The SOI was signed during the ninth meeting of DTTI Group, which held on October 24 and was co-chaired by Subhash Chandra, Secretary, Defence Production, from the Indian Ministry of Defence and Ellen M Lord, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, from the US Department of Defense.
“Also, digging a borehole of 200 metre depth for disposal of hot water, or construction of pond for waste management, is a decision taken by the scientists; the NPCIL ensures 100% security. These are totally the experts’ decisions, but the protesting NGOs are misguiding the people. The NGOs are also creating fear in the minds of common people by citing examples of nuclear accidents in Japan and Russia, which is clearly unfair,” the same official said.
Power infrastructure in the country already follows statutory standards for safety but telecommunications does not. As part of the global Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has initiated discussions with the telecom players — Bharat Sanchar Nigam, Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone Idea — to develop standards for the sector.
Some of the countries represented in the briefing were the US, UAE, Afghanistan, Japan, Russia and Israel.
RIYADH: Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Riyadh late on Monday night on a two-day visit, during which he will attend the third edition of Saudi Arabia’s high-profile annual financial conference and hold bilateral talks with top leadership of the Gulf Kingdom.
“Landed in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, marking the start of an important visit aimed at strengthening ties with a valued friend. Will be taking part in a wide range of programmes during this visit,” the prime minister tweeted.
The Prime Minister landed in Saudi Arabia a short while ago. https://t.co/l6WSNbsh7U
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) 1572295394000
He will deliver the keynote address under the title ‘What’s next for India?’ at the Future Investment Initiative (FII), which is dubbed as
‘Davos in the Desert’
.
Besides addressing the forum he will hold bilateral talks with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The two sides are expected to sign a number of agreements in several key sectors including oil and gas, renewable energy and civil aviation to bolster their ties.
The three-day forum, beginning on Tuesday, will host financiers, governments, and industry leaders who would discuss global trade and explore the trends, opportunities and challenges shaping the global investment landscape over the coming decades.
“India and Saudi Arabia have enjoyed traditionally close and friendly relations. Saudi Arabia has been one of the largest and reliable suppliers of India’s energy needs,” Modi said in his departure statement in New Delhi.
He noted that defence, security, trade, culture, education and people-to-people contacts are the other important areas of bilateral cooperation with Saudi Arabia.
The two sides would also sign an agreement to establish a Strategic Partnership Council to coordinate on key issues. The council will be headed by Prime Minister Modi and the crown prince and it will meet every two years.
“The Agreement for establishment of the Strategic Partnership Council will further elevate the India-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership to a new level,” the prime minister said in his statement.
This would be Prime Minister Modi’s second visit to the Gulf Kingdom. During his first visit in 2016, King Salman conferred Saudi’s highest civilian award on him. The Crown Prince visited India in February 2019, giving a further fillip to the bilateral ties.
India’s relations with Saudi Arabia have been on an upswing over the last few years. India’s bilateral trade with Saudi Arabia was at $27.48 billion in 2017-18, making Saudi Arabia its fourth largest trading partner.
Saudi Arabia last month said that it was looking at investing $100 billion in India in areas of energy, refining, petrochemicals, infrastructure, agriculture, minerals and mining.
At the FII forum, Prime Minister Modi will speak on India’s economy, its challenges and opportunities for equitable growth and prosperity.
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Modi is a GREAT Leader.
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“I will speak about the growing trade and investment opportunities for the global investors in India as the country marches forward to a 5 trillion dollar economy by 2024,” Modi said.
The high-profile forum faced widespread boycott in 2018 in the aftermath of killing of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered in the Kingdom”s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey by Saudi security agents.
As part of Exercise Shakti-2019, French troops arrived in India on October 26 for training with their Indian counterparts. The bilateral training exercise will be conducted at Foreign Training Node at Mahajan Field Firing Ranges, Rajasthan. The bilateral exercise will be conducted from October 31 to November 13.
NEW DELHI: With the IAF now fully backing the indigenous development of a fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA), it’s all systems go for the desi stealth jet. The defence establishment plans to seek the Cabinet Committee on Security’s approval for the detailed design and prototype development of the advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA) by early next year.
The twin-engine AMCA will basically combine advanced stealth, supercruise (the capability to achieve supersonic cruise speeds without the use of afterburners), super-manoeuverability, data fusion and multi-sensor integration with AESA (active electronically scanned array) radars.
Development of a FGFA is an extremely complex and costly affair, with the American F/A-22 Raptors and F-35 Lightning-II Joint Strike Fighters being the only fully-operational ones around the globe at present. “Both the Chinese J-20 and the Russian Sukhoi PAK-FA do not have the requisite super-cruise and stealth capabilities,” said a senior IAF officer.
DRDO, in turn, rejects widespread concern the developmental saga of the “swing-role” AMCA may go the same way as the long-delayed Tejas light combat aircraft. “The design work on AMCA began in 2009. By 2014-2015, the fighter’s configuration, in tune with IAF requirements, had been worked out. But the problem was that there was no engine,” said a scientist.
Consequently, the decision has now been taken to go in for two squadrons of AMCA Mark-I with the “available” General Electric-414 afterburning turbofan engine in the 98 Kilonewton thrust class.
“The next five to six squadrons of AMCA Mark-II will have a more powerful 110 Kilonewton engine, which will be developed indigenously with foreign collaboration parallelly. The supercruise of Mark-I will be slightly limited due to the older engine but it will be upgraded in Mark-II,” said a source.
After the Rs 400 crore design sanction for AMCA in December 2018, it will now take “another seven to eight months” for the nod for the prototype development phase at a cost of around Rs 7,000-8,000 crore, which will be required over a decade, said sources.
As per existing plans, the 25-tonne AMCA’s “roll-out from the hangar to the runway” will take place by 2024-2025, with the first test-flight a year after that. “By 2029, the clearance to begin production of AMCA Mark-I should come. Mark-II production, in turn, should begin by 2035,” said the source.
DRDO says the advanced technologies to make AMCA a stealth fighter range from “serpentine air-intake” and an internal weapon bay (internal carriage of smart weapons) to radar absorbing materials and conformal antennae. “Most of the designing for stealth shaping of AMCA has already been done,” he said.
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The benefit of all these “make in India”, is going to be derived by the future generations and future Governments. The current Government is getting the unwashable stains of the past govern…Read More
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The plan is to produce the single-engine Tejas in greater numbers, with the IAF already committed to acquiring 123 of them. Another 200 Tejas Mark-II, with more powerful engines and advanced avionics, will be inducted at a later stage.
“The first test-flight of Tejas Mark-II or the MWF (medium weight fighter) should take place by 2023. The specialised AMCA, which will cost double the Tejas Mark-II, will be inducted in smaller numbers … stealth aircraft are expensive,” said the source.
Having achieved this double milestone, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which operates the UPI platform, aims to take the network global by enabling acceptance of UPI in Singapore and the UAE.
Pretomanid is an important drug for the treatment of highly drug-resistant TB (DR-TB), if taken along with other TB medicines. It is also the third new anti-TB drug approved by USFDA in over 40 years. Significantly, Macleods has now become the second generic manufacturer for the drug, globally, after the TB Alliance earlier granted rights to US drug maker Mylan in August this year.
The exercises with the two countries will be conducted in a tri-service format (involving their armies, navies and air forces) — for the first time with the US and the second with Russia. The first India-US tri-services military exercise named Tiger Triumph will be held in November off India’s east coast, while the Indra drills with the Russians will be staged off the west coast in December, said one of the officials cited above.
