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Zia clarifies his timing of declaration of independence

What Mujib Said

Jyoti Basu is dead

Dr.BR Ambedkar

Memories of Another day

Memories of Another day
While my Parents Pulin babu and Basanti Devi were living

Thursday, September 24, 2009

BRAHMIN Finance Minister of India leads Manusmriti Hegemony to Invoke War Goddess Durga for the Final Kill! At UN, Gaddafi drops 'Kashmir bomb'!Ahead of UNSC summit, US calls all countries to sign NPT.Kakodkar says Pokhran-11 tests fully successful.I

BRAHMIN Finance Minister of India leads Manusmriti Hegemony to Invoke War Goddess Durga for the Final Kill! At UN, Gaddafi drops 'Kashmir bomb'!Ahead of UNSC summit, US calls all countries to sign NPT.Kakodkar says Pokhran-11 tests fully successful.Israel welcomes Obama's stand on negotiations with Palestine.Markets may rise further in the next 6 months.PM to push for radical reforms of global financial institutions.Global food output needs to be increased by 70 pc by 2050: FAO

 

Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams, Chapter 382

Palash Biswas

Troops pullout 'disastrous'

WASHINGTON, 23 SEPT: Cautioning the Obama administration against withdrawing from Afghanistan soon, a powerful US lawmaker has said this would lead to Pakistan again supporting Al Qaida and Taliban as part of its policy to counter the Indian influence in the region. Amidst report that USA is considering withdrawal of forces and instead focus more on aerial strikes, Congressman Mr Ike Skelton said such a policy would be disastrous for the USA.
Meanwhile, twelve Afghan civilians died in roadside bomb blasts in the past 24 hours, officials said today.;PTI


Pranab to don a priest's mantle during Durga Puja
Suri (WB): Far from the hurly-burly of politics, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee plays another role at this time of the year -- a priest worshipping Goddess Durga.

Mukherjee worships the Goddess at Miriti, his ancestral village near Kirnahar in Birbhum district, 200 km from Kolkata.

"The puja is around 100 years old. Pranab's grandfather late Jangaleswar Mukherjee started the puja," said Goutam Roy, who has been looking after puja arrangements for the last couple of years.

"After him, Kamadakinkar Mukherjee, father of Pranab Mukherjee continued it. Pranab babu does the same," he said.

Mukherjee himself performs the puja on Mahastami puja, the second day of the four day festival, with thousands of people including villagers, party workers, family members visiting Miriti.

Source: PTI

Delhi alters Maoist strategy
- Anti-rebel operations first, development later 
SANKARSHAN THAKUR 
 
Security personnel during an anti-Naxalite operation in Bengal 
New Delhi, Sept. 23: The Centre has effected a key, and contentious, shift in its anti-Naxalite strategy, delinking development imperatives from armed crackdown which is now being flagged as a top priority.

"Police action and development do not go hand in hand, as if they were lovers," a top source in the Union home ministry said today.

"Police action has to precede development because development just cannot happen in territory where the government can't enter. We must first rid areas of armed Maoists, establish our authority and then, of course, it is our intention to implement development programmes."

This marks a significant change in the Centre's approach to dealing with Naxalism, which has hitherto been to achieve a calibrated mix of addressing socio-economic grievances and neutralising armed rebellion.

Admitting that this was a meditated change in tack after P. Chidambaram's arrival as home ministry boss, a source said: "We are on the confrontation path with Left-wing extremists, they have spread to 2,000 of the 14,000 police station areas in the country. We have to regain territory from them and establish and assert our authority, roads and schools and hospitals and telephones will follow. We cannot have any development in areas that we do not hold, so first they have to be rid of the extremists bent on violence."

Leading internal security think tanks, such as the Institute of Conflict Management headed by K.P.S. Gill, have long been lobbying the Centre to give precedence to the "war on Naxalites" and not "confuse it with development issues".

Articulating views that are already with the home minister, Ajai Sahni, executive director of the institute, said: "Unless and until we have totally eliminated the disruptive dominance of Maoists over large parts, there is no point talking of development, they are the biggest stumbling block to development, they have to be removed first."

Home ministry sources repeatedly quoted the June 12 document of the CPI (Maoist) to argue that the Naxalites were "bent on violence and mayhem against the state and the people" and, therefore, the government had to "squarely meet" the threat posed by them.

The June document flays the government's preparations to counter Naxalites in their strongholds and says: "We have to once again prepare the people of the area to resist the marauders and mercenaries sent by Sonia-Manmohan-Chidambaram combine to subdue them, destroy their culture and loot the resources of the region for the benefit of a handful of exploiters. This time the fight will be more long-drawn and more bitter than the one against the British imperialist armies."

The sources said the government was prepared to negotiate with the Maoists if they "abjured arms" but asserted that the June document was proof they had no such intention.

"At the moment, the red terror can only be tamed by the state asserting its authority," a source said. "They are the aggressors, not the state of India, they are blowing up roads and hijacking trains, they are destroying public property, they are the ones who have undertaken to violently overthrow the state, we have to stop them. Our forces will be deployed to rollback these so called liberators."

The sources offered no insight into the anti-Naxalite offensive — no modus, no timelines — but underlined that the Centre was "determined to go after elements that were ideologically committed to the politics of violence".

The Centre's new stern line comes in the midst of a surge in state-Naxalite confrontation across several states including Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar.

In a move that could indicate the home ministry is laying the ground for a major offensive, it is also employing a high-voltage PR offensive against Naxalites, placing ads in a slew of newspapers.

It may be no coincidence that over the last month, police have picked up two top Maoists leaders — Amit Bagchi in Ranchi and Khobad Ghandy in Delhi — taking the number of politburo members in custody to seven — the result, officials maintain, of better and more cross-linked intelligence inputs.

Asked whether these arrests were part of a broader drive to mop up not merely CPI (Maoist) members but also Naxalite sympathisers, a source said: "These (the people being arrested) are committed to the overthrow of the state, they are top leaders of a proscribed organisation, the law applies to them and it is being applied. If we find them in Chhattisgarh they will be picked up there, if they are in Delhi they will be picked up here, but we are going by the due process of law, we are not bumping them off. We are totally against fake encounters, they are condemnable, but if people wage war on the nation, they are in violation of the law of the land."
 
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090924/jsp/frontpage/story_11536065.jsp

Puja pick of right spirit
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
 
 
Raima Sen at Model Puja 2008 Tridhara Sammilani last year 
When the cars roll out on Thursday morning bearing the standards of CESC The Telegraph True Spirit Puja, both the visitors to the pandals they carry and the puja organisers they visit will be united in one goal — gifting the people of Calcutta and Howrah a safer, happier and more meaningful festival.

Of the 267 pujas to be visited over Sashthi and Saptami, those crowned last year are working extra hard.

Debashis Kumar of Model Puja 2008 Tridhara Sammilani on Manohar-pukur Road is confident of getting another thumbs up. "We have improved on last year's showing with regard to fire-fighting and electicity supply gear. Another ramp has been added for physically challenged visitors," he says, watching volunteers control the crowd queuing up to see Nepal's Durbar Square in south Calcutta.

Tridhara's soul is a medical centre, open thrice a week for the poor. "We treat about 100 patients a week." Last year's TSP prize money (of Rs 50,000) too has been pumped in here.

When Aila struck, Manicktalla Chaltabagan Lohapatty Durgapuja Committee raised Rs 50,000. "Our first destination was Gosaba where we distributed water barrels and dry food before sailing to Rangaberia, Kochukhali and Kumirmari," recalls Suren Khara of the Five Star puja. Tridhara too handed over 300 saris and 100 mosquito nets to Aila victims.

Kalitala Sporting Club, off the Bypass, another Five-Star status bearer, has gone the extra mile to keep to the right side of the law. "We reduced the height of our Meenakshi temple pandal as soon as the court ruling (of a 40-ft vertical cap) came out," says club president Prabir Das.

Holding a puja in an economically backward area means perennial budget constraints. "But we are committed to bring our rickshaw-puller neighbours under a group insurance scheme." Just as TSP is committed to stand by pujas with a heart.
 
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090924/jsp/calcutta/story_11534774.jsp

SEEDS OF DOUBT 
Months after the president of the United States of America, Barack Obama, unveiled his AfPak policy amid much fanfare, he was found asking himself on television last Sunday if this was the "right strategy". The re-think has been inspired by the request for more troops by General Stanley McChrystal, commander of the US forces in Afghanistan, who is also Mr Obama's man for the job. Technically, the president should have little problem in acquiescing to the demand since the AfPak strategy, at its heart, is committed to defeating the Taliban in active combat through a surge in troops. Of course, development and the strengthening of the country's civil institutions are also part of this policy. But the US and its allies have already shown their belief in the workability of the 'surge factor' by commissioning more troops in Afghanistan — immediately after the announcement of the policy, and before the August elections in Afghanistan. The situation must have changed dramatically in Afghanistan since that time to sow seeds of doubt in a man who has consistently wanted more active and prolonged involvement in the country. Unfortunately, other than two obvious developments, nothing in the subcontinent appears to have altered much, given the inconclusive presidential election in Afghanistan and the surge in Taliban activity. The two are connected. That the August elections threw up no clear verdict is as much an evidence of the ineffectual leadership of Hamid Karzai as of the effectiveness with which the resurgent Taliban have spread fear and throttled the political machinery. This could not have been entirely unforeseen. In other words, the Americans could not have been so foolish as to depend entirely on the winnability of Mr Karzai to facilitate their exit strategy.

Mr Obama's reluctance to commit himself to more troops has to be explained by other changes then: first, his obvious domestic difficulties, which have increased steadily, and second, the role of the allies. Italy is as unwilling as Germany to chip in any more. Finally, the increasing possibility of using former warlords to fight the war against the Taliban on behalf of the foreign powers. The European powers are supposed to be already weighing the pros and cons of implementing this policy more forcefully. This can only mean that Mr Obama can sit on General McChrystal's recommendations for a little longer.
 
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090924/jsp/opinion/story_11533115.jsp

CMO nod
Calcutta, Sept. 23: The government has received the approval of governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi for creating a chief minister's office, sources at Writers' Buildings said.

The matter will be placed in the next cabinet meeting scheduled for October 29.

In the CMO, experts in various fields will work to help the chief minister by providing him information. The sources said a notification will be made on October 1 and placed before the cabinet.
 

 

Indians among most corrupt while doing business abroad: TII


23 Sep 2009, 2200 hrs IST, PTI

NEW DELHI: At least 30 per cent of 2,742 business executives surveyed across the world regard Indians among the most corrupt when doing business 10 highest salary-earners of India Inc
India's top 10 business houses
Tycoons with a golden heart
abroad to "speed things up", according to a report by an NGO Transparency International India (TII) here.

"The Global Corruption Report 2009: Corruption and the Private Sector (GCR)" which was released today worldwide claims that Indian and Chinese companies play an active role in global business but engage in "bribery" when doing business abroad.

The Competition Act enacted in 2002 which promotes and sustains competition in markets and protects the interest of consumers has remained a non-starter in India, as per the report.

"A minimum of 100 senior executives each in 26 countries were questioned regarding the practices used by business persons from various nations," it says.

"TII has had some measure of success with public sector firms with the use of Integrity Pact, a tool to check corruption in procurement and tendering. We have not been able to generate similar interest among the private sector yet," says TII chairman RH Tahiliani in a statement.

Another concern the report addresses is how the sheer economic power of some firms and business sectors translates into disproportionate and undue leverage on political-decision making.

"Companies have no clear cut guideline on regulating and making transparent political contributions. Corporates report high-level strategic commitments to anti-corruption but they do not always report on the necessary support systems required to meet these commitments," says Anupama Jha, executive director of TII.

The report also points out that half of international business executives polled estimated that corruption raised project costs by at least 10 per cent.

"Ultimately it is citizens who pay: consumers around the world were overcharged around US $300 billion through almost 300 private international cartels discovered from 1990 to 2005," she adds.

Now, austerity drive in PM's visit


24 Sep 2009, 1459 hrs IST, IANS

PITTSBURGH: Austerity starts here! That's the message the Indian government, perhaps, seeks to convey during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit 
here to attend the G20 Summit.

The first casualty of the austerity drive has been the strength of the media delegation accompanying the prime minister. It now stands reduced to 29 journalists from the 35 or more who are normally part of the entourage.

This apart, gone are the days when caviar was a part of the normal indulgence and champagne flowed freely. Now, instead of a rather elaborate food menu to choose from, the choice before the prime minister's fellow travellers was quite limited.

