against different diseases. In addition to being used against malaria, it is used against several autoimmune diseases, such as severe rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.Because an over reaction of the inflammatory response of the body may be part of the cause for the Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrom and the Cytokine Storm, the latter leading to multi organ failure, it is speculated the hydroxychloroquine might help in these cases because of its anti inflammatory properties. Other anti inflammatory drugs have been tried, such as the NSAIDs and corticosteroids. These did not work against the conditions.It is important to have scientific clinical studies with control groups, and see the results from these studies before concluding if hydroxychloroquine is helping or not.A thank to Rowince Gangwar for edit the language in this answer.

First of all, this question needs to be a lot specific. Comparison between Bits Pilani Pilani campus and one of the new IITs is meaningless. Same applies to comparison between an old IIT and Bits Goa/Hyderabad/Dubai(?) campuses.Secondly, what makes a college better depends on the individual and his requirements. But answering the question in a general sense, the real bugger is comparison between Bits Pilani Pilani Campus and an old IIT like IIT Bombay.Since this answer requires a subjective treatment,there is a lot of ground to cover, so hold back,stretch your hands,relax, make yourself a coffee and find a good couch as this will take time to read.First lets analyze on points that are believed to give Bits an edge over the IITS:(1)Reservation:Reservation is one messed up system and we do have students above 5k rank in core branches, boasting their IITB credentials. Situation is even worse in other IITs as IITB witnesses higher cutoffs than any other IIT. However the rest half are arguably the cream students of the country and for a population of 1.3 billion, that’s saying a lot. This makes IITB an incredibly competitive place and in general, the level and quality of competition is definitely much higher than that in Bits.Besides majority of students in Bits also have ranks above 5k ,so even the reserved crowd logically offers more or less the same competition. IIT(old)ians in departments like electrical and cs, whether reserved(OBC) or not, still possess much higher ranks than Bitsians. The OBC btech cutoff for cs and electrical at iitb remains around 300 and 1200 respectively. Nobody with right mindset would have chosen Bits with those ranks. SC/ST’s are whole other stories but they comprise just 22% of the population. So the general crowd in an old IIT based on entrance tests is better than the regular Bitsian crowd. The best in IIT are at whole new level while the mediocre are not so far behind.The impact of reservation on overall quality is felt only in new iits. It may feel not difficult (but only in your first year) to score more than the average even if you perform poor, thanks to reservation. On the flip side, try to score maximum marks in an exam and you will regret being born.(2)No attendance: This is a major argument given against IITs that Bits follows zero attendance policy and hence gives more freedom to its students. However this hardly makes a difference as professors in Bits ensure attendance through unannounced tut tests or covering stuff out of slides in lectures. Besides most of the courses at IITB also are relaxed on attendance and it really depends on the professor. Most of the courses in the first year IITB had no attendance requirement. Following a passion during lecture hours doesn’t make much sense if you want a decent academic record. The only relaxation that zero attendance policy provides is that one will still be allowed to give term end exams even with zero attendance, or one can pay uninterrupted attention to private endeavors like startup, etc.(3)Dual Degree: This is really a very nice policy at Bits where they have integrated Msc courses with BE ones. Hence one can graduate with both a bachelors and a masters degree in different streams and this allows for a lot of flexibility. Any engineering stream of one's choice can be clubbed with the dual at a low cgpa cutoff. Dual degrees certainly provide Bits an edge over IITs. There is no such concept at IITB.For people smartly pointing out that IITB also has dual degree courses, take a deep breath and try to understand what's being said here. The dual courses in iit is very different from bits pilani even though both are called dual degrees. See comments for more info.(4)Practice Schools: Another good policy of Bits. Students are almost certain to be interned at the end of second and fourth year. There are extremely high number of opportunities at IITB also but there is no certainty. The minor flip side is that you cannot attend PS2 if you missed PS1.(5)Deciding own timetable: In Bits you can choose own timetable but that’s only if you have a high PR number(randomly generated each semester) else you will have to compromise on your instructors/schedule. All this is not of much consequence overall.(6)Fees: Fees in Bits is a tad higher than IITB but you get exemption on fees if you perform well in Bits. There is no such provisions at IITB. SC/STs study at this premier most institute for free and no reason at all. The closest you can come is a Merit-Cum-Need or some private scholarship. All this is pretty irritating.Edit: Fees is no longer a tad bit higher in bits as the administration there treats the students as gold mines for its vision 2020.