Sunday, July 26, 2009

India launches nuclear submarine

India has launched its first nuclear-powered submarine, becoming only the sixth country in the world to do so.

The 6,000 tonne Arihant was launched by India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at a ceremony on the south-east coast.

It was built entirely in India with Russian assistance and a second one is due to be constructed shortly.

It will undergo trials over the next few years before being deployed and will be able to launch missiles at targets 700km (437 miles) away.

Until now, only the US, Russia, France, Britain and China had the capability to build nuclear submarines.

'China threat'

Launching the INS Arihant, Mr Singh said India had no aggressive designs on anyone.

Indian workers (L) paint the conning tower of the INS Kursura, on display as a part of the INS Kurusura Submarine Museum, at Rama Krishna Beach in Visakhapatnam, some 800 kilometers from Hyderabad, on July 25, 2009.
India has relied mainly on Russian-built submarines until now

But the sea was becoming increasingly relevant to India's security concerns, he added.

"It is incumbent upon us to take all measures necessary to safeguard our country and to keep pace with technological advancements worldwide," he told the ceremony in the port city of Visakhapatnam.

The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi says until now India has been able to launch ballistic missiles only from the air and from land.

Nuclear submarines will add a third dimension to its defence capability.

When it is eventually deployed, the top-secret Arihant will be able to carry 100 sailors on board.

It will be able to stay under water for long periods and thereby increase its chances of remaining undetected.

By contrast, India's ageing conventional diesel-powered submarines need to constantly surface to recharge their batteries.

Our correspondent says the launching of the Arihant is a clear sign that India is looking to blunt the threat from China which has a major naval presence in the region.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Gorshkov project sole irritant in Indo-Russian ties: Medvedev

MOSCOW (AFP) — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday angrily rebuked a shipyard chief for delays to repairs of a Soviet-era aircraft carrier set for delivery to India, urging work to be completed quickly.

Television pictures showed Medvedev adopting a tough style reminiscent of his predecessor and mentor Vladimir Putin as he rebuked the head of the Sevmash shipyard on the White Sea in Russia's northern port of Severodvinsk.

"We must finish it and sell it. Anything else would set a very poor precedent," Medvedev told the director of Sevmash, Nikolai Kalistratov.

"We should consider this as a first and very trying experience," Medvedev said in comments broadcast on state television.

Last year, India and Russia ended a protracted dispute over the cost to modernize the 44,570-tonne aircraft carrier, the Admiral Gorshkov, which will be sold to the Indian navy for an undisclosed price in 2011.

In front of television cameras, Medvedev scolded Kalistratov for agreeing commitments that the shipyard had been unable to fulfill.

"It was a mistake," said Kalistratov, sighing loudly. "There is still a lot of work to do. It's a difficult business."

"Of course it was a mistake!" replied Medvedev, laughing sarcastically.

"Why did you sign? As a result everyone has to make excuses -- you in front of me, and me in front of my Indian colleagues," said Medvedev.

Putin has made televised admonishment of wayward officials one of his trademarks and last month publicly rebuked Russia's former richest man Oleg Deripaska in an extraordinary scene that saw him throw a pen at the oligarch.

Until now, Medvedev has usually been more restrained in his television appearances.

Russian amrs export firm Rosoboronexport in 2004 signed a deal to refurbish the 30-year-old carrier for 970 million dollars, but last year demanded India pay an additional 1.2 billion dollars.

Since resolving the pricing dispute, India sent about 100 trained personnel to join the some 1,200 Russian engineers at the Sevmash shipyard working on the massive vessel, according to Indian officials.

Medvedev later told a meeting of naval chiefs that the project had to be finished on time in line with the basic timetable agreed by the two sides, RIA-Novosti news agency reported.

Russia accounted for 70 percent of Indian arms supplies in 2008, but late deliveries and commercial disagreements have led New Delhi to turn to suppliers such as Israel, Britain, France and the United States.

Russia is due to supply India this year with a nuclear submarine, the Nerpa, in which 20 people died after a toxic gas accident during a trial in 2008.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

India to give 240-mn dollars for South Asian University

The Union Cabinet today approved payment of India's contribution of 239.930 million dollars to the South Asian University, which is around 79 percent of the total cost of the full establishment of the University until 2014.