But scribes from south India, as also others with a taste for the normal cuisine in southern states, were not disappointed. The tradition of serving curd rice, started by former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, has not stopped. 
 
 
Nilekani's book shortlisted for FT-Goldman Sachs award

22 Sep 2009, 2132 hrs IST, PTI
LONDON: 'Imagining India', a book written by IT czar Nandan Nilekani, has been shortlisted for the 2009 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business 
Book of the Year award.

Besides the book of Nilekani, chairman of the Unique Identification Database Authority of India, five other books have been shortlisted for the prestigious award.

Announcing the short-list today, the judges, Lionel Barber, Lloyd C Blankfein, Mario Monti, Helen Alexander, Lynda Gratton and Alexander S Friedman said the books provided "the most compelling and enjoyable insight into modern business issues".

The winning author will receive £30,000 and the other five shortlisted authors will each receive £5,000.

The overall winner of the 2009 Book Award will be announced at an Award Dinner at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London on 29 October, at which Lord Mandelson, UK Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, will be the keynote speaker.

24/09/2009

Rahul stays in Dalit hut again, Mayawati government fumes

Lucknow/ New Delhi, Sep 24 (IANS) Rahul Gandhi has done it again. The Congress general secretary took his party colleagues and the state administration in Uttar Pradesh by surprise when he landed here unannounced and spent Wednesday night in a poor Dalit's hut in a remote village of Shravasti district without many in the state getting to know about it.

Caught unawares, a peeved Uttar Pradesh government of Chief Minister Mayawati shot off a letter to the central government complaining that it might create security problems for the highly protected politician.

To this the Congress in Delhi reacted strongly, saying Gandhi was not expected to inform other poliitical parties about his movements and that the Special Protection Group (SPG) was told about his visit.

"No politician informs other parties about his movements. The SPG was informed and after that his security is the responsibility of the state government," Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan told reporters in Delhi.

While Congressmen and the Uttar Pradesh administration alike sweated to track down his whereabouts as he went about moving from one place to another, Rahul decided to stay in Rampur-Deogan village under Bhinga sub-division of Shravasti district, where he spent the night in the hut of a Dalit, people in the lowest rung of India's socio-economic ladder.

He not only chose to share a meal with his host Cheddi Pasi, but also freely mingled with the villagers Thursday morning, asking them about their day-to-day problems and inquiring whether the benefits of various centrally sponsored schemes were reaching them.

Local cops and media were kept at bay till 12.30 p.m., when Rahul once again whizzed off to another undeclared destination, knowledgeable security officials said.

It was widely believed that he would drive through Gonda and Faizabad, making similar unscheduled halts before reaching his parliamentary constituency Amethi by Thursday evening.

Fuming at his wild cat movements, the state government dashed off a letter to the union home ministry expressing concern over violation of protocol by the Gandhi scion.

"Rahul Gandhi is a SPG protected VIP, whose movements have to be properly monitored and covered under a prescribed security cordon; but the manner in which he was spinning around the state on his own was a gross violation of the laid-down security norms; after all it is the responsibility of the state to provide him appropriate security apart from his SPG cover," pointed out a top police officer.

"We have conveyed our concern in this regard to the centre and I am sure they will take serious note of it," he said.

Besides maintaining that the SPG was informed of Rahul's tour, the Congress spokesperson claimed that the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) felt politically threatened. "It is the (result of) insecurity that the mass contact programme of Rahul Gandhi has generated," she said.

While Rahul's movements from Barabanki, where he made his first halt after zipping away in his Tata Safari from Lucknow airport, were reported by some local journalists who ran into him by chance, his subsequent drive to Shravasti and the night halt in a tiny village remained a secret until Thursday morning.

Local Congressmen were led to believe that he had driven off from Bahraich towards Gonda, from where he would head via Faizabad to Amethi where he would spend the night at the Munshiganj guest house.

Barabanki, Bahraich and Faizabad are all neighbouring districts.

Party workers in Amethi kept waiting for Rahul almost the whole night and it was only in the morning that they realised that their MP had chosen a village in Shravasti for his night halt.

On Jan 16 this year, Rahul and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband spent a night in a Dalit family's hut in Simra village, part of Rahul's Amethi constituency after his visitor wanted to get a taste of "real" rural life in India.

Source: Indo-Asian News Service

24/09/2009World stocks, oil fall ahead of G20 meet
London: World stocks slipped from the previous day's 11-month high on Thursday after oil prices fell and caution grew ahead of the Group of 20 summit meeting, prompting investors to cut back on risky assets.

U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday as investors grew worried that the Federal Reserve may be closer to pulling back on extraordinarily loose monetary policy.

However, the Fed promised on Wednesday to hold interest rates very low for a long time after leaving them close to zero percent as expected, which supported government bonds across the board in Europe.

The timing for exit strategy -- or plans to unwind emergency economic support -- is a key issue for investors as the two-day G20 summit in Pittsburgh starts on Thursday. G20 leaders are seeking ways to nurture the recovery from the recession and build safeguards against future catastrophes.

Crude oil prices fell below $69 a barrel, adding to a nearly four percent drop on Wednesday, after data showing an unexpectedly high build up in U.S. oil and products stockpiles raised concerns oil prices may have risen too fast.

Thursday's decline in world stocks follows a near 27 percent rise since January in the benchmark MSCI world equity index, recouping more than half of last year's losses.

"It's a dose of reality. Although there is cash out there, investors are saying no thank you, we have gone high enough and want to take money out of the market," said Justin Urquhart Stewart, director at Seven Investment Management.

The MSCI world index fell 0.3 percent while the FTSEurofirst 300 index fell more than 1 percent.

Emerging stocks fell 0.9 percent.

Sterling hit

Sterling fell broadly after Bank of England governor Mervyn King said the weaker pound is helping a necessary rebalancing of the UK economy towards exports.

The UK currency fell as low as 90.89 pence per euro, its weakest since April, and was down 0.6 percent to $1.6238.

In the bond markets, the euro zone's benchmark September bund future rose 47 ticks.

The dollar rose a quarter percent against a basket of major currencies.

"Given the lengthy period of time it will likely take the economy and financial markets to fully recover, we do not foresee the Fed raising rates before the first quarter of 2011," Banc of America Securities-Merrill Lynch said in a note to clients.

Source: Reuters

  Vijayan skips court, counsel wants Antony examined
Kochi (Kerala): Marxist leader Pinarayi Vijayan Thursday failed to appear before a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court here in connection with the SNC Lavalin corruption case, but his counsel demanded that Defence Minister A.K. Antony be examined by the investigating team.

The counsel for Vijayan, M.K. Damodaran, said the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) state secretary was not in good health and would be unable to appear in court.

Damodaran filed a special petition asking that Antony should be examined by the investigation team because he was chief minister in 1995 - the year the consultancy agreement with Canadian company SNC Lavalin was inked.

The CBI had issued summons to six former officials of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB); SNC Lavalin; Claus Trendl, former vice-president of the SNC Lavalin; besides Vijayan to appear before the court here.

The court asked notices to be served to Trendl and SNC Lavalin company and posted the case for Dec 30.

Five former KSEB officials arrived in court Thursday morning and got bail. But former KSEB official K.V. Rajasekharan Nair also did not turn up and he too has been asked to appear before the court Dec 30.

Vijayan, according to the CPI-M party organ, last week filed a news report stating that all his official engagements till Sep 25 has been postponed because of ill health.

On Aug 31, the Supreme Court had issued notices to the Kerala government and the CBI on a petition filed by Vijayan challenging Governor R.S. Gavai's decision to grant permission to prosecute him in the SNC Lavalin case.

The CBI in June filed chargesheets against nine accused in the Rs.374 crore scam related to the company SNC Lavalin. Vijayan as the state power minister had inked the final agreement in 1997 for renovating three power plants in the state.

Source: IANS

24/09/2009UB will be world's No 1 spirits company next fiscal: Mallya
New Delhi: Liquor baron Vijay Mallya said his UB Group will overtake Diageo as the world's largest spirits maker by the next fiscal.

"This (fiscal) we will be selling 102 million cases of nine litres each. Next year we will be the single largest spirits company in the world," Vijay Mallya said at an Assocham event here.

He, however, did not elaborate how many million cases the group will sell in the next fiscal.

Currently, Diageo is the world's largest spirits maker and sold around 105 million cases last year.

Sharing his optimism, he said: "Bagpiper Whisky which I launched in 1979 as a trainee has taken over the largest selling whisky Johnny Walker in the world."

The UB Group has been scaling up its business through both organic and inorganic strategy in the quest for the top spot. In 2005, United Breweries acquired Shaw Wallace & Co, following which it was merged with the group's flagship company USL last year.

In 2007, UB Group company, United Spirits acquired Scotch whiskey major White & Mackay for 595 million pounds (about Rs 4,800 crore).

Lamenting the high taxes that are slapped on the spirits industry, Mallya said: "UB alone as single company has contributed Rs 15,000 crore as taxes in the last fiscal."

Source: PTI

At UN, Gaddafi drops 'Kashmir bomb'!Partnership in War against terror and Strategic Realliance in US Israel lead along with lessons of Internal security directly from NASA and Pentagon have combinedly made India a DECLARED Enemy of the Core Muslim World which is represented by elements like Gaddafi, once again the Virtual ROBOT in US hands to settle scores in global Diplomacy! India lost Saddam Husssai, the only Friend in Middle east endorsing Oil war and Shifting violently in the Zionist Camp.Thus, Libya's maverick leader Muammar Gaddafi tossed a minor diplomatic grenade at New Delhi from the United Nations podium, saying Kashmir  should be an independent buffer state between India and Pakistan.

In an exhausting 90-minute speech Gaddafi spoke about the political and diplomatic history of the world in the last half century in his first ever appearance at the UN.

Most of Gaddafi's rant was aimed at US and the western world, although he did not spare others, including the UN Security Council. At one point, he even blamed India and Japan for robbing Somalia of its fishing wealth, forcing Somalis to take up piracy.

Gaddafi reeled off the various excesses of the big powers, calling for reform of the security council. "It should not be called the Security Council, it should be called the 'terror council'," he said.

Nuclear Armament and rocketing Defence Expanditure may not solve the Problems of a Plural society like India and Peripherry economy of the Tri Iblis satanic Corporate Galaxy Order! Please realise it! Why the Secular India is so much so HOSTILE against Minority Muslims, the answer of this intriguing question may open the Avenue of Resolution. As the Sustained Manusmriti Hegemony hates and tries to Finish the CONVERTED Muslims, Kashmir remains a Permanent Puzzle to be used by International Power Politics!

Anti Taliban indian Crused thus roots in our Sacred and damned caste system which keeps the majority Indigenous aboriginal minrity communities as Bonded Slaves suffering from inherent inequality and Injustice. Taliban is the basic Key Word linked to Terrorism which justifies the US Israel led war Agaisnt terror as well as Indo Us Nuclear deal and the strategic Realliance which gets open the Flood gates of Gloabl, specially US Weapon Industry recession inflicted in India and stimulates the Nuclear Armamaent and the Space Missios worthless! Majority masses have no escape route to free them from Enslaved status with Predestined Persecution and Murder! Whenever they stand united as a nationality or Region , are declared Branded Extremist or terrorist. Then the State Power acomplishes the agenda of economic reforms and Mass destruction with Repressive Arms, Military Option and zero Tolerance. hence, no wonder, India today said it does not make any distinction between a "good Taliban and a bad Taliban" and consider the extremist group as a 
terrorist organisation.

"Taliban per se from the Indian point of view is a sheer terrorist organisation," External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said here when asked about his reported remark seeking a political settlement in Afghanistan.

Denying the report, Krishna said, "India makes no distinction between a good Taliban and a bad Taliban." He said he had spoken about a "political settlement among the people."

"What the people of Afghanistan want is something that they have to decide for themselves," he added.

In a recent interview published in the Wall Street Journal, Krishna was reported as saying that India believed there was no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan and that NATO combat operations should give way to a political settlement with Taliban.