(7)Seclusion: Pilani is located very remotely with nearest cities being Delhi and Jaipur, both around 200 kms far. So for every little initiative or career requirement you have to shuttle between cities. Though the enthusiasm for startup is great at Pilani, one has to travel to Delhi again and again to run it. IITB being located right in the financial capital of the nation offers much more opportunities and attracts companies more.Comparison of experience at both the institutesCampus: Both the institutes have a breathtaking campus to boast, with IITB campus being larger and greener, while the Pilani campus being cosier and less green due to the geographical location of Pilani. The Bits campus is slightly better maintained and has got more places where you can simply lay down,relax and stargaze or something like that. The Saraswati Temple , the grass area of NAB(New Academy Buildings), and the Sky Lawns are great places to spend time in peace.Meanwhile the IITB campus feels more spacious and has a cooler appeal to it.Overall, both campuses are worth taking a pause to appreciate their beauty.2.Clubs: Club culture in Bits is more or less meaningless. The first few weeks of a fresher is spent in tedious interactions with seniors and if you can impress them, you might get selected in a department. Interactions for clubs are meaningless as ultimately auditions for them are what that matters eventually. Further if you somehow couldn’t make into a club that you are interested in, there is very little possibility you will be given a second chance. However once you do get in a C/D, you will spend a good time. One positive aspect of this is that senior-junior interaction at bits is very high from the start. You make contacts with tons of seniors effortlessly, which kind of felt missing at IITB where there was minimal interaction in the beginning. Gradually however, through various channels like working in institute bodies, department events, etc. you get in touch with a large number of seniors in IIT also.In IITB, scenario is different as “enthu” is the main thing that’s required. Anyone can work if one is interested. For tech teams, of course they expect you have the required skills if you join late, but the process is much less stringent. The orientation of each club were exciting events and the participation was purely voluntary. This system works way better as you get to freely experiment with the work involved in different bodies at your comfort level and then gauge your interests accordingly. All this freedom and opportunity to explore varied sorts of work was highly missing in Bits.Both institutes have clubs for most of the activities.3.Ragging: Zero(rather negative) in IITB, dismal in Bits Pilani. Only during interactions when you visit seniors, you might be asked to give your intro and stuff but everything’s under control. In IITB if a senior is caught in a fresher hostel in the first month, he will face a hard time justifying that.Besides that, there is an excellent system at IITB to provide a 4th-year student as ISMP mentor to the freshers to assist them in all their difficulties and guide them, and a DAMP mentor (of the same branch) in the following years to help you regarding all academic or curriculum problems. Such a system really ensures one gets a proper guidance and stay comfortable with the insti life and policies.4.Facilities:Mess- Food quality is definitely better at IITB especially in senior hostels. IIT mess is markedly better as it serves 4 times a day, provides a lot more variety to food than Bits’ mess, has wifi, TV and is more spacious. However, Bits somewhat compensates that by having a nice canteen in the mess itself and by organizing regional dinners called “Grubs”, but even that is retaliated in IITB by organizing multiple gala dinners and hostel events.Library-Bits library is better hands down. Its much larger, aesthetically much more beautiful, calmer and has got an excellent environment and facilities to read and study. Obviously, all sorts of books and facilities are available at both libraries, it is just that the Bits library is better built and maintained. Plus its got a nice CCD machine.Workshop-Mechanical Workshop in Bits was much better than at IITB with more shops and a stricter first-year course that focused heavily on the details of the processes involved. Plus the equipments were provided in the workshop itself and needn’t be bought, unlike at IITB.Internet-The net speed at Bits made me laugh and cry at the same time. Wifi speed is okayish while Lan speed is laughable. There were restrictions on many sites. The only relief was the software labs in NAB but that too was closed after midnight. One had to rely on mobile data outside hostels and DC++ to download stuff.IITB, on the other hand, offers high Lan and wifi speed clocking around 100mbps and has got wifi in every building. There is no restriction of any kind, except torrents. So IITB has a lot better internet connectivity.Hospital-Bits had a medical center that closed down in the evening(lol) and in cases of emergency, you would have to call the warden who will in turn either come himself with his car or send for an ambulance. Besides one cannot expect very good medical services in a small town like Pilani. The medical center was also not very up to the mark.The IIT hospital is a very large one with 24-hour emergency service, very sincere ambulance service and highly skilled doctors. A medical file of each student is maintained and the medicines are supplied free/subsidized rates. One can find medical assistance for any trouble.Hostel-Bits has better living conditions :P if you think for 4 years. Gandhi, SR,Ram and Buddh bhawans are very nicely built and are spacious. Rest all hostels can be described as “meh”. The rooms are sufficiently large, open; no space crunch so hostels are only one story high. There are small courtyards in the hostels where one can play cricket, badminton, etc. and the common room had TT tables, TV and CCD service at night. Any complaint was immediately dealt with. However the washrooms in older hostels were miserable and cleaning staff wasn’t very sincere.IITB hostel rooms for the first year are as good as it gets, offering a very nice view of Sameer hills from the windows and with a nice large Refugee area on the 7th floor where one can chill out and enjoy the scenic beauty of the Powaii area(including Vihar and Powaii lakes). The common rooms are spacious and have TT and foosball tables. Besides rooms get cleaned once every month by the staff. However things go somewhat ugly after the one year paradise. The hostels for sophomores and third year UG male students seem no less than haunted places with rooms small enough to put slums at Dharavi to shame and old enough to remind us of the colonial era.Edit: Most of the crowd in the older hostels have been shifted to