“The ISA draft is all done and ready. We are waiting for a formal occasion to sign it,” one defence official said. The ISA is part of the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), which India had signed with the U.S. many years ago. The ISA is crucial for U.S. companies bidding for big-ticket Indian deals to partner Indian private companies.
“In order to provide MSME’s a level playing field in defence supplies and also expand the vendor base, the Ministry of Defence has come up with a scheme to set up 6-8 product testing centres in the defence industrial corridors,” Rear Admiral A. George, Additional Director General Quality Assurance (Warship Projects), directorate general, quality assurance (DGQA), told reporters.
The NEERI report will be out soon, said Gadkari. “I strongly believe that continuing with traditional crops like cotton, soyabean or even paddy and wheat is not going to help the farmers much. Rates of crops like cotton depend on the market conditions and there is already a surplus of food crops like paddy or wheat. Sources of alternate fuel can be the future. Bamboo can even be grown on the farms’ edges,” he said.
The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Sigh is likely to give a final clearance next week for the Request of Proposal (RFP) after having identified the Indian firms and foreign manufacturers who will get together for the production of the helicopters, according to sources.
As per a new policy, the DRDO, under the Ministry of Defence will offer complete access to its patents filed in India without any licensing or royalty fees. It has displayed both the procedure and the complete list of technologies on its website. The technologies, relating to missiles, life sciences, electronics and communications, naval and aeronautics systems, combat engineering, electronics, armaments. among others, have military applications and some have spin offs that can be transferred to commercial market.
The ‘eye in the sky’ project — an aircraft-mounted radar that can look deep into enemy territory and direct combat assets for a strike — is set to get a boost with the defence ministry likely to clear next week the acquisition of two Airbus A330 platforms that will be modified by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which comes under the Ministry of Home Affairs, has prepared a blueprint for hiring these personnel for the force.
Their hiring would be done for five years . MHA advised CISF after a meeting held by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on September 23 to make a contractual appointment of retired defence /ex-CAPFs personnel in the CISF for five years and re-structure and deploy CISF personnel in the ratio of 3:2, wherein 3 may be permanent and 2 may be temporary.
Speaking at its first coastal security workshop, Vijay Singh Thakur, Secretary (East) in the MEA said India attaches great importance to the grouping of South and Southeast Asian nations and it is a part of its neighbourhood first policy.
According to a source in the ministry, the government had in the first phase planned to construct 61 roads along the India-China border totalling 3,346 km. Of these, 36 roads (1,260 km) have been constructed, while links have been established in 20 others (2,035 km) which are being tested. Work on the remaining five roads has begun and will be completed soon.
Government of India has been encouraging organic farming in the country through the dedicated schemes namely Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY- Centrally Sponsored scheme, in all states & UTs) and Mission Organic Value Chain Development of North East Region (MOVCDNER -Central Sector scheme for North Eastern Region).