BRAHMIN Finance Minister of India leads Manusmriti Hegemony to Invoke War Goddess Durga for the Final Kill! Meanwhile, the Crown Prince of Indian Ruling TRIBLIS Zionist Dynasty tries hard to TOPPLE equations in the Cow Belt to stengthen the Corporate Arms of Ethnic Cleansing!As Indian prime Minister, the Washington White House IMPLANTED Economist of world bank, to push for radical reforms of global financial institutions,Global food output needs to be increased by 70 pc by 2050, FAODecalres!The global food production must shoot up by 70 per cent to be able to feed an additional 2.3 illion people by 2050, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said today. Whereas, the Change Icon in Galaxy Order Brrrack Obama is lauded by Israel as Israel welcomes Obama's stand on negotiations with Palestine!Palestine has expressed displeasure over US President Barack Obama's declaration that negotiations with Israel should begin 'without preconditions',
even as the Jewish state welcomed his stand.Indian Scientists led by no one else but KAKODKAR, claims all successful the FRAUD Nuclear tests!As President Barack Obama
prepares to chair a historic UN Security Council summit on nuclear non-proliferation, the US has asked all countries to join the NPT, a controversial treaty which is yet to be signed by countries like India and Pakistan.

Six companies led by India-origin people including banking behemoth Citigroup and soft drinks major Pepsico have been named among the  greenest American companies by Newsweek magazine. The list of 500 Greenest big companies in the US compiled by Newsweek is topped by technology bellwether Hewlett-Packard.


 Rubbishing doubts on the efficacy of the hydrogen bomb test in 1998, Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar on Thursday said 
scientists have achieved success in building deterrence capability of upto 200 kiltons.

"Once again I would like to re-emphasise that the 1998 nuclear tests were fully successful. We had achieved all the objectives in toto.

"It has given us the capability to build deterrence based on both fission and thermonuclear weapon systems from modest to all the way upto 200 kilotons," he said addressing a press conference here.

Kakodkar, who was Director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in 1998, termed as "unnecessary" the controversy over the Pokhran-II nuclear tests triggered after claims by a former DRDO scientist that the hydrogen bomb experiment was a failure.

R Chidambaram, Chairman of the AEC in 1998 and the current Principal Scientific Adviser to the Union Government, made a presentation on the results of the Pokhran-II nuclear tests.

Former DRDO scientist K Santhanam, who was the DRDO coordinator for the 1998 tests, had claimed that the thermonuclear test was much below expectation triggering a controversy.

Santhanam had also demanded an inquiry by an independent panel of experts into the test results.

Meanwhile, India will push for radical reforms of the international financial institutions and continuance of the stimulus package to speed up the  recovery of the crisis-ridden global economy at the G-20 Summit here tomorrow.

On the other hand,  Lashing out at the Uttar Pradesh government for objecting to the surprise visit of Congress MP, Rahul Gandhi, UPCC president Rita Bahuguna 
Joshi on Thursday said that it shows chief minister's insecurity over inroads being made by the Congress leader in her vote bank.

"The chief minister considered dalits and deprived sections as her vote bank and she is concerned, as she feels that Rahul Gandhi might disturb by accessing it," Joshi told in Lucknow.

"Rather than security of Rahul Gandhi, Mayawati is more concerned that by reaching the poor and deprived, he might disturb her vote bank, as she looks at things only from the angle of vote bank and not through the human angle," Joshi said.

 Global leaders will institutionalize the G20 as the world's main economic governing council, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown A to Z of G-20
said on Thursday.

He said G20 leaders would meet regularly, with South Korea taking over the presidency next year.

"The G20 will take a bigger role in economic cooperation than the G8 has in the past," Brown told reporters ahead of this week's meeting of G20 leaders in Pittsburgh.

Brown said Shriti Vadera will leave her role as business minister to become Britain's G20 coordinator and work closely with South Korea.

Trade minister Mervyn Davies will take over Vadera's ministerial responsibilities.

Brown said he did not expect any discussion on the Chinese currency at this week's G20 meeting but said he would like to see China importing more.

"We would like to see China importing more from our countries," he said.

Brown noted there were $7 trillion worth of foreign exchange reserves which he said were "not necessarily being used in a constructive way."

Brown said he wanted to see the International Monetary Fund come up with an insurance scheme that would lessen some countries' need to accumulate reserves so that they could use those funds to support their economies.

Before flying to Pittsburgh later Thursday, Brown will attend a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on nuclear non-proliferation.

"We are coming to a moment of truth with Iran," Brown said. "We will be proposing fuller and tougher sanctions." 
 
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who leads the Indian delegation at the summit being hosted by President Barack Obama, is also expected to make a strong pitch to the developed countries to shun protectionism in all its forms.

Singh is also likely to highlight the need for developed countries to bring about stabilisation of the banking and financial sectors as it affected exports, capital flows and investment of the emerging economies, Indian officials accompanying the Prime Minister said.

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, National Security Adviser M K Narayanan, Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla are among the members of the Indian delegation attending the summit.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the new Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama are among the world leaders who will address the Summit.

The leaders will share assessments on how they plan to proceed in the coming months to deal with the situation, Indian Ambassador to the US Meera Shankar told reporters in Pittersberg.

     According to FAO,the UN body, which will meet in Rome on
October 12-13 to deliberate upon the strategies on 'How to
feed the world in 2050', "world population is expected to grow
by over a third (or 2.3 billion people) between 2009 and
2050".

     Therefore, feeding a world population of 9.1 billion in
2050 from the current 6.8 billion would require overall 70 per
cent surge in food production.

     "The demand for food is expected to continue to grow as a
result of population growth and rising incomes," FAO said
while releasing the discussion paper for the meeting.

     The demand for cereals (for food and animal feed) is
projected to reach some 3 billion tonnes by 2050. Annual
cereal production will have to grow by almost a billion tonnes
from the current 2 billion tonnes and meat output by over 200
million tonnes, it said.

     The paper noted, "the production of biofuels could also
increase the demand for agricultural commodities, depending on
energy prices and government policies."

     FAO's Assistant Director-General Hafez Ghanem pointed
that "feeding everyone in the world by then will not be
automatic and several significant challenges have to be met."

     The UN body called for stronger interventions to make
faster progress towards reducing and finally eliminating the
number of hungry and poor people.


       Obama's speech to the United Nations General Assembly
was "positive" and reflective of our stand, Israel's hawkish
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted as saying by
Ha'aretz.

       "He also said something we had been seeking for six
months, that we have to meet and begin the diplomatic process
without preconditions," Netanyahu told the daily.

       He also stressed that the US President had spoken
"clearly about Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish
people". "I believe that disagreement about this is the root
of the conflict," the Israeli premier said.

       On the other hand, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
and members of his delegation to the UN were not very happy
with Obama's declaration that negotiations with Israel should
begin "without preconditions", however they were pleased with
his statement that Washington is pursuing a Palestinian state
based on the 1967 borders.

       Yasser Abed Rabbo, who heads both the Palestine
Liberation Organisation's executive committee and the PA
negotiating team, said we welcome US President's decision to
hold another round of preliminary talks in the interest of
bridging the gaps between the two parties.

     Describing the tests as "fully successful", Atomic Energy
Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar and Principal Scientific
Advisor to Government R Chidambaram said the controversy
triggered by K Santhanam, former DRDO scientist, was
"unnecessary".

     The two scientists held a joint press conference seeking
to clear the air in the wake of Santhanam, who was the
coordinator for the 1998 tests, claiming that the
thermonuclear nuclear (hydrogen bomb) test was a failure.

     "Rhetoric cannot be a substitute for good science,"
they said adding "unnecessary doubts have been created by
ex-colleagues" in an obvious reference to Santhanam and former
AEC chairman P K Ayengar who too raised doubts over the
efficacy of the test.

      "There should be no doubt over the yield of the tests.
Once again, I would like to re-emphasise that the 1998 nuclear
tests were fully successful. We achieved all objectives in
toto," said Kakodkar.

      Defending the thermonuclear test, Dr R Chidambaram said
that it was a success and the doubts voiced over it were
unjustified.

       Santhanam had stuck to his assertions earlier this week
and was dismissive of National Security Advisor M.K.Narayanan
calling his statements incorrect and horrific.

 "It (test) has given us the capability to build
deterrence based on both fission and thermonuclear weapon
systems from modest to all the way up to 200 kilotons and
possibility of meeting all our security requirements,"
Kakodkar, who was director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in
1998, said.

     Chidambaram contended that in the last 11 years several
scientific peer reviews have been published explaining the
efficacy and yield.

     "We scientists cannot go beyond that as proliferation
sensitive information cannot be divulged," said Chidambaram,
also a former AEC Chairman.

      Disapproving Santhanam's claims, Chidambaram, who was
accompanied by several BARC scientists, including its director
S Banerjee, said, "the culture of science is to have
discussions in the scientific fora or peer reviewed scientific
journals and they should have understood the proliferation
sensitive nature of the information," he said.

      "No one in this business would do that and our BARC
scientists are doing progressive work in the strategic area
for the past 11 years and we are confident about the design of
the device," he said.

     Santhanam had also demanded an enquiry by an independent
panel of experts into the test results.

     Explaining how the two-stage device needed a thorough
understanding of advanced seismology and radiochemistry,
Chidambaram said "our results were so accurate that we
disclosed the yield on the same day of the explosion."


     The Obama Administration also hoped that the powerful
15-member body of the UN would endorse Washington's call for a
world without nuclear weapons contained in a US-drafted
resolution which is expected to be approved unanimously at the
Thursday summit in New York.

     "The US position is that all countries should join the
NPT, and so the resolution will address that issue," a top US
Disarmament official Gary Samore told newsmen in Pittsburgh
which is hosting the G-20 Summit which is also being attended
by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

     The resolution is also expected to call on U.N. member
states to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)
which would outlaw all nuclear tests. India is not a signatory
to the CTBT.

     Obama will be the first US President to chair a
summit-level meeting of the Council in which 14 heads of state
will join him.

    The tone for the crucial meeting was set by Obama, who
in his maiden address to the General Assembly yesterday told
nations who refuse to live up to their obligations on nuclear
non-proliferation must "face consequences."

     The US resolution comes as a move to reinvigorate the
treaty which will be a subject of a crucial review in a
conference next year.

     Samore, the National Security Council Coordinator for
Arms Control and Non Proliferation said the NPT is something
that "we would hope that the Council would endorse". Samore
said as of now, it is not illegal not to join.

Meanwhile,Six companies led by India-origin
people including banking behemoth Citigroup and soft drinks
major Pepsico have been named among the greenest American
companies by Newsweek magazine.  The list of 500 Greenest big companies in the US
compiled by Newsweek is topped by technology bellwether
Hewlett-Packard. Among the firms led by India-origin individuals, three
companies have made it into the top 50, with software entity
Adobe Systems headed by Shantanu Narayen, ranked 16th. Mobile
phone maker Motorola has cornered the 21st spot, while Vikram
Pandit-led Citi is at the 24th place.India-origin Sanjay Jha is the co-CEO at Motorola.
 Indra Nooyi-led Pepsico is ranked 119th while financial
services firm Hartford Financial Services and IT company
Cognizant Technology are at 303rd and 449th positions,
respectively.

     Hartford Financial is headed by Ramani Ayer while
Francisco D'Souza is at the helm of Cognizant.

     At the second place is technology major Dell, pharma firm
Johnson & Johnson is ranked third and technology entities --
Intel and IBM -- at the fourth and fifth spots, respectively.

     The ranking is based on three factors -- environmental
impact score, green policies score and reputation score.

     Other companies include McDonald's (22), Microsoft (31),
CB Richard Ellis (45), Coca-Cola (58), Wal-Mart (59), Yahoo!
(69), eBay (76), Google (79), General Electric (82), Apple
(133) and Washington Post (178).

"Our goal was to assess each company's actual resource
use and emissions and its policies and strategies, along with
its reputation among its peers.

     "The 500 companies included in the ranking are the
largest US companies as measured by revenue, market
capitalisation and number of employees," the report said.

     About Adobe, the magazine said the company has redesigned
its software packaging to include recyclable and sustainably-
sourced cardboard and significantly less dye.

     According to the publication, Motorola encourages
suppliers to provide energy efficient and easily recyclable
products with low or no hazardous content.

     "Purchases 20 per cent of its US electricity from
renewable sources," it added.

     The publication said that Citi has invested USD 18
billion so far on a pledge of USD 50 billion towards
climate-change initiatives but information on Citi's financing
of carbon intensive projects remains closely guarded, but is
estimated to be much higher.

      Commenting on the ranking, commercial real estate firm
CB Richard Ellis' Chairman and Managing Director (India)
Anshuman Magazine said the company is proud to be recognized
for its environmental policies and practices.

     "In India and around the globe we are showing in our own
operations and our work with clients that sustainable
practices are good for both the environment and the bottom
line," Magazine said in a statement.

Markets may rise further in the next 6 months

Reuter reports:

 Given that US stocks have rallied nearly 60 percent in just six months, you'd expect valuations were getting a bit prohibitive. Why realty is good investment
Key to maximising returns
How to gauge market movements
What moves the stock markets?