the newly formed Hostel 18 with single rooms, which has top notch infrastructure and facilites.For any recreation, one needs to go to SAC which is not very far away.Infrastructure:The Saraswati Temple,Rotunda, NAB area and FD5 are really well built and comfortable to spend time in. The Bits campus is small so reaching from one place to another usually take no longer than 15 minutes. However the SAC and GymG(sports ground) were small and very ordinary and there was not much scope to pursue a new skill/sport if you are a beginner, or barring a few activities there was not much emphasis overall on extra-currics. IITB on the other hand has a very good Lecture Hall Complex and excellent facilities at SAC, better roads in the campus, more comfortable classrooms and really nice auditoriums.Transport in Pilani is a big pain in the ass with no direct trains and limited connectivity to the nearest station Loharu. Inside the campus, the autos charged profusely though there was never a need to ride with them. On the other hand, IITB is located right in the city and inside the campus, tumtum services are good and the autos charge moderately.The FD2/FD3 divisions in Bits were old. IITB does have more halls for teaching and better maintained department classrooms.5.Sex Ratio: Both are engineering colleges at the end of the day. Be prepared to die single, no exceptions here.6.Life in the campus:In bits life was more chilled out(or lite) as the academic pressure was a little lesser and the no attendance rule always cut off some slack. Beside the late night culture in bits is really popular and the campus is much more alive at night. Places like ANC, SR reddy , Rotunda see a lot of footfall and team meets. Such thing is missing at iitb as people mainly gather in the canteens but don’t roam around the campus or carry out their business too late at night.There are many places in Bits where one can hang out to eat or celebrate. There were reddys for each of the 14 hostels, ANC, Sky Lawns and a few restaurants inside the campus. As compared to that, IITB also has a similar case with many canteens and cafes to eat. However, outside the Pilani campus, there were not many options. The Connought place was at a stone’s throw but had substandard food at high prices. There were very few restaurants/bars outside, no Dominoes, no McDonalds,no anything. On the other hand, outside the campus of IITB there is Hiranandani and the whole Mumbai city. Obviously there is no further need to mention anything more, you can explore new places and restaurants every day of the year if you want to.Being located in city area has its own perks. There is an ocean of options if one wants to hang out or plan a one day trip in IITB, notably for trekking. In Pilani, there is a lot of seclusion and less exposure. To have any little excursion or adventure outside the campus, one has to consider Delhi or Jaipur.Freedom: In IITB the institute gives somewhat more freedom to its students. You can leave or enter the campus at any time and roam outside all night if you want. In Pilani until this year, girls had to return back to their rooms by 10pm which I guess, sucked a lot, and is a pretty seneseless rule. Further there is no restriction in iitb to enter hostels of the opposite sex until 10 pm.Edit on the request of Navneet Prabhat : boys are not allowed to enter the girl's hostel at all(Mira Bhavan) in Bits Pilani :PYou don’t need to take your wallet when you go out of your room in Bits. Your ID card takes care of that as transactions in most of the shops happen against your mess bill. So its a good step towards going cashlessWeather: The weather at Bits is another pain in the ass. Being located in Rajasthan, the temperature goes from 45C to all the way down to -2C. The rains are torrential and sometimes choke the campus. Mumbai on another hand remains mild, showery and pleasant all the year long.Lingo: There is virtually nothing to call a lingo at iitb. Words like craxx and machauu seems too forced to be used in regular conversations. In bits “lite” culture is really popular and the lingo was addicting. Words like “phoda”, “ghot” really slip out of the mouth.Fests: Oasis is not very interesting and rather a little over-hyped. Yes I said it. Not sure about being the second best but surely it lags behind Mood-I. The only flip side to Mood-I is that the institute provides no food or accommodation to the first year students. However loads of people get room retention on the pretense of projects under profs, IB work or sports camps.A lot of cultural, entertainment, technical and academic events are organised all the year round in both the colleges, the frequency being more in IITB.DC++: Dc++ sharing at IITB is very poor. Not many hubs and very limited files. Meanwhile at Bits, DC++ was the lifeline with many hubs and almost all sorts of files were available. Plus I don't believe IITB can ever have a DoPo of its own :P7.Academics:The first few weeks at both the colleges felt same in terms of quality,pressure and peer group. However differences segregated out a lot gradually.In Bits, almost all the courses were dealt superficially with a less in-depth treatment. Many courses could easily be nailed by properly covering the slides and practicing a particular set of questions. There were rare surprises in the evaluative papers in many courses although some courses like CP, Meow, EG, Bio and Thermo were challenging. Situation in IITB was different as the courses are much more detailed and depend more on implementation of the concepts taught rather than simply understanding them. Plain slide reading wouldn’t ensure a good grade at IITB. Conclusively, the evaluatives in Bits didn’t compel one to appreciate or explore the subject.The quality of interaction between students and the instructor during lectures was dismal. Some professors like Rishikesh Vaidya, Sunil Kumar, and Vishal Saxena were amazing and even received ovations. However lectures were usually rushed and less time was devoted to entertain doubts. The quality of discussions was also very ordinary. A lot of this depends on the peer group also. In IITB according to my experience the students take a much greater interest in initiating these