As part of India's asymmetric commitment to SAARC, India is ready to disburse the first tranche of its financial commitment of 9.464 million dollars to ensure that the University is operational in July-August 2010.

The University will be the first international University to be hosted by India. The objectives of the University are to disseminate and advance knowledge, wisdom and understanding by providing instructional and research facilities in such branches of learning as it may deem fit.

The South Asian University shall be a non-state, non-profit self governing international educational institution with a regional focus for the purposes set forth in this Agreement and shall have full academic freedom for the attainment of its objectives.

The jurisdiction of the University shall extend to whole of India and to campuses and centres established outside India in the SAARC region.

The Ministry of External Affairs is acquiring hundred acres of land from DDA next to Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) for leasing to the University.

At the Thirteenth SAARC Summit held in Dhaka, in November 2005, Prime Minister proposed the establishment of a South Asian University to provide world-class facilities and professional faculty to students and researchers from SAARC member countries.

The Inter-governmental Agreement for the Establishment of the South Asian University was signed at the 14th SAARC Summit (April 3-4, 2007). The SAARC Member States also decided that the University would be established in India. (ANI)

Job for Indian royal descendant



A descendant of India's last Mughal emperor has been rescued from a life of penury in Calcutta by getting a job with the state-run Coal India.

Madhu is the illiterate great-great-granddaughter of emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar and has been employed to run errands in Coal India's offices.

A letter of employment will be formally handed over to her by the coal minister at a function in Calcutta next month.

She and her mother currently run a tea stall in the slums of Calcutta.

Rehabilitation

"It will great to have Madhu working for us. Actually, it will be a great tribute to the last Mughal emperor who played a key role during the first war of independence in 1857," Coal India Chairman Partha Bhattacharyya said.

Bahadur Shah Zafar
Bahadur Shah Zafar was the last of a long line of Mughal emperors

The move by Coal India follows sustained efforts by a Delhi-based journalist Shivnath Jha, who launched a campaign to rescue her from poverty.

Madhu's cause was one of several highlighted by Mr Jha and his wife Neena in an initiative to rehabilitate descendants of the forgotten heroes of India's independence wars.

Mr Jha told the BBC that he first hit upon this idea when he tried to raise funds for one of India's greatest classical musicians, Bismillah Khan, earlier in the decade.

"We published a pictorial biography of Bismillah Khan and raised some funds. After his death, we institutionalised this movement," Mr Jha said.

Last year, he persuaded India's former Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav to help the descendants of Tantia Tope, one of the leaders of the 1857 mutiny which many Indians say was in fact the country's first war of independence.

'Barely survive'

"Two of his great granddaughters were given employment by the Container Corporation of India on Mr Yadav's intervention," Mr Jha said.

Bus in Calcutta
The pair live in poverty in one of the most crowded cities in the world

In 2009 Mr Jha began promoting the cause of Sultana Begum, the poverty-stricken widow of Muhammad Bedar Bakht - a direct descendant of Bahadur Shah Zafar - who died in 1980.

Ms Begum has five daughters - all are married except for Madhu, her youngest daughter.

"My other daughters and their husbands are poor people, they barely survive, so they cannot help us," she said. "We have been living, but God knows how."

The tea shop run by Sultana and her daughter earns the pair a subsistence income.

Mr Jha said that he hoped to provide the pair with more funds by donating money raised from the sale of a book about Indian prime ministers.

Another industrialist-philanthropist, Madhusudan Aggrawal, owner of Ajanta Pharmaceuticals has also offered help.

"Mr Aggrawal has promised a house for Sultana and a small job for her in a school run by his company," Mr Jha said.

If all works out, Sultana Begum and her daughter can surely look forward to moving out of the slums of Howrah, a decrepit industrial area.

Bahadur Shah Zafar was placed on the throne in 1837. He was the last of a line of Mughal emperors who ruled India for three centuries.

In 1857, when Indian soldiers mutinied against their British masters, Bahadur Shah Zafar was declared their commander-in-chief.

Mr Zafar was exiled to Rangoon after the British crushed the mutiny in 1858, where he lived for five years until his death at at the age of 87.