But the resiliency of the latest rally shows that investors are unfazed by the market's current multiples, regarding stocks as still relatively cheap.

With interest rates close to zero, earnings expected to improve in the third quarter, and inflation subdued, stock market bulls have much working in their favor, making it likely that the market will rise further in the next six months.

The Dow Jones industrial average is nearing 10,000, a far cry from its closing low of 6,547.05 in March. The benchmark S&P 500 .SPX -- up nearly 19 percent year-to-date -- has its sights set on 1,100 after closing at a 12-year low of 676.53 in March.

Low interest rates have revived the argument prevalent during the 'Goldilocks' period of the late 1990s and middle of this decade justifying higher valuation for shares.

"Stocks do remain relatively cheap," said Philip Orlando, senior portfolio manager at Federated Global Investment Management Corp in New York.

"Multiples right now are probably around 16 times forward earnings. But because we are looking at very low core inflation, roughly about 1.4 percent, and 10-year Treasury yields below 3.5 percent level, we can justify multiples that approach 20 times."

The current S&P 500's forward P/E implies $66.83 earnings per share, based on individual estimated operating earnings for the 500 companies. Back in early March, the S&P 500's forward P/E was about 11 times, which was below the historical average of 16 times.

Also working in the bulls favor has been the market's ability to rebound from every attempted sell-off since the start of the runup. That development, analysts say, also shows that investors were willing to use dips as opportunities to get into the market.

BETTER ECONOMIC OUTLOOK

To get an even more optimistic picture of how far the market has come, some analysts point to the S&P 500's trailing price-to-earnings ratio, based on past 12 months operating earnings.

That measure is at 20.6 times, up from 11 times in early March, according to Thomson Reuters data. That figure implies total trailing S&P 500 earnings of $51.97 per share.

"I don't think the market is overvalued," said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. in San Francisco.

"The economy is doing better than expected and gross domestic product is going to reflect that and profits are going to reflect that. The market was not adequately pricing in the strength of the third quarter," he added.

US economy 'picked up'; financial conditions improved: Fed

 Signalling that the American economy is slowly coming out of the woods, the US Federal Reserve has said economic activity has picked up 
in recent months.

The apex bank, while retaining key interest rates at near zero, observed that conditions in both financial and housing sectors have improved.

Grappling with one of the financial storms in decades, the recession-hit US economy has seen massive job losses and deteriorating financial situation with a GDP contraction of one per cent in the second quarter of 2009.

"Economic activity has picked up following its severe downturn. Conditions in financial markets have improved further and activity in the housing sector has increased," the Federal Open Market Committee said on Wednesday after its two-day monetary policy meeting.

Retaining the benchmark interest rates at near zero the US Fed noted that it would continue for a longer time. The key rates have been kept in the range of 0 to 0.25 per cent since December last year as part of the Federal government's efforts to kick start the nation's sagging economy.

The US Fed said it continues to anticipate that economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of federal funds rate for an extended period. According to the central bank, even though economic activity is likely to remain weak for some time, policy actions would help in bolstering economic growth.

The US Fed said household spending seems to be stabilising but remains constrained by ongoing job losses, sluggish income growth, lower housing wealth and tight credit. "Businesses are still cutting back on fixed investment and staffing, though at a slower pace...," it added.

Embarking on its initiatives to revive the economy, the US Fed would continue with its USD 1.45 trillion programme to purchase mortgage-backed securities and other assets.

The statement noted that the pace of buying would gradually slow down in order to promote a smooth transition in markets and "anticipates that they will be executed by the end of the first quarter of 2010".

These measures are aimed at supporting mortgage lending and housing markets, which are among the worst hit in the ongoing financial turmoil. The US Fed anticipates inflation to remain "subdued" for some more time.

NY Taj cancels Gaddafi booking
K.P. NAYAR
 
 
Muammar Gaddafi at the UN. (Below) A tent on a property owned by real estate magnate Donald Trump in New York. A tent was supposed to be pitched on the property for Gaddafi but authorities disallowed it. (Jay Mandal/On Assignment and AP pictures) 
New York, Sept. 23: Even as the highest-profile segment of the 64th UN General Assembly opened here today with leaders such as US President Barack Obama and external affairs minister S.M. Krishna taking the podium, the session has been overshadowed, for the man in the street, by a huge controversy over the presence of one of the world's longest-serving and most mercurial leaders, Muammar Gaddafi.

This is Gaddafi's first visit to the US since he took power at the age of 27, exactly four decades ago.

Libya is president of the General Assembly for a year from this month and is an elected member of the UN Security Council, but Gaddafi has been unable to find any place to stay in New York this week.

In keeping with his unconventional lifestyle, Gaddafi, who likes to sleep in a bedouin tent, tried to pitch his sleeping quarters on the grounds of New York's famed Central Park, but the City of New York denied him permission to do so.

Ratan Tata's landmark hotel here, the Taj Pierre, accepted a booking for the "Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya" and "Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution", who has held no official state title for 30 of the 40 years that he has led Libya.

But when word got around and the hotel's long-time clients protested, the Tatas quickly cancelled the booking for Gaddafi. Taj Pierre would not comment on the record on the ground that guest bookings are confidential business.

The aborted choice of the Taj Pierre was actually the last resort for the Libyan strongman, according to a Libyan diplomat to the UN. His UN Mission earlier tried to pitch Gaddafi's tent at a property in the New Jersey town of Englewood.

Although that property is owned by the Libyan embassy, the US state department stepped in and banned erection of the tent there in the face of angry protests by residents of Englewood, many of whom are Jews.

"In keeping with prior arrangements, the Englewood, New Jersey, property is not available for any use in connection with" Gaddafi's visit, state department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.

"Any use of this property other than the personal use of the Libyan ambassador and his family has to be reviewed by the state department," Kelly said.

Gaddafi has always been a hate figure among Americans, who view him as an enemy of the US and a promoter of terror and weapons of mass destruction. In 1986, then US President Ronald Reagan bombed what were thought to be Gaddafi's sleeping tents in Tripoli and Benghazi, killing, among others, Gaddafi's daughter, Hannah.

However, in recent years, Libya compromised with its Western enemies, allowed the inspection and dismantling of Libya's nuclear programme and was allowed back into the international community by the US and European Union countries.

Libya's presidency of the General Assembly and its election to the Security Council were the results of such acceptance.

Earlier this year, there were suggestions from Tripoli that Gaddafi might himself preside over the 64th General Assembly, but the proposal ran aground because he wanted to hand over the post mid-way to his son and heir apparent, Saif Al Islam.

Under UN rules, an individual has to be elected General Assembly president for an entire year. The post was eventually filled by Ali Abdussalam Treki, Libya's minister for African Union affairs.

Gaddafi's visit to New York this week was to have been the high point of Libya's return to the world order, but it has been spoiled by the controversy over his accommodation.

The trigger for the latest round of American protests was the release from a Scottish prison of a Libyan, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, who was given a hero's welcome on his return to Libya in August.

Megrahi, who was convicted of bombing a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 killing 270 people, was released on compassionate grounds because of his terminal cancer.

After the Englewood fiasco, billionaire builder Donald Trump offered his estate in Bedford, 43 miles north of Manhattan, as a site for erecting Gaddafi's tent, but town authorities stepped in and ordered work to be stopped at the site on the flimsy ground that no permits were sought for building a temporary residence on the estate.

Several Manhattan hotels then refused to book the Libyan leader.

At one point, Libyan diplomats here, desperate for a roof for Gaddafi under Manhattan's skyline, pretended to be Dutch diplomats and inquired about renting a six-storey townhouse. They were quickly discovered to be Arabs because of their accents.

The Libyan leader will now stay at his country's Permanent Mission to the UN, which is an office and does not have residential facilities.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090924/jsp/frontpage/story_11535082.jsp

Flow of food supplies 
A STAFF REPORTER
 
Sugar and pulses worth Rs 250 crore have started to move out of a Calcutta Port Trust godown after rotting for over 10 weeks as the prices of the items shot up in the market.

"After the Central Food Laboratory (CFL) certified that the consignment was fit for consumption, 702 tonnes of pulses and 181 tonnes of sugar were handed over to importers on Tuesday," Anindya Majumdar, the port trust chairman, said on Wednesday.

Over 1 lakh tonnes of pulses and 350 tonnes of sugar in the godown are yet to be cleared.

Metro had highlighted on September 19 (see above) how the delay in obtaining the clearance was keeping the sugar and pulses from reaching the market, adding to the demand-supply mismatch.

"There has been a public outcry. The stock needs to reach the market as soon as possible. We have asked the ministry to expedite the clearance process," added Majumdar.

Subrata Saha, the secretary of the CFL employees' association, denied that the laboratory was responsible for the delay. The in-charge of the laboratory was unavailable for comment.

Saha, however, admitted that employees had been agitating since January against a government plan to turn the laboratory into an autonomous body. "The agitation has not affected our work," he claimed.
 
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090924/jsp/calcutta/story_11533117.jsp

Pranab's call for biz bond
- Message of political cooperation on Rajarhat platform 
A STAFF REPORTER
 
Pranab Mukherjee at Rajarhat. (Sanat Sinha) 
The day after Trinamul minister Mukul Ray staged a walkout to avoid being on the same chamber of commerce dais as two CPM ministers, Congress veteran Pranab Mukherjee used a business platform to stress the need for political cooperation for the sake of development.

The Union finance minister was speaking at the inauguration of the Ambuja Realty part of the Ecospace business park at Rajarhat. "There is bound to be divergence of views in politics but we must have a spirit of co-operation and understanding where development is concerned," said Mukherjee.

There was no one around from the Congress's largest ally to pay heed, as local Trinamul MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar chose not to turn up to share the dais with the CPM's Gautam Deb, Debesh Das and Rabin Mandal, and the Congress's Mukherjee and Sachin Pilot. This was in keeping with Mukul Ray's claim on Tuesday that the party had decided not to share a platform with CPM ministers or leaders at "private" events.

The "private" event at Rajarhat marked the first phase of the 20-acre Ecospace, where companies like HDFC and L&T Voith have booked space. The "green building" with multi-level car park, advanced fire protection, energy efficient equipment and intelligent infrastructure aims to provide "a work-life balance".

But no balance between political rivalry and development was visible on Wednesday with the state's housing minister Gautam Deb blaming the Trinamul for creating pockets of resistance in Rajarhat preventing the setting up of electric poles and denying large parts of the township.

Ecospace is a case in powerless point, with 50 per cent of the power supply dependent on generators. "Once it is fully occupied, the power situation could call the viability of the project into question," admitted Harsh Neotia, the chairman of Ambuja Realty.
 
 
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090924/jsp/calcutta/story_11534817.jsp

Some US bailout funds won't be recovered: Watchdog


24 Sep 2009, 1035 hrs IST, REUTERS

WASHINGTON: US taxpayers will probably never recover all of the hundreds of billions of dollars invested to bail out financial firms, automakers and 
homeowners, a key watchdog for the program said on Thursday.

Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the U.S. Treasury's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), said in prepared U.S. Senate testimony that the bailout fund played a significant role in stabilizing the financial system, but it may never fulfill certain policy goals.

"The progress on meeting the goal of 'maximizing overall returns to the taxpayer' is unclear," Barofsky said in testimony to be delivered to the Senate Banking Committee.

"While several TARP recipients have repaid funds for what has widely been reported as a 17 percent profit, it is extremely unlikely that the taxpayer will see a full return on its TARP investment."

For example, $50 billion in funds allocated to modify mortgages to reduce monthly payments will never yield a direct return, while full recovery of the more than $80 billion spent to prop up the U.S. auto industry "is far from certain," Barofsky said.

According to the inspector general's analysis, Treasury has earmarked $699 billion of the funds to 12 different programs, including a $134.5 billion cushion of funds available for future use. It has disbursed or committed to disburse $445 billion.

The program, approved by Congress in early October 2008, was originally intended to buy up the toxic assets weighing down bank balance sheets, but within two weeks idea was quickly dropped in favor of direct capital injections into banks as the financial crisis reached its peak.

Barofsky, who took office in December 2008, said the Treasury has improved its transparency in administering the program, but has repeatedly failed to implement his recommendations to increase disclosures, including detailed reports on what banks are doing with taxpayer funds.

"We remain puzzled as to why Treasury refuses to adopt our recommendations to report on each TARP recipient's use of TARP funds."

Barofsky also said that Treasury also has refused to adopt regular disclosures of borrowers that fail to repay loans obtained through a Federal Reserve securities lending program aimed at easing pressures in consumer credit markets.