discussions which sort of felt missing in Bits.In IITB, the instructors are academically more qualified and the student-prof interaction is very rich. The doubts are highly entertained and the discussions are very stimulating. In general the professors at IITB teach better, focus on intricate points, and resolve doubts effortlessly. Overall for similar courses at both the places, IITB covered them in a more comprehensive and conceptual manner, rather than stressing on formulas or on concise/shallow coverage of more topics; as was the case in Bits.A lot of open-book exams were held in bits which really was a good thing. Open book exams were a lot more challenging and really tested one’s level of understanding of the topic/course. There were fewer open book tests in IITB.The tutorials in Bits were taught by professors while in IITB mostly senior students took them. Obviously a professor with PHD has a more in depth grasp on the course and a much higher expertise in teaching than a 2nd/3rd year student. Thus tuts in Bits were more beneficial than tutorials at IITB, provided one opted for decent profs when deciding the timetable.Relative grading is followed at both the colleges. In bits performance of students are evenly distributed and its easier to score a good grade and even if one messes a course, the grade doesn’t fall down drastically. In IITB, scoring a top grade can suck the life out of you and if you ruin your paper, the grades slip down sharply. Even 0.5 marks are sufficient to push down the grade. The peer group is very competitive,which is natural considering that majority of under 500 rankers choose IITB. Consequently, academic pressure at Bits is more relaxing and less stressful.A good initiative at IITB is that each student has to compulsorily have to enroll in NSO(sports),NSS(social work) or NCC(cadet corps) zero credit course. This was missing in Bits.8. Internship opportunities: Probably this point is one of the most impactful one to establish a contrast between the two institutes. Internship and research opportunities offered by an engineering college, particularly in the third year, are the benchmark for deciding its eminence and IIT-B for all purposes comprehensively edges over Bits in this regard. Right at the onset of the fifth semester, a plethora of companies, universities and firms approach the institute for extending internship and work opportunities, and a good majority of them extend PPOs to the students after the third year summer. The situation is such that maximum students get interned by the end of the semester in a highly reputable company or a notable university with lucrative stipends, just because of the sheer volume of companies/univs that approach IITB.In Bits, the large majority of students mostly venture on opportunities that they have to create for themselves, be it through apping or personal contacts, for the third year summer. Barring a few, the masses either spend the summer learning stuff on their own, without a professional guidance, or engage in self undertakings, which is quite a waste of a golden period. However the 7th sem is spent in PS -2 which does provide a comprehensive working experience with reasonable stipend.In general, the trend to intern in a company or take up a research project is markedly more in IIT-B, where staying idle even in the second year summer is scorned upon.9.Alumni Support: This is again an important area where IIT-B considerably triumphs over Bits-Pilani. There was hardly a body in Bits that meliorated the student-alumni interaction in the institute to benefit the students. In contrast, the Student Alumni Relations Cell (SARC) in IITB, is a committed and highly active body to foster productive and constructive relations between the students, the alumni and the institute through a variety of initiatives, most notably the Alumni Student Mentorship Program (on the same lines as ISMP and DAMP), and Alumination (a plethora of events for career boosting and personal guidance). Consequently, the alumni side engagement is also very high, leading to enrichment and high networking opportunities.10.Tag value: No doubt tag value of IITB is more marketable than that of Bits Pilani. This difference is even more pronounced internationally. The local population also tend to respect the IIT tag more, no matter whether you enter by merit or through bogus means like reservation. That’s a hard fact and there are no if or buts.11.Connection of Campuses: It doesn’t matter whether you graduate from Bits Pilani or Bits Goa, you will get the same graduation certificate and treatment by every recruiter. The course structure, curriculum and administrative policies at all campuses are identical. In IITs this is not the case and each IIT isn’t bound by same curriculum and policies.12.Experience after one year: Iitb definitely felt like a more dynamic institute with a hell lot of more opportunities to learn and apply after the first year. The aggressive and productive environment was sort of missing in Bits. The provisions are such that one can pursue whatever one wants whenever one wants in IITB. The programs like ITSP, SOS and SOC, plus surplus internship opportunities, coordinator work, social programs, summer courses, adventure trips, and various other workshops at IITB felt missing a lot at Bits where maximum students are compelled to waste their summers doing nothing or next to nothing. Further over-viewing the curriculum at the end of the year, IITB curriculum felt more relevant, rigorous, qualitative and productive. There is much more clarity regarding future years. Further Bits also pays the price of seclusion as the IIT experience felt more wholesome. The peer group is also very challenging in IITB that automatically induces one to not to lag behind.So that indeed was a comprehensive comparison between the two institutes. And though IITB is definitely better than Bits Pilani Pilani Campus on many parameters, including the important ones, the Pilani campus is one of the most unique ones in India. Furthermore all the comparisons I have done is on the basis of limited knowledge gathered over just one year and there can be a lot of aspects that might make a difference.Besides an ideal