Indian growth of 7% 'is possible'



India could achieve growth of 7% in the current year and more in coming years if the right reforms are made, a report from the finance ministry said.

The economic survey was released ahead of Monday's budget.

Among the reforms suggested was the reform of subsidies for fuel, food and fertiliser, a privatisation programme and investment in infrastructure.

Some analysts predict that the Congress Party's decisive election victory could speed up the economic reform programme.

The previous government's power-sharing arrangement meant there was political opposition to calls for reform from the finance ministry.

The Indian economy grew 6.7% in the year to the end of March 2009 but had grown by an average of 8.8% in the previous five years.

'Clear roadmap'

There have been warnings that the entire reform programme is unlikely to be in Monday's budget.

"It is wrong to assume everything will be announced in the budget," said Amitabh Chakraborty at Religare Securities in Mumbai. "It is the strategic intent, a clear roadmap."

The government is expected to announce a programme of greater borrowing to boost economic growth.

On Wednesday, India unexpectedly raised fuel prices by up to 10%.

The finance ministry is keen for the government to stop subsidising fuel prices. It also wants to see the restrictions on foreign investment eased.

Gay sex decriminalised in India



A court in the Indian capital, Delhi, has ruled that homosexual intercourse between consenting adults is not a criminal act.

The ruling overturns a 148-year-old colonial law which describes a same-sex relationship as an "unnatural offence".

Homosexual acts were punishable by a 10-year prison sentence.

Many people in India regard same-sex relationships as illegitimate. Rights groups have long argued that the law contravened human rights.

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Delhi's High Court ruled that the law outlawing homosexual acts was discriminatory and a "violation of fundamental rights".

The court said that a statute in Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which defines homosexual acts as "carnal intercourse against the order of nature" and made them illegal, was an "antithesis of the right to equality".

'India's Stonewall'

The ruling is historic in a country where homosexuals face discrimination and persecution on a daily basis but it is likely to be challenged, says the BBC's Soutik Biswas in Delhi.


Gay rights march in India

Fight for recognition in Mumbai
Activists welcome 'historic' ruling
Gay sex ruling: Views from India

It also promises to change the discourse on sexuality in a largely conservative country, where even talking about sex is largely taboo, our correspondent says.

Gay rights activists all over the country welcomed the ruling and said it was "India's Stonewall".

New York's Stonewall riot in 1969 is credited with launching the gay rights movement.

"It [the ruling] is India's Stonewall. We are elated. I think what now happens is that a lot of our fundamental rights and civic rights which were denied to us can now be reclaimed by us," activist and lawyer Aditya Bandopadhyay told the BBC.

"It is a fabulously written judgement, and it restores our faith in the judiciary," he said.

Leading gay rights activist and the editor of India's first gay magazine Ashok Row Kavi welcomed the judgement but said the stigma against homosexuals will persist.


TEXT OF COURT JUDGEMENT
Delhi High Court judgement overturning Section 377 of India's Penal Code
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"The social stigma will remain. It is [still] a long struggle. But the ruling will help in HIV prevention. Gay men can now visit doctors and talk about their problems. It will help in preventing harassment at police stations," Mr Kavi told the BBC.

But the decision was greeted with unease by other groups.

Father Dominic Emanuel of India's Catholic Bishop Council said the church did not "approve" of homosexual behaviour.

"Our stand has always been very clear. The church has no serious objection to decriminalising homosexuality between consenting adults, the church has never considered homosexuals as criminals," said Father Emanuel.

"But the church does not approve of this behaviour. It doesn't consider it natural, ethical, or moral," he said.


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The head cleric of Jama Masjid, India's largest mosque, criticised the ruling.

"This is absolutely wrong. We will not accept any such law," Ahmed Bukhari told the AFP news agency.

In 2004, the Indian government opposed a legal petition that sought to legalise homosexuality - a petition the high court in Delhi dismissed.

But rights groups and the Indian government's HIV/Aids control body have demanded that homosexuality be legalised.

The National Aids Control Organisation (Naco) has said that infected people were being driven underground and efforts to curb the virus were being hampered.

According to one estimate, more than 8% of homosexual men in India were infected with HIV, compared to fewer than 1% in the general population.