He also said the Treasury does not intend to disclose trading activities, holdings and aset valuations in so-called public-private investment partnerships that are being created to buy troubled assets. About three quarters of the $40 billion in nine funds will be supplied by the Treasury.

In response, Treasury spokesman Andrew Williams said the department has implemented the "vast majority" of Barofsky's recommendations and has included the inspector general early in the development of many programs.

Williams said the Treasury will soon expand its quarterly TARP lending reports to include data recommended by Barofsky in a survey of lenders, such as financial institutions' aggregate repayments of their outstanding debt obligations and total investments. 
 
 A tiny tax could do a world of good


24 Sep 2009, 1350 hrs IST, New York Times


As leaders of the world's largest economies gather today in Pittsburgh for the Group of 20 meeting, people in the world's poorest countries will 
likely look on with a mix of hope and trepidation, wondering whether their needs will figure in the deliberations at all. The G-20 nations could help both the poor and the global economy by fully financing lagging efforts to fight poverty and disease worldwide, and the best way to do this would be to impose a very small tax on the prosperous foreign exchange industry.

The eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals – which include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, establishing universal primary education, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health and combating AIDS, malaria and other diseases – are meant to be reached by 2015. Morally and practically, the world must try harder to keep these promises. President Obama has made it clear that the United States has, in his words, "a responsibility to protect the health of our people, while saving lives, reducing suffering and supporting the health and dignity of people everywhere."

Disease takes an enormous toll on economic growth: It sidelines or kills productive workers and causes tremendous suffering. Take, for instance, tuberculosis, an illness that with the right treatment can usually be cured. In 2007, it killed nearly 1.8 million people, more than 600 times the number who have died from H1N1 swine flu. The World Bank estimates that tuberculosis has caused the gross domestic product in some countries to fall as much as 7 percent.

Or consider maternal health. About 530,000 women worldwide die each year from pregnancy-related causes, most of them preventable, and millions more suffer injuries or develop lifelong disabilities. A serious effort to reduce those numbers would bring real economic gains. Improvements in the health of Asian women and children accounted for a significant share of that continent's economic growth from 1965 to 1990.

Unfortunately, though, there is an enormous shortfall in the level of outside aid needed to reach the goals the world has set. Donor countries, including the wealthiest of the G-20, are providing only 0.3 percent of their combined income in development aid. Although the donor countries have made commitments to provide more money, they are not giving it fast enough to tackle runaway health problems, including the emergence of drug-resistant pathogens that threaten people across the globe.

The one untapped source that could easily provide the amount of money needed is the foreign currency market, which handles almost $800 trillion in trades annually, all of which is untaxed. A tiny levy of 0.005 percent on transactions involving the world's most traded currencies – the dollar, the euro, the pound and the yen – would raise more than $33 billion annually for development, while not hurting the market or affecting the average international traveler.

The tax could be collected automatically by the computer system that handles foreign exchange transactions – so it would be easy to put into place, and impossible to evade. And because not all currencies would be taxed, only the countries whose currencies would be affected would need to consent. France already supports the idea, and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany has signaled her willingness to consider it.

We have already seen what innovative taxation can do to save lives, with sufficient political will. Since 2005, France and 10 other countries have collected a small tax on airline tickets (in France, it amounts to only $1 to $5 per ticket). And this has, without hurting the airline industry, raised about $700 million – enough to finance three-quarters of the AIDS treatment now being received by the world's H.I.V.-positive children. Unitaid, the international organization that I lead and that manages the money from the airline tax, has also been able to negotiate 50 percent to 60 percent reductions in the price of pediatric anti-retroviral drugs in low-income countries.

How should the proceeds of a foreign exchange transaction tax be managed? One model is the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which holds medical programs in more than 100 countries to high performance standards, and can withhold financing when money is not used properly.

The banking industry has so far managed to keep currency trading untaxed, but this industry, which has so recently been dependent on government aid, has a duty to give back. President Obama has reminded Wall Street leaders about what he called their "obligation to the goal of wider recovery, a more stable system and a more broadly shared prosperity." The same principle applies internationally. President Obama and other G-20 leaders should harness the mighty foreign exchange market in the service of better health for all.

(The author of this article, Philippe Douste-Blazy, the French foreign minister from 2005 to 2007, is the chairman of Unitaid and a special adviser to the UN secretary general on innovative financing.)

Moody's may bear brunt of rating agency mistrust


24 Sep 2009, 0938 hrs IST, REUTERS

NEW YORK: Rating agency Moody's Corp may bear the brunt of regulatory scrutiny of the industry, after a former analyst sent congressional 
investigators a memo stating that the company knowingly assigned incorrect ratings to a security as recently as this year, according to a source familiar with the memo.

Moody's, along with other major rating agencies McGraw-Hill's Standard & Poor's and Fimalac SA's Fitch Ratings, are in regulators' sights for fueling the two-year-old financial crisis by assigning high ratings to mortgage-backed securities. A House committee will hear testimony on ratings firm reform on Thursday.

While the three have all made changes in a bid to appease regulators, the allegations of the former analyst -- who will testify before the committee -- could prove a further blow to embattled Moody's, which lately has seen its share price drop much faster than that of its peers after a slew of bad publicity.

Since the beginning of September, Moody's shares have dropped 25 percent; McGraw-Hill is down 23 percent and Fimalac is up 1.4 percent.

The New York-based ratings company attracted more attention than its rivals after first declining to attend a hearing held by insurance regulators to discuss improving the ratings process. It later reversed the decision, but its shares fell 5.7 percent on Monday.

"It's the kind of thing that just makes them look bad," said James Gellert, chief executive of Rapid Ratings, a smaller rival to Moody's that charges investors a fee for its research rather than charging issuers, as Moody's, S&P and Fitch do.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway earlier this month trimmed its stake in Moody's to 16.6 percent from 17 percent. The stake had been 20.4 percent in mid-July.

Moody's shares closed down 8.4 percent on Tuesday at $20.49.


KOLCHINSKY

Adding to Moody's difficulties, Eric Kolchinsky, a managing director at the company who has now been suspended, will tell the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that Moody's senior managers still favor revenue over ratings, according to testimony obtained by Reuters.

The firm's credit policy group is weak and short-staffed and its analysts are "bullied" by managers who override their decisions to generate revenue, Kolchinsky said in the testimony.

"Moody's is committed to upholding the highest standards of professional conduct and analytical integrity," said Michael Adler, a spokesman for Moody's in an emailed statement.

"Moody's takes seriously all allegations of potential impropriety," Adler wrote, adding that the company is reviewing Kolchinsky's latest claims and will not comment on the reasons for his paid suspension.

The emergence of a whistle-blower, combined with the company's reversal on its appearance at the insurers' hearing, has led some industry experts to believe that Moody's may attract more attention from regulators than its peers.

Investors retreat as post-fed rally quickly fades


24 Sep 2009, 1340 hrs IST, New York Times
Wall Street got an initial lift on Wednesday from the Federal Reserve's assessment that an economic recovery was under way, but the glow faded fast, 
dragging stocks to their second day of losses this week.

The Dow Jones industrial average briefly crossed 9,900 points after the Fed released its statement at 2:15 p.m., but then a spree of selling pulled the market into the red. Financial firms led the way lower, and oil producers and industrial stocks slid as commodity prices dipped.

While investors found few surprises in the Fed's words, the statement still offered some support for the prevailing economic outlook.

"The Fed statement didn't really change anything," said Nick Kalivas, vice president of financial research at MF Global. "They went out of their way not to rock the boat."

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 81.32 points, or 0.8 percent, to close at 9,748.55. The broader Standard & Poor's 500-stock index lost 10.79 points, or 1 percent, to end at 1,060.87, while the Nasdaq composite index slipped 14.88 points, or 0.7 percent, to 2,131.42.

With no striking revelations from the Fed, investors homed in on nagging questions about whether stocks had become too expensive. The price-to-earnings ratio of the S&P 500, a broad measure of how stocks are priced compared with corporate profits, rose to its highest point in a year this week, according to Bloomberg News data.

In a regular Wall Street ritual, investors and analysts scoured a statement from the Fed as its Open Market Committee concluded a two-day meeting, seeking the central bank's views on the prospects for inflation, interest rates and other aspects of the economy.

"Economic activity has picked up following its severe downturn," the Fed wrote in its statement. "Conditions in financial markets have improved further, and activity in the housing sector has increased."

As expected, the Fed left its key short-term interest rate untouched at a record low of close to zero, and it announced it would extend its program to buy more than $1 trillion in mortgage-backed securities to March 31.

Investors do not expect the Fed to lift its overnight federal funds rate until next year, given the huge challenges facing the economy as it tries to climb out of a deep recession. Unemployment is heading toward 10 percent, factories are still running at well under full capacity and credit markets are still fragile.

The prices of inflation-resistant investments fell on Wednesday as the Fed said that rapidly rising prices were not a threat, predicting that inflation would remain "subdued" for a while. Crude oil fell $2.79 a barrel, to $68.97, on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and gold and copper prices also slipped.

But investors grabbed up Treasury notes after the Fed released its statement, heartened by expectations of low inflation.

Yields on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note had been higher for much of the day after an auction of five-year notes drew lackluster response, but yields dropped after the Fed's announcement as investors speculated that lengthening out the mortgage-purchase program would help to keep interest rates low.

"The mortgage market is such a huge driver of rates," said George Goncalves, head of fixed-income strategy at Cantor Fitzgerald. "You have another large investor that hasn't gone away."

But Fed officials said the economy was continuing to improve, albeit slowly, leaving open the question of how and when the bank would begin to withdraw its emergency financing programs.

UN fights to ban the bomb for a safer world

;David Usborne & Andrew Grice
NEW YORK, 23 SEPT: The leaders of the world's greatest powers, including Prime Minister Mr Gordon Brown, are set tomorrow to endorse President Barack Obama's ambitious goal of ridding the world of nuclear weapons. According to the final draft of a resolution to be put to a rare summit of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the leaders will resolve "to seek a safer world for all and to create the conditions for a world without nuclear weapons".
In an overt show of support, Mr Brown will unveil plans to cut the number of Trident nuclear submarines from four to three. The Prime Minister will tell the special session of the Security Council, which also includes the leaders of France, Russia and China, that he is "prepared to consider" the move. President Obama convened the extraordinary summit-level session of the Council to give impetus to his mission to denuclearise the planet as the crisis surrounding Iran and North Korea and their rush to acquire atomic weapons appears to be deepening. The text of the resolution, seen by The Independent, is likely to be hailed as a breakthrough by campaigning groups. President Obama first spelled out his dream of counting down to a nuclear-free world in a speech in Prague at the end of March. For his proposal now to be adopted formally by the UN Security Council amounts to a significant endorsement by the world's leading powers. Tomorrow will see only the fifth Council meeting at heads-of-government level n and the first with a US President in the chair.
"The only way to eliminate the nuclear threat is to eliminate all nuclear weapons," former US Ambassador Mr Thomas Pickering of the Global Zero campaigning group said last night. "The Security Council's endorsement of this goal would be another great step toward an international consensus on working together to achieve this important objective."
In Britain, Trident is due to be upgraded in a 25bn$ programme approved by the government before Tony Blair stood down and with Mr Brown's backing. The UK's arsenal of warheads has already been cut from 200 to 160 and scrapping one boat would not mean it could be cut further as the Government's policy is to retain the minimum number needed for an effective deterrent. The draft Security Council resolution also congratulates the commitment made by the USA and Russia to cut their arsenals further as they renegotiate the 1991 START treaty that is soon to expire.
Also in the text are clear warnings to Iran and North Korea as they continue to defy calls to relinquish their nuclear programmes.
;The Independent

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

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  (Redirected from CTBT)
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Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty
Nuclear test Nevada test site 1955.jpg
Signed
- location
10 September 1996
New York City
Effective
- condition
Not yet in force
180 days after it is ratified by all 44 Annex 2 countries: Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, People's Republic of China, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, North Korea, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam
Signatories 181
Parties 150 (including 35 of 44 Annex 2 states)
Website http://www.ctbto.org/
Participation in the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty
     Annex 2, signed and ratified      Annex 2, only signed      Annex 2, non-signatory      Not Annex 2, signed and ratified      Not Annex 2, only signed      Not Annex 2, non-signatory

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) bans all nuclear explosions in all environments, for military or civilian purposes. It was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 September 1996 but it has not yet entered into force.[1]

Contents

[hide]

[edit] Status

The Treaty was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 September 1996.[1] It opened for signature in New York on 24 September 1996,[1] when it was signed by 71 States, including five of the eight then nuclear-capable states. As of September 2009, 150 states have ratified the CTBT and another 32 states have signed but not yet ratified it.[1][2]

The treaty will enter into force 180 days after the 44 states listed in Annex 2 of the treaty have ratified it. These "Annex 2 states" are states that participated in the CTBT's negotiations between 1994 and 1996 and possessed nuclear power reactors or research reactors at that time.[3] As of April 2009, nine Annex 2 states have not ratified the treaty: China, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Israel and the United States have already signed the Treaty, whereas India, North Korea and Pakistan have not yet signed it.