college also depend on what courses/stream one wishes to pursue. Leaving CS/Elec at IITB to study the same at Bits is one horrible decision, and leaving the same at Bits to study non core courses/courses you have no interest in, at IITB just for the sake of it, is also a very bad decision. Needless to say, perspective guides me . Someone else might observe things differently.The real difference to a college is brought about by its students. Since old IITs has top rankers of JEE, they definitely accept the cream. If the same students go into Bits, it may supersede IITs.So “Is Bits a good college?”: yes. Its rare for a completely autonomous private college with no government support and ties: to engage in a somewhat close battle with completely government funded premier institutes, and still maintain its identity and reputation both internationally and locally. Furthermore Bits has really been efficient at progressing on limited resources and finding its own way. If it had its own lavish research funding and government support, it would improve way much more than other colleges.However nothing can be said for 5–6 years in the future. The way Bits is going on regarding low cutoffs, increased strength and fees has really put its reputation at stake.I hope I have been thorough and gave a glimpse of what it is like to spend time in these colleges and hence give my version to the long debate of which college trumps over the other.Leave in comments any correction or any more parameter that should have been discussed.Edit: More than 100 upvotes in less than a day. Thanks for the response.Edit2: Addd a lot of stuff in the answer.

1 Background This Question and Answer is my response to a question originally embedded in the comment/question by Martin Andrews about George Tait Edwards's answer to Why is “made in China 2025” so concerning to Trump that he demanded China must abandon that plan in order to stop the trade war?2 The Origins of Both Policies2.1 In Germany - “Industrie4.0/Germany4.0”This policy was born in and is dedicated to the advance of Germany’s industry for the sake of not only maintaining its current dominant position in the EU but also improving its future competitiveness and product quality.Both Germany and China see the need to upgrade their manufacturing and service industries to meet the future needs of their nations. The most comprehensive and effective article by Peter Altmaier (see below) covers so much ground that it is almost impossible to summarise, and I have struggled to do that, as shown below. But also see Sigurt Vitol’s thoughtful and considered paper about GERMAN INDUSTRIAL POLICY: AN OVERVIEW which can be downloaded at https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ba5f/3fe74bf2104008be298a7b332a673706ad3a.pdf2.1.1 The Objective of the Policy: The Creation, Across All of The German Economy, Advanced Computerised “Smart Factories” with a major upgrading in the optimised computerised interconnection of factory operations from raw materials, subcomponent and energy inputs to specific, individual-customer-specified outputs.As Peter Altmaier, the German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Germany has summarised it, in A modern industrial policy,“Germany has a strong and successful industrial base. We need to keep it that way, we need to expand that.”In his lengthy and utterly specific article, he describes a policy which is the “fourth industrial revolution” which he names and describes:“INDUSTRIE 4.0Digitally driven and smartly networked“Digitally controlled production processes, smart factories and a networking of sales, production and logistics: the term "Industrie 4.0" describes a fourth industrial revolution which is picking up speed in the wake of rapid digitalisation.” And the description of the technology is“Industrie 4.0 combines production methods with state-of-the-art information and communication technology. This smart approach makes it possible to deliver tailored products to meet individual customer requirements – at low cost and in high quality. Highly flexible production methods and logistics will make it possible to customise products. Customers and business partners will be directly involved in operational and production processes, and there will be production methods and products that are closely intertwined with state-of-the-art, knowledge-intensive services (hybrid production, hybrid products).”So the system involves the implied digitally-controlled minimal inputs of energy, water and raw materials, combined with the just-in-time delivery of highest quality SME subcomponents to be assembled into a low cost, high quality customer-specified customised product which can “talk” through the internet of things to its maker, its buyer and the network of things around it.(Presumably the first three industrial revolutions the Federal Minister may have in mind may be the previous IR stages of the ages of steam, of electricity production and consumption, and of computers/internet communications, and of all the associated developments in these eras.)2.1.2 The Major Industrial Sectors AffectedIndustrie4.0/Germany4.0 highlights the following industrial sectors where Germany at present has a considerable leadership (as shown by export values) as highlighted by the Federal Minister:“The objective here is to foster innovation across the board, so that it covers all the lead markets and key enabling technologies that are of relevance for Germany. These include for example [my identing]mechanical and plant engineering,microelectronics,production technology,materials technology,bio- and nano-technology,energy and environmental technology,mobility and logistics,healthcare and medical technology, and not leastinformation and communications technology.“The process of technological transformation and the trend towards sharing knowledge and information on an ever-growing scale are continuing at unabated speed. Similarly, new developments in information and communication technology are having a considerable impact on the production of complex goods and services requiring a great deal of research and expertise. It is now increasingly possible for such complex manufacturing processes to be digitally controllable.”So Germany 4.0 while theoretically applying to “innovation across the board” is focused on the nine key areas highlighted. And the paper goes on to enumerate the value and employment of the leading six manufacturing activities in Germany, like thisThe paper goes on to demonstrate that export performance, the growing importance of export-related services, and highlights more industries which have “Innovative technologies with potential for the future” which are listed as“Within the framework of the Federal Government’s High-tech Strategy, the fields of health, mobility, climate/energy, security and communication are particularly addressed as important markets with potential for the future in cooperation with business and science. The Economic Affairs Ministry has special programmes for aerospace, the maritime industry, and the fields of mobility and information and communication technology. Also, innovative SMEs in all sectors can access government funding via the Ministry’s technology-neutral programmes.”In addition to all of the above, Germany intends toSecure raw materials and use them efficientlyPromote raw materials transparency (so you can see what’s being used where and how it’s forming part of something else, and how it’s being safely disposed of or recovered at the end of product life)Focus on renewable energyDiscount energy as a cost factor to assist energy-intensive industriesProtect the German environment byperforming climate risk checkhelping mitigate climate change andintroducing Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Technology to place extra atmospheric CO2 production in deep geological storage - as the Minister’s Report points out “The technology is currently being tested in Germany.”2.2 The Made in China 2025 initiative: Similar but differentAs Made in China 2025 - Wikipedia states “Made in China 2025 (Chinese: 中国制造2025; pinyin: Zhōngguó zhìzào èrlíng'èrwǔ)[1] is a strategic plan of China issued by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and his cabinet in May 2015.[2] China is moving away from being the World's factory floor (cheap goods and low quality) to move to higher value products and services.[3] In essence a blueprint to upgrade the manufacturing capabilities of Chinese industries. [4] The goals of Made in China 2025 include increasing the Chinese-domestic content of core materials to 40 percent by 2020 and 70 percent by 2025.[5] The plan focuses on high-tech fields including the pharmaceutical industry, automotive industry, aerospace industry, and semiconductors, IT and robotics etc which are presently the purview of foreign companies.[6]”2.2.1 The Origin of the PolicyChinese Premier Li Keqiang has made it quite clear that the inspiration for his Made in China 2025 Strategy was the Germany 4.0 industrial policy.3 The Comparisons Between Germany and ChinaBoth Germany and China have a highly educated and skilled workforce with millions of SMEs, many of which are acting at the forefront of their technology.Both countries fund the Wernerian transfer of invention to innovation in millions of their SMEs through effective local banking systems which help finance that process.4 The Differences Between the Germany 4 Policy and Made In China 20254.1 German Support for SME invention and InnovationAlthough Germany has a highly effective Sparkassen local public banking system to fund the establishment, development and updating of SMEs in each locality, Germany has a partly rationalised Sparkassen Banking System which, although the most effective in the world for a nation of Germany’s size, has the following sub-optimal characteristicsthe number of independent Sparkassen Banks has been reduced from 2,834 in 1903 to about 431 today - see German public bank - Wikipedia.East Germany was under Communist rule for about half a century and the Sparkassen Bank SME-supporting role during that period was diminished although still major, and it is doubtful if the East German states of Germany have yet recovered (by 2018) to the SME stimulation level provided in the states of West Germany.The retention of 15,600 local SME branches in Germany does provide a good level of SME support but bank branches do not always provide the excellent services or positive decisions that a local independent bank HQ can.One of the few jokes told by the Economist in times past was a response to a 1960s Russian claim that “East Germany proves Communism works” to which that newspaper replied“No - East Germany proves that the Germans can make anything work.” The relatively high growth rates of Communist East Germany (from 1945 to the 1960s) were due to the continuation of Germany’s Sparkassen Banks with their century and half traditions, of supporting SMEs even under Communist rule.Let me be as precise as the numbers can indicate: Herbert Simon has provided in his essay and book about the Hidden Champions of Germany the following dataWhich data I have summarised in the following generated table:More recent figures indicate that Germany has raised its delivery of “Hidden Champions” to above 1,600 with the result that the German level of champions per million people is about 20. It seems to me that a sub-analysis of the data is likely to show that some West German states are achieving hidden champion rates of about 25 champions per million people.Germany does not have an adequate system for the growth of “Hidden Champions” to world-serving scale, because it does not understand or use Shimomuran macroeconomics. Germany succeeds through the excellence of SME family firms and the few but large bank-supported major industries without having a “capital abundance” in all of its its manufacturing industry. Germany’s growth rate has always been intermediate because of that reality. The focus of German industry and politicians is upon Germany, and the Industrie4.0/ Germany4.0 policy would be much more impressive if it were an EU4.0 initiative funded by investment credit creation by the ECB across all of the EU.The EU is unfortunately being run by Germany as if it were a German Empire. Such an outcome was never intended by its founders who established and intended a co-operating commonwealth of collaborating nations. German