[edit] Obligations

(Article I):[4]

  1. Each State Party undertakes not to carry out any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion, and to prohibit and prevent any such nuclear explosion at any place under its jurisdiction or control.
  2. Each State Party undertakes, furthermore, to refrain from causing, encouraging, or in any way participating in the carrying out of any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion.

[edit] History

Arms control advocates had campaigned for the adoption of a treaty banning all nuclear explosions since the early 1950s, when public concern was aroused as a result of radioactive fall-out from atmospheric nuclear tests and the escalating arms race. Over 50 nuclear explosions were registered between 16 July 1945, when the first nuclear explosive test was conducted by the United States at Alamogordo, New Mexico, and 31 December 1953. Prime Minister Nehru of India voiced the heightened international concern in 1954, when he proposed the elimination of all nuclear test explosions worldwide. However, within the context of the Cold War, skepticism about the capability to verify compliance with a comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty posed a major obstacle to any agreement.

[edit] Partial Test Ban Treaty, 1963

Limited success was achieved with the signing of the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963, which banned nuclear tests in the atmosphere, underwater and in space. Neither France nor China signed the PTBT. However, the treaty was ratified 80 to 19.[5]

[edit] Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, 1968

A major step towards non-proliferation of nuclear weapons came with the signing of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1968. Under the NPT, non-nuclear weapon states were prohibited from, inter alia, possessing, manufacturing or acquiring nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices. All signatories, including nuclear weapon states, were committed to the goal of total nuclear disarmament.

[edit] Negotiations for the CTBT

Given the political situation prevailing in the subsequent decades, little progress was made in nuclear disarmament until 1991. Parties to the PTBT held an amendment conference that year to discuss a proposal to convert the Treaty into an instrument banning all nuclear-weapon tests; with strong support from the UN General Assembly, negotiations for a comprehensive test-ban treaty began in 1993.

[edit] Adoption of the CTBT, 1996

Intensive efforts were made over the next three years to draft the Treaty text and its two annexes. However, the Conference on Disarmament, in which negotiations were being held, did not succeed in reaching consensus on the adoption of the text. Australia then sent the text to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where it was submitted as a draft resolution.[6] On 10 September 1996, the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was adopted by a large majority, exceeding two-thirds of the General Assembly's Membership.[7]

[edit] US ratification of the CTBT

The US has signed the CTBT, but not ratified it. There is ongoing debate whether or not the US should ratify the CTBT. Proponents of ratification claim that it would:

  1. Establish an international norm that would push other nuclear-capable countries like North Korea, Pakistan, and India to sign.
  2. Constrain worldwide nuclear proliferation by vastly limiting a country's ability to make nuclear advancements that only testing can ensure.
  3. Not compromise US national security because the Science Based Stockpile Stewardship Program serves as a means for maintaining current US nuclear capabilities without physical detonation.

On 13 October 1999, the United States Senate rejected ratification of the CTBT. President Barack Obama stated during his 2008 election campaign that "As president, I will reach out to the Senate to secure the ratification of the CTBT at the earliest practical date."[8]

[edit] Monitoring of the CTBT

Geophysical and other technologies are used to monitor for compliance with the Treaty: seismology, hydroacoustics, infrasound, and radionuclide monitoring. The technologies are used to monitor the underground, the waters and the atmosphere for any sign of a nuclear explosion. Statistical theories and methods are integral to CTBT monitoring providing confidence in verification analysis. Once the Treaty enters into force, on site inspection will be provided for where concerns about compliance arise.

The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), an international organization headquartered in Vienna, Austria, was created to build the verification regime, including establishment and provisional operation of the network of monitoring stations, the creation of an international data centre, and development of the On Site Inspection capability.

The monitoring network consists of 337 facilities located all over the globe. As of September 2009, close to 250 facilities have been certified. The monitoring stations register data that is transmitted to the international data centre in Vienna for processing and analysis. The data is sent to states that have signed the Treaty.[9]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

India and weapons of mass destruction

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India
Location of India
Nuclear program start date 1967
First nuclear weapon test 18 May 1974 (Smiling Buddha)
First fusion weapon test 11 May 1998
Last nuclear test 13 May 1998
Largest yield test *Underground - 20 Kt Total in Pokhran-II [1] minimum (May 11, 1998)
Total tests 6
Current stockpile 45-95 (2009 est.)
Maximum missile range 2,500km (Agni-II)
NPT signatory No

India possesses an arsenal of nuclear weapons and maintains short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles, nuclear-capable aircraft, surface ships, and submarines under development as possible delivery systems and platforms. Although it lacks an operational ballistic missile submarines India has ambitions of possessing a nuclear triad in the near future when INS Arihant the lead ship of India's Arihant class of nuclear-powered submarines formally joins the Indian Navy in 2012 after undergoing extensive sea-trials. Though India has not made any official statements about the size of its nuclear arsenal, estimates suggest that India has between 40 and 95 nuclear weapons,[2][3] consistent with estimates that it has produced enough weapons-grade plutonium for up to 1000 nuclear weapons.[4] Production of weapons-grade plutonium production is believed to be taking place at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, which is home to the CIRUS reactor acquired from Canada, to the indigenous Dhruva reactor, and to a plutonium separation facility.

India has never signed the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which it rejects as discriminatory.[5] India tested what it called a "peaceful nuclear explosive" in 1974 (which became known as "Smiling Buddha"). This test raised questions about how civilian nuclear technology could be diverted secretly to weapons purposes. The test also caused great international concern and anger, particularly from Canada, which had supplied India with power and research reactors for peaceful purposes, including the reactor used to produce the plutonium for this test.[6] The test appears to have been primarily motivated as a general deterrent, as well as an attempt to project India as regional power.[citation needed] India later tested weaponized nuclear warheads in 1998 ("Operation Shakti"), including a claimed thermonuclear device that was reported to have been a failure.[7]

India signed the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 1993 and ratified it in 1996. After years of denying it had chemical weapons, in 1997 India declared a stockpile of mustard gas, which it destroyed by 2009, as required by the CWC.[8]

Contents

[hide]

[edit] Brief historical overview

Agni II was India's first long range missile

As early as June 26, 1946, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, soon to be India's first Prime Minister, announced:

" As long as the world is constituted as it is, every country will have to devise and use the latest devices for its protection. I have no doubt India will develop her scientific researches and I hope Indian scientists will use the atomic force for constructive purposes. But if India is threatened, she will inevitably try to defend herself by all means at her disposal.[9] "

India's first Nuclear test occurred on 18 May 1974. Since then India has conducted another series of test at the Pokhran test range in the state of Rajasthan in 1998. India has an extensive civil and military nuclear program, which includes at least 10 nuclear reactors, uranium mining and milling sites, heavy water production facilities, a uranium enrichment plant, fuel fabrication facilities, and extensive nuclear research capabilities.


In 1998, as a response to the continuing tests, the United States and Japan imposed temporary economic sanctions on India.

[edit] Current arsenal and estimates of inventory

Agni III Missile in 2003
  • It is estimated that India currently has between 45 and 100 warheads.[2]
  • David Albright's report published by Institute for Science and International Security on 2000 estimates that India at end of 1999 had 310 kilograms of weapon grade plutonium which is enough for 65 nuclear weapons. He also estimates that India has 4,200 kg of reactor grade plutonium which is enough to build 1,000 nuclear weapons.[3][11] By the end of 2004, he estimates India had 445 kilograms of weapon grade plutonium which is enough for around 85 nuclear weapons considering 5 kg of plutonium required for each weapon[12]
  • Former R&AW official J.K. Sinha, claimed that India has capability to produce 130 kilograms of weapon grade plutonium from six unsafeguarded reactors not included in the nuclear deal between India and the United States.[13]

[edit] Doctrine

India has a declared nuclear no-first-use policy and is in the process of developing a nuclear doctrine based on "credible minimum deterrence." In August 1999, the Indian government released a draft of the doctrine[14] which asserts that nuclear weapons are solely for deterrence and that India will pursue a policy of "retaliation only". The document also maintains that India "will not be the first to initiate a nuclear first strike, but will respond with punitive retaliation should deterrence fail" and that decisions to authorize the use of nuclear weapons would be made by the Prime Minister or his 'designated successor(s).'"[14]

According to the NRDC, despite the escalation of tensions between India and Pakistan in 2001-2002, India remains committed to its nuclear no-first-use policy.

[edit] Command and control

India's Strategic Nuclear Command was formally established in 2003, with an Air Force officer, Air Marshal Asthana, as the Commander-in-Chief. The joint services SNC is the custodian of all of India's nuclear weapons, missiles and assets. It is also responsible for executing all aspects of India's nuclear policy. However, the civil leadership, in the form of the CCS (Cabinet Committee on Security) is the only body authorized to order a nuclear strike against another offending strike: In effect, it is the Prime Minister who has his finger "on the button."

[edit] International treaties

Thermonuclear device used in the Pokhran Test

India is not a signatory to either the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) or the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), but did accede to the Partial Test Ban Treaty in October 1963. India is a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and four of its 17 nuclear reactors are subject to IAEA safeguards.

India announced its lack of intention to accede to the NPT as late as 1997 by voting against the paragraph of a General Assembly Resolution[15] which urged all non-signatories of the treaty to accede to it at the earliest possible date.[16]

India voted against the UN General Assembly resolution endorsing the CTBT, which was adopted on September 10, 1996. India objected to the lack of provision for universal nuclear disarmament "within a time-bound framework." India also demanded that the treaty ban laboratory simulations. In addition, India opposed the provision in Article XIV of the CTBT that requires India's ratification for the treaty to enter into force, which India argued was a violation of its sovereign right to choose whether it would sign the treaty. In early February 1997, Foreign Minister Gujral reiterated India's opposition to the treaty, saying that "India favors any step aimed at destroying nuclear weapons, but considers that the treaty in its current form is not comprehensive and bans only certain types of tests."

In August 2008, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) approved safeguards agreement with India under which the former will gradually gain access to India's civilian nuclear reactors.[17] In September 2008, the Nuclear Suppliers Group granted India a waiver allowing it to access civilian nuclear technology and fuel from other countries.[18] The implementation of this waiver makes India the only known country with nuclear weapons which is not a party to the NPT but is still allowed to carry out nuclear commerce with the rest of the world.[19]

Since the implementation of NSG waiver, India has signed nuclear deals with several countries including France,[20] United States,[21],Mongolia, Namibia[22], and Kazakhstan[23] while the framework for similar deals with Canada and United Kingdom are also being prepared.[24][25]

[edit] Delivery systems

Below is the list of missiles currently in India's inventory or under development that can carry Nuclear Warheads. Information on the missiles is given below.

Agni missile range.
India's Nuclear Capable Missiles
Name Class Range Payload Status
Agni-I SRBM 850 km 1,000 kg Operational
Agni-II MRBM 2,500 km 500 kg - 1,000 kg Operational
Agni-III IRBM 3,500 km - 5,500 km 2,490 kg Under Development
Agni-V ICBM 5,000 km - 6,000 km 3,000 kg+ Under Development
Agni 3SL ICBM 5,200 km - 11,600 km 700 kg - 1,400 kg Under Development
Akash SAM 30 km 60 kg Operational
BrahMos-I Supersonic Cruise Missile 290 km 300 kg Operational
BrahMos-II Hypersonic Cruise Missile  ?  ? Under Development
Dhanush SRBM 350 km 500 kg Operational
Nirbhay Subsonic Cruise Missile 1,000 km  ? Under Development
P-70 Ametist Anti-shipping Missile 65 km 530 kg Operational
P-270 Moskit Supersonic Cruise Missile 120 km 320 kg Operational
Popeye ASM 78 km 340 kg Operational
Prithvi-I SRBM 150 km 1000 kg Operational
Prithvi-II SRBM 250 km 500 kg Operational
Prithvi-III SRBM 350 km 500 kg Operational
Sagarika SLBM 700 km - 2,200 km 150 kg - 1000 kg Operational
Shaurya SSBM 700 km - 2,200 km 150 kg - 1,000 kg Operational
Surya-I ICBM 9,000 km - 12,000 km 3,000 kg+ Under Development
Surya-II[26] ICBM 20,000 km  ? Under Development

[edit] Ballistic missiles

Prithvi I

Under former president Dr. Abdul Kalam India pursued the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (IGMDP) which was an Indian Ministry of Defense program for the development of a comprehensive range of missiles, including the intermediate range Agni missile (Surface to Surface), and short range missiles such as the Prithvi ballistic missile (Surface to Surface), Akash missile (Surface to Air), Trishul missile (Surface to Air) and Nag Missile (Anti Tank). Other projects such Indian Ballistic Missile Defense Program have derived from the IGMDP. In 2005, India became only the fourth country to have Anti Ballistic capability when India tested two systems the AAD and PAD.