politicians should grow into European citizens and while a “Germany first” bias in Industrie 4.0 may be initially acceptable, all of the EU needs a similar industrial upgrading.In my view the level of invention and innovation is a constant capability of all peoples. When Scotland was the beneficiary of the slave-trading profits of the Tobacco Lords these funds (along with some Sugar Lord monies also based upon black slavery) founded the local Glasgow-centred banks of Scotland and invested in the 88 companies that were the foundation of the local industrial revolution. When England had at most 900 Provincial Banks these institutions funded the conversion of invention to innovation in England and that created the English part of the industrial revolution from about 1750 to 1880. All of that is well documented in sources too numerous and too voluminous to quote here.5 The Industrial Coverage of Made In China 2025The Chinese data in the above table is incomplete because many Chinese SMEs are larger than the Hermann Simon definition as “having a revenue below $4bn”I have calculated the number of SMEs China should have, if the German number of SMEs per million people, is applied to China. About a third of Chinese SMEs seem to be missing, particularly in the western and central provinces of China where local bank SME support seems less supportive than the excellent local bank facilities in the Eastern coastal provinces and around Beijing.I have emailed (with no response so far) various Chinese economists and authorities pointing out that China could be growing more rapidly (I estimate by up to an extra 5%pa for decades) if these SME-supporting bank facilities were extended in western and central China.6 The Centrality of 5G Communications to the AI/IoT economy[Note: In some of the following quoted texts about 5G development, the Made In China 2025 policy is sometimes referred to as MIC2025.]The upgrading in mobile phone and internet connections from the 4G system to 5G is a key component of the success of the new Germany4.0/Made in China2025 strategies. The move from 4G to 5G brings about very large improvements in the operation of the internet for mobile phones and all other “thing users” of the internet. See ‘Made in China 2025’: Beijing has big plans for 5G – if the world lets it which outlines the situation as:“China’s road to 5G has been well planned. In 2012, two years before China Mobile launched 4G services on the mainland, various Chinese entities joined an international initiative to research and develop 5G.“With peak data rates up to 20 times faster than 4G, 5G will serve as “the connective tissue” for new mobile applications, such as the internet of things, autonomous cars and smart cities – providing the backbone for the industrial internet, according to a Deloitte report.“On the consumer side, 5G smartphone users will be able to send high-resolution 4K video within a few seconds, and both video games and apps based on augmented and virtual reality technologies will be seamless. The 5G networks will also be able to support the growing number of connected devices globally, from fitness-tracking watches to internet-linked televisions and smart speakers at home.“The International Telecommunications Union, the United Nations agency overseeing development of the “IMT 2020” global standard for 5G, said the new technology would support 1 million connected devices per square kilometre; 1 millisecond latency (representing the nearly instant time a packet of data takes to get from one point to another); greater efficiency in terms of power and use of radio spectrum; and a peak data download rate of up to 20 gigabits per second.”Let’s list these again, for these upgraded characteristics are astonishing: 5G has the advantages thatIt’s up to about 20 times faster than 4GIt serves as the fast backbone of the “Internet of Things”(IoT)It has a huge service capability (a million connected devices/km2) withvery fast millisecond latency for message transmissiongreater effective use of power and use of radio frequencies withdownloads of up to 20 gigabits/secondenabling not only “smart factories” but “smart cities.”As the above report continues:“The agency works in tandem with the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), an international collaboration of seven telecoms standard development organisations that draw up complete mobile system specifications.The 3GPP recently approved the much-anticipated global technology specifications for 5G, which is expected to kick off initial deployments by some of the world’s largest telecoms network operators either later this year or early in 2019.There are two sets of specifications completed under the 3GPP: one is called “5G stand-alone”, which was approved in June, while the other one passed in December 2017 is known as “5G non-stand-alone”.”China has been steeped in the proposed 5G trials, testing and upgrading of mobile phone and IoT Communications from 4G to 5G, as this chart illustrates:And where is the USA in all this? US phone producer companies are involved but Trump seems to imagine that the USA has the power to call a halt on the essential development of this massive upgrading to 5G mobile/IoT services in which America has not been centrally involved.As ‘Made in China 2025’: Beijing has big plans for 5G – if the world lets it reports:“Gear based on the 5G stand-alone specifications is designed to run independently of 4G networks – and this is the standard China is pushing. Operators will need to rebuild their core network and buy new 5G base stations to provide higher data speeds and greater capacity, as well as ultra-reliable, low-latency services to support machine-to-machine connection and autonomous driving.“The Chinese government wants every industry to use the most advanced infrastructure to upgrade productivity. This is a strategic agenda, and they think that 5G will help,” said Jefferies equity analyst Edison Lee, who covers Hong Kong-listed ZTE, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom. He goes on to say“China has very ambitious plans to promote the industrial internet of things, cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI), the capabilities of which require the support of brand-new 5G networks.”