India has methodically built an indigenous missile production capability, using its commercial space-launch program to develop the skills and infrastructure needed to support an offensive ballistic missile program. For example, during the 1980s, India conducted a series of space launches using the solid-fueled SLV-3 booster. Most of these launches put light satellites into near-earth orbit. Elements of the SLV-3 were subsequently incorporated into two new programs. In the first, the new polar-space launch vehicle (PSLV) was equipped with six SLV-3 motors strapped to the PSLV's first stage. The Agni IRBM technology demonstrator uses the SLV-3 booster as its first stage.

[edit] Prithvi

The Prithvi (Hindi: "Earth") I is mobile liquid-fueled 150 kilometer tactical missile currently deployed with army units. It is claimed that this missile is equipped only with various conventional warheads (which stay attached to the missile over the entire flight path). The missile is of particular interest to the United States (and potential buyers) in that has the capability of maneuvering in flight so as to follow one of several different pre-programmed trajectories. Based on the same design, a modified Prithvi, the Prithvi II, is essentially a longer-ranged version of the Prithvi I except that it has a 250-kilometer range and a lighter payload. It is suspected that any nuclear missions will be executed by the Prithvi II. Currently, the Prithvi II has completed development and is now in production. When fielded, it will be deployed with air force units for the purpose of deep target attacking maneuvers against objectives such as air fields.

  • Prithvi I — Army Version (150 km range with a payload of 1,000 kg)
  • Prithvi II — Air Force Version (250 km range with a payload of 500 kg)
  • Prithvi III — Naval Version (350 km range with a payload of 500 kg)

The Prithvi missile project encompassed developing 3 variants for use by the Indian Army, Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy. The initial project framework of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program outlines the variants in the following manner.

[edit] Dhanush

Dhanush (Sanskrit: Bow) is a naval variant of the Prithvi missile.[27] It can fire either the 250 km or the 350 km range missiles. Supposedly it is a customised version of the Prithvi and that the additional customizations in missile configuration are to certify it for sea worthiness. Dhanush has to be launched from a hydraulically stabilized launch pad. Its low range acts against it and thus it is seen a weapons either to be used to destroy an aircraft carrier or an enemy port. Indian Navy's K-15 Sagarika submarine-launched ballistic missile is reported to be a variant of the Dhanush missile.[28]

The ship launched Dhanush Ballistic Missile was tested from INS Subhadra of the Sukanya class patrol craft in 2000. INS Subhadra is a vessel which was modified and the missile was launched from the reinforced helicopter deck. The 250 km variant was tested but the tests were considered partially successful.[29] In 2004, the missile was again tested from the INS Subhadra and was this time successful.[30] Then the following year in December the missile's 350 km version was tested from the INS Rajput and hit the land based target. [31]

[edit] Agni

The Agni (Sanskrit: Fire) missile system comprises three missiles:

Agni-I uses the SLV-3 booster (from India's space program) for its first stage and a liquid-fueled Prithvi for its second stage.[32]

Nuclear-capable Agni-II missiles have a range of up to 3,000 km and can carry a payload of 1,000 kg.[33] Unlike the Agni-I, the Agni-II has a solid-fueled second stage.[34]

In July 2006, India successfully test-fired Agni-III,[35] a two-stage nuclear-capable ballistic missile with a range of 3,000 km.[36] Both stages of the Agni-III utilizes solid-fuel propellants and its range can be extended to 4,000 km.[37] The missile is capable of carrying a nuclear payload within the range of 600 to 1,800 kg including decoys and other anti-ballistic counter-measures.[38]

India's DRDO also working on a submarine-launched ballistic missile version of the Agni-III missile, known as the Agni-III SL. This missile is expected to provide India with a credible sea-based second strike capability. According to Indian defense sources, Agni-III SL will have a range of 3,500 km. [39] In addition, the 5,000 km range Agni-V ICBM is expected to be tested by 2010-11.[40]

[edit] Surya

The Surya ICBM is an ICBM program that has been mentioned repeatedly in the Indian press but is yet to be officially announced. Surya (meaning Sun in Sanskrit and many other Indian languages) is the codename for the first Intercontinental Ballistic Missile that India is reported to be developing. The DRDO is believed to have begun the project in 1994. Officials of the Indian government have repeatedly denied the existence of the project. According to news reports, the Surya-1 is an intercontinental-range, surface-based, solid and liquid propellant ballistic missile. The Surya-1 and -2 will be classified as strategic weapons, extending the Indian nuclear deterrent force to targets around the world. India currently is limited by the range of the Agni-3 missile.

As the missile is yet to be developed, the specifications of the missile are not known and the entire program continues to remain highly speculative.[41] Estimates of the range of this missile vary from 5,000 kms[42] to 10,000 kms.[43] It is believed to be a three-stage design, with the first two stages using solid propellants and the third-stage using liquid. In 2007, the Times of India reported that the DRDO is yet to reveal whether India's currently proposed ICBM will be called Agni-V (or Surya-1).[42]

Shaurya is India's first hypersonic missile.

[edit] Shaurya

The Shaurya missile (Sanskrit: Valour) is a short-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile developed by DRDO of India for use by the Indian Army. It has a range of 600 km and is capable of carrying a payload of one-tonne conventional or nuclear warhead. The Shaurya missile provides India with a significant second strike capability[44]. Shaurya Missile is considered a land version of the Sagarika. This missile is stored in a composite canister just like the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile. The composite canister makes the missile much easier to store for long periods without maintenance as well as to handle and transport. It also houses the gas generator to eject the missile from the canister before its solid propellant motors take over to hurl it at the intended target. Shaurya missiles can remain hidden or camouflaged in underground silos from enemy surveillance or satellites till they are fired from the special storage-cum-launch canisters. DRDO Defence scientists admit that given Shaurya's limited range at present, either the silos will have to be constructed closer to India's borders or longer-range missiles will have to be developed. The Shaurya system will require some more tests before it becomes fully operational in two-three years. Moreover, defense scientists say the high-speed, two-stage Shaurya has high maneuverability which also makes it less vulnerable to existing anti-missile defense systems.[45]. When Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems AAD and PAD are to be tested again, the Shaurya invulnerability to anti-missile systems will be tested. The DRDO scientists also have said that if Shaurya is successful and manages to avoid anti ballistic missile radars then the missile can even be used to improve the AAD and PAD systems.

[edit] Sagarika

Sagarika (Sanskrit: Wave / Born from the Ocean) is a nuclear capable submarine-launched ballistic missile with a range of 750 km. This missile has a length of 8.5 meters, weighs seven tonnes and can carry a pay load of up to 500 kg.[46]. The development of this missile started in 1991. The first confirmation about the missile came in 1998[47]. The development of the underwater missile launcher know as the Project 78 (P78) was completed in 2001. This was handed over to the Indian Navy for trials. The missile was successfully test fired thrice. The Indian Navy plans to introduce the missile into service by the end of 2010. Sagarika missile is being integrated with the Advanced Technology Vessel that is expected to begin sea trials by 2009.[48] Sagarika will form part of the triad in India's nuclear deterrence and will provide with retaliatory nuclear strike capability.[49]

Sagarika has already been test-fired from an underwater pontoon, but now DRDO is planning a full-fledged test of the missile from a submarine and for this purpose may use the services of a Russian sub-marine.[50]. Eventually it could be introduced into as many as 5 ballistic missile submarines.

[edit] Cruise missiles

India has a number of Moskit supersonic nuclear capable cruise missile
P-70 Ametist cruise missile

Nirbhay (Sanskrit "Fearless") is a long range, subsonic cruise missile being developed in India. The missile will have a range of 1,000 km and will arm three services, the Indian Army, Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force.[51] The Nirbhay will be able to be launched from multiple platforms on land, sea and air. The first test flight of the missile is expected in the year 2009.[52] Nirbhay will be a terrain hugging, stealth missile[53] capable of delivering 24 different types of warheads depending on mission requirements and will use inertial navigation system for guidance.[54]. There are plans to arm the IL-76MDs with the aerial version of the missile. [55]

India has acquired around 200 3M-54 Klub for arming Talwar class frigate, Shivalik class frigate, Kolkata class destroyer and Sindhughosh class submarine[56]. The Russian 3M-54 Klub is a multi-role missile system developed by the Novator Design Bureau (OKB-8) with a range of 250 km-300 km and an average speed of .8 Mach with a maximum of 2.9 Mach.[57] India has both the Klub-N and Klub-S variant to be used for Ships and Submarines respectively. [58]. Both the Klub-N and Klub-S have been tested successfully. India currently has the 3M-54E, 3M-54E1, 91RE1 and 91RE2 variants. In addition the Navy has plans to arm the Tu-142 and Tu-22M with an air-launched version. Due to Klub's longer range than BrahMos it may also be used in the Mirage 2000 and Su-30 MKI too. The Navy has shown interest in buying more Klubs which would be incorporated on to the S-1000 submarine if bought by India. India is also keen on other Former Soviet cruise missile such as the P-700 Granit and P-500 Bazalt.

India imported a large number of Israel's Rafael made Popeye Missile in late 1999. [59]. Popeye II, an air launched cruise missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads with a range of 80 km can be launched from planes was given to India along with missile defence radars in a deal. [60]. At that time the United States was wary of this due to its close relations with Pakistan. But due to recent military and strategic dealings between the Israel, India and the United States, it is thought that the United States has little or no objection now. The exact number transferred to India is unknown, but possibly 20 missiles to perhaps 50 missiles could have been given with possibly more being built in India. It is still not known which planes are armed with these missiles but it is thought to be the Tu-142 and Sukhoi Su-30MKI, which incorporate some Israeli technology.

India has Soviet P-70 Ametist submarine-launched cruise missiles. [61]. The missile were mostly probably bought in the early 90s and may be used today as canistered launched land based cruise missiles instead of submarine launched cruise missiles. The missiles can carry nuclear warheads and have a range of 50–65 km. Although they are extremely old and incompetent due to their low range and speed, there are still reports that they are kept in reserve and can still be used due to their upgrades in the late 90s. [62].

India has a number of operational Moskits. [63] The P-270 Moskit is a Russian supersonic ramjet powered cruise missile capable of being launched from land and ships. India has most probably bought both land and ship variants which have a range of 120 km. It was reported that the Chinese version had a greater range and was faster than the one India had acquired. As a result in 2008 India bought around 200 Klub missiles and now it is believed that the Moskit have been kept in reserve but can still be used.

BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft or land. It is a joint venture between India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Russia's NPO Mashinostroeyenia who have together formed the BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited.

The acronym BrahMos is perceived as the confluence of the two nations represented by two rivers, the Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia. It travels at speeds of Mach 2.5 to 2.8 and is the world's fastest cruise missile. It is about three-and-a-half times faster than the U.S.A's subsonic Harpoon[2] cruise missile. A hypersonic version of the missile is also presently under development (Lab Tested with 5.26 Mach Speed).[3] BrahMos claims to have the capability of attacking surface targets as low as 10 meters in altitude. It can gain a speed of Mach 2.8, and has a maximum range of 290 km.[1] The ship-launched and land-based missiles can carry a 200 kg warhead, whereas the aircraft-launched variant (BrahMos A) can carry a 300 kg warhead. It has a two-stage propulsion system, with a solid-propellant rocket for initial acceleration and a liquid-fueled ramjet responsible for sustained supersonic cruise. Air-breathing ramjet propulsion is much more fuel-efficient than rocket propulsion, giving the BrahMos a longer range than a pure rocket-powered missile would achieve.[citation needed]

The high speed of the BrahMos likely gives it better target-penetration characteristics than lighter subsonic cruise-missiles such as the Tomahawk.[5] Being twice as heavy and almost four times faster than the Tomahawk, the BrahMos has almost 32 times the initial kinetic energy of a Tomahawk missile (although it pays for this by having only 3/5 the payload and a fraction of the range despite weighing twice as much, suggesting a different tactical paradigm to achieve the objective).