“For example, self-driving cars require sensors, AI and roadside base stations for fast and reliable connectivity to allow vehicles to “talk” to each other to avoid collisions and avoid pedestrians. Today’s 4G networks cannot meet those quick response times.“China’s plan for an aggressive 5G roll-out is in line with the MIC2025 road map. Initially, this focused on the domestic telecoms sector’s ability to increase broadband penetration nationwide to 82 per cent by 2025 as part of a push for industrial modernisation. Another objective was to see local suppliers making 40 per cent of all mobile phone chips used in the domestic market.“Under an updated version published in January, Beijing now wants China to become the world’s leading maker of telecoms equipment. Two of the world’s biggest telecoms gear suppliers, Shenzhen-based Huawei and ZTE, have helped lead China’s 5G research and development efforts.”7 Discussion Most observers do not seem to see the fuller picture of the computer-integrated AI/IoT “new world”. Both German and Chinese factories will become smart factories producing intercommunicating goods and transforming every sector of their economies. The inputs and the use of scarce resources will be AI-optimised, the whole industrial process will be a less costly just-in-time highly efficient production process providing goods and services to consumers in a transformed “5G-implemented Economy4.” The products made outside that system are likely to be literally “dumb” and unable to communicate with other things but may transmit usage and other data back to Germany and China.7.1 The Implications Of Both Industrial ProgrammesBoth Germany and China are going to have the most advanced industrial manufacturing economies and best consumer life experiences in the world.7.2 The Trump Effect In Accelerating China’s DevelopmentWhen Trump banned the export of Intel microchips to China, the Chinese developed their own microchips within 14 months. Donald Trump’s forced march has brought the title of the “World’s fastest computer” back to the USA by June 12 2018 but China has 82 more supercomputers than the USA does. See The world’s fastest supercomputer is back in AmericaAnd also see This is how dramatically China’s beating the US in its share of supercomputers where it says“According to the latest Top 500 list, published Monday (June 25), China has 206 supercomputers and is leading the US by a record margin—82. The US has just 124 machines on the list, “a new low,” according to the statement accompanying the ranking. Just six months ago, China, with 202 of the top computers, was only ahead of the US by 59. Top 500 has been releasing the supercomputer ranking, compiled by prominent computer scientists, every six months since 1993.”7.3 The USA Is the Likely Loser, Whatever OccursPresident Trump appears to be trying to persuade the entire Anglosphere - the USA, Canada, The UK, Australia and the EU- to remain as a group of backward economies, staying with the slower 4G based communications while China and Asia adopt the much higher 5G standard. Of course Trump the Luddite does not know what he is doing nor understand the implications of what he does. The development of smart factories and cities requires smart politicians and Trump is not that.I do not wish to compare the likely results of an integrated 5G-based military technology operating at up to 20 times the speed of a 4G-based technology. But even the most approximate initial comparison indicates that the USA, as has happened since the manufacturing-industry-exporting Ronald Reagan, has failed to invest or participate not only in the development of 5G but also has failed to keep its key once-major industries within its borders and continually updated, and these events inevitably have significant military implications.The American Republican/Conservative preference for “Rule by, for and of the rich” produces a profound disdain for manufacturing, a neglect of the living standards of workers through Austerity, a rot of US roads and public services through “small government”, and a pathological culture in domestic and foreign relations. FDR was much better than that. Trump isn’t.8 Conclusions8.1 The Recent New Initiatives of Industrie4.0/Germany4.0 and Made In China 2025 are the inevitable next stage of factory and services production, based upon on-board Artificial Intelligence and Microchips/Internet of Things/5G Rapid Communications, involvIngthe integration of entire factory production processes through minimal inputs, much higher productivity, just-in-time subcomponent and delivery, to produce excellent mass produced but individually ordered products as specified and much elseThe creation of a fast intercommunicating 5G-based “human-thing” environment of driverless cars, pilotless aircraft, goods-serving personal-delivered education, health and other government services and entertainment services based upon superb quality VRLeading to a new highly advanced integrated goods-and-services providing economy in which the network of things provides an advanced living experienceTrump’s opposition to Made In China 2025 is very unlikely to slow down or stop its implementation8.2 The development of smart factories, smart cities and smart economies within a smarter environment is the inevitable next stage in the economic history of the world. It is unstoppable and inevitable and very helpful to the futures of Germany and China and perhaps in future in Europe and very probably in Asia.8.3 The USA needs to “get on board” and adopt these fresh industrial renewal processes and these policies and not to try to prevent progress in Germany and China. Or the USA could just politically accept the continuation of its trajectory of relative economic decline, which under current leadership seems inevitable. Alternatively, as a first step, the USA needs to study how rapid economic growth is financed in today’s world and adopt more people-serving policies. In my view there are hundreds, possibly thousands, of very capable American politicians, perhaps a majority of them women, who could reverse US economic decline. But that is unlikely to be a quick process.