Although BrahMos is primarily an anti-ship missile, it can also engage land based targets. It can be launched either in a vertical or inclined position and is capable of covering targets over a 360 degree horizon. The BrahMos missile has an identical configuration for land, sea, and sub-sea platforms. The air-launched version has a smaller booster and additional tail fins for added stability during launch. The BrahMos is currently being configured for aerial deployment with the Su-30MKI as its carrier

[edit] Surface to air missile

Akash SAM

Akash (Hindi: Sky) is India's medium range surface-to-air missile defense system The missile can target aircraft up to 30 km away, at altitudes up to 18,000 m.[64] Akash can be fired from both tracked and wheeled platforms.[65] Akash is said to be capable of both conventional and nuclear warheads, with a reported payload of 60 kg.[66] A nuclear warhead could potentially give the missile the capability to destroy both aircraft and warheads from ballistic missiles. The missile is described as being able to strike several targets simultaneously, which could mean either separate, independently targetable warheads, or a sufficient blast to destroy a number of them.

Along with India, a limited number of other countries including the US and Russia have developed operational multi-target handling surface-to-air missile systems capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

[edit] Delivery mechanisms

6 Sindhughosh Class submarines can fire nuclear capable cruise missile, 3M-54 Klub
INS Sindhuvijay
The INS Tabar and other Talwar class frigates are armed with the Nuclear capable 3M-54 Klub cruise missiles
The Shivalik class frigates are armed with the 3M-54 Klub and may also incorporate the nuclear capable Nirbhay missile in the future. Seen here is the INS Shivalik when it was under construction

[edit] Nuclear submarines

According to some accounts, India plans to have as many as 20 nuclear submarines capable of carrying missiles with nuclear warheads. Currently, India has built one and is building two more nuclear submarines under the Advanced Technology Vessel plan. India currently maintains six submarines of the Sindhughosh Class that can launch the nuclear-capable 3M-54 Klub cruise missiles.

In 1988 INS Chakra (Sanskrit: Wheel), a Charlie-class submarine was leased by the Indian Navy for three years from the Soviet Union, until 1991. The submarine was leased to India between 1988 and 1991 mainly for India to gain experience in the operations of a nuclear submarine. It was later decommissioned in 1991.

The Arihant class submarines (Sanskrit: Slayer of Enemies) are a class of nuclear-powered Ballistic Missile submarines being constructed for the Indian Navy at Visakhapatnam, India under the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) Project [67][68] The ATV is an SSBN and will be armed with ballistic missiles.

The first of these, INS Arihant was launched on 26 July, 2009. The vessel, which will undergo sea-trials for up to two years, will then be equipped with an unknown number of K-15 Sagarika SLBMs[69].

The second and third submarines of the class may incorporate the Nirbhay as well. As of July 2007, the Sagarika missile as well as Dhanush had undergone three successful tests each.

The INS Sindhuraj(Sanskrit: King of the Ocean), INS Sindhuvir(Sanskrit: Warrior of the Ocean), INS Sindhuratna(Sanskrit: Gem of the Ocean), INS Sindhushastra (Sanskrit: Weapon of the Ocean), INS Sindhukesari and INS Sindhuvijay(Sanskrit: Conqueror of the Ocean) are capable of launching 3M-54 Klub and BrahMos nuclear-capable cruise missiles.[70]. India bought 10 Kilo class (in India known as Sindhughosh Class) submarine of which 6 have been refitted by the Russian Navy so that the they can launch cruise missiles such as nuclear capable 3M-54 Klub.

  • Leasing of Russian Akula and Amur Submarines

In 2000, negotiations between India and Russia were conducted into the leasing of two incomplete Akula class. The Akulas were to be delivered to the Indian Navy in 2008 on a lease of at least seven years and up to ten years, in which at the end of the lease, it has an option to buy them. The acquisition was to help the Indian Navy prepare for the introduction of the ATV. The cost to India of acquiring two Akula submarines and their support infrastructure along with training of the crews had been estimated at $2 billion.[71]. The Indian version was reportedly armed with the 300 km range 3M-54 Klub nuclear-capable missiles.[72]. Supposedly on 9 November, 2008 one of the two submarines was conducting tests, when an accident on board killed 20 sailors but no damage occurred to the submarine. Though this deal fell apart for some time due to the Indians demanding an upgrade/improvement in some of its safety features, Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev on his official trip to New Delhi said that the deal was back on track and that "The talk is not about selling submarines into India's property, but about their rent by India's navy". [73] However, unlike the earlier deal the modified deal states that India can only rent and not buy the subs, but defence experts state that the so-called lease agreement is only to divert international attention and that it would be eventually modified and India would inevitably keep the subs. The first submarine will be named INS Chakra.[74]. Russia has also offered the advanced Amur Class Submarine, known as the S1000. According to GlobalSecurity India is already building the S1000 cruise missile submarines in Mazagaon Docks. [75] The Amur will be most probably fitted with P-700 Granit or the Klub cruise missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

[edit] Frigates, destroyers and aircraft carriers

Other than submarines, India also maintains ships such as destroyers, modified patrol crafts and frigates which can launch nuclear capable ballistic and cruise missiles.

Talwar class frigate and Shivalik class frigate are frigates of the Indian Navy that can fire nuclear capable cruise missiles. INS Tabar and INS Trishul are Talwar class vessel armed with supersonic nuclear 3M-54 Klub cruise missiles while INS Shivalik was the first vessel of the Shivalik class to incorporate the 3M-54 Klub. Other vessels of the Shivalik Class and Talwar Class are to be armed with the BrahMos and 3M-54 Klub missiles by 2009 and 2010 respectively. All these frigates are also equipped with Barak missiles or other SAMs and harbour helicopters such as the HAL Dhruv. In years to come, the Nirbhay missile is also to be incorporated into Talwar class frigates and Shivalik class frigates.

Rajput Class, Kolkata Class and Delhi Class are Destroyers of the Indian Navy that may be armed with nuclear capable missile-Nirbhay. In addition Kolkata Class will also incorporate the Russian nuclear 3M-54 Klub cruise missile.[76]

The ship launched Dhanush Ballistic Missile was tested from INS Subhadra of the Sukanya class patrol craft in 2000. INS Subhadra is a patrol vessel which was modified and the missile was launched from the reinforced helicopter deck. The 250 km variant was tested but the tests were considered partially successful.[29] In 2004, the missile was again tested from the INS Subhadra and was this time successful.[30] Then the following year in December the missile's 350 km version was tested from the INS Rajput and hit the land based target. [31].

INS Vikramaditya Aircraft Carrier (formerly known as Admiral Gorshkov) was fitted with P-500 Bazalt nuclear capable cruise missiles of the range of 550 km. [77] The Vikramaditya could still be armed with this after its refit. India is also a potential customer for a Slava class cruiser which also incorporates the P-500 Bazalt

[edit] Nuclear-capable aircraft

India currently has 4.5 generation fighter jets capable of launching nuclear weapons. Nuclear-capable aircraft are also seen as a less expensive way of dropping nuclear warheads as well as being as effective.

The Sukhoi Su-30MKI,[78] Dassault Mirage 2000 [79], MiG-29[80] and HAL Tejas serve in the Indian Air Force and are also seen as a means to deliver nuclear weapons. In addition India maintains SEPECAT Jaguar and MiG-27M which can be used to drop gravity bombs. [81] However, these planes would be considered useless in the 21st century as gravity bombs have little chance of accomplishing a task.[citation needed] On the other hand, the Su-30MKI, capable of carrying nuclear weapons and tailor-made for Indian specifications, integrates Indian systems and avionics.[78] is one of the best air superiority fighters and also consists of French and Israeli subsystems.[82] The MKI variant features several improvements over the basic K and MK variants and is classified as a 4.5 generation fighter.[83][84] Due to similar features and components, the MKI variant is often considered to be a customized Indian variant of the Sukhoi Su-35. The Mirage 2000Hs were heavily customised during the Kargil War and is the only other version, other than the French 2000N, to be able to be armed with nuclear weapons. However, the air force doesn't really see the Mirage as a nuclear strike aircraft. Though MiG-29 like the HAL Tejas after many test flights have not been tested to use nuclear weapons, they have the capacity to be armed with them. Both the HAL Tejas and Su-30MKI can travel excess of 3,000 km without refueling; this allows India to attack targets far away in an effective manner only using planes rather than delivery systems such as the Agni. The HAL Tejas is India's only indigenous plane to be armed with nuclear weapons, thus making India less dependent on Russia.

[edit] Ballistic missile defense

India's Advanced Air Defense (AAD) interceptor missile

India has an active ABM development effort using indigenously developed and integrated radars and locally designed missiles.[85] In November 2006, India successfully conducted the PADE (Prithvi Air Defence Exercise) in which an Anti-ballistic missile, called the Prithvi Air Defense (PAD) an Exoatmospheric (outside the atmosphere) interceptor system intercepted a Prithvi-II ballistic missile. The PAD missile has the secondary stage of the Prithvi missile and can reach altitude of 80 km. During the test the target missile was intercepted at an 50 km altitude.[86] India became the fourth nation in the world to acquire such a capability and the third nation to develop it through indigenous effort.[87] On 6 December 2007 the Advanced Air Defence (AAD) missile system was tested successfully.[88] This missile is an Endo atmospheric interceptor with an altitude of 30 km. According to scientist V K Saraswat of DRDO the missiles will work in tandem to ensure a hit probability of 99.8 percent.[89] Induction of the system into services is expected to be in 2010. Two new anti ballistic missiles that can intercept IRBM/ICBMs are being developed. These high speed missiles (AD-1 and AD-2) are being developed to intercept ballistic missiles with the range of 5,000 km.[90]

India also has Russian S300PMU-2 and it is used as an interceptor for Ballistic missiles. An indigenous nuclear tipped surface to air missile, Akash Missile is used to destroy low range missiles and is capable of destroying various targets and is one of the few of its kind systems in the world. India has also shown interest in the Russian S-400, the most advanced anti-ballistic missile

[edit] Foreign assistance

Secretary Rice and Pranab Mukherjee after signing the 123 agreement in Washington

Due mainly to a total nuclear and missile technology embargo and severe sanctions regime imposed on India after it conducted the 1974 nuclear explosion at Pokhran, most of India's nuclear weapons infrastructure was built developed by the Soviet Union.[5].

According to express India, CIA officials in 2003 released reports confirming massive Soviet development of India's nuclear weapons programs. [6]

In a briefing to Congress on the United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act, then U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, "[India] has a 30-year record of responsible behavior on nonproliferation matters."[91]

[edit] Chemical weapons

In 1992 India signed the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), stating that it did not have chemical weapons and the capacity or capability to manufacture chemical weapons. By doing this India became one of the original signatories of the Chemical Weapons Convention [CWC] in 1993[92], and ratified it on 2 September 1996. According to India's ex-Army Chief General Sunderji, a country having the capability of making nuclear weapons does not need to have chemical weapons, since the dread of chemical weapons could be created only in those countries that do not have nuclear weapons. Others suggested that the fact that India has found chemical weapons dispensable highlighted its confidence in the conventional weapons system at its command.

India informed the United Nations in May, 2009 that it had destroyed its stockpile of chemical weapons in compliance with the international Chemical Weapons Convention. With this India has become third country after South Korea and Albania to do so.[8] This was cross-checked by inspectors of the United Nations.

India has an advanced commercial chemical industry, and produces the bulk of its own chemicals for domestic consumption. It is also widely acknowledged that India has an extensive civilian chemical and pharmaceutical industry and annually exports considerable quantities of chemicals to countries such as the United Kingdom, United States, and Taiwan.[93]

[edit] Biological warfare

India has a well-developed biotechnology infrastructure that includes numerous pharmaceutical production facilities bio-containment laboratories (including BSL-3 and BSL-4) for working with lethal pathogens. It also has highly qualified scientists with expertise in infectious diseases. Some of India's facilities are being used to support research and development for BW defense purposes. India has ratified the BWC and pledges to abide by its obligations. There is no clear evidence, circumstantial or otherwise, that directly points toward an offensive BW program. New Delhi does possess the scientific capability and infrastructure to launch an offensive BW program, but has chosen not to do so. In terms of delivery, India also possesses the capability to produce aerosols and has numerous potential delivery systems ranging from crop dusters to sophisticated ballistic missiles.[94]

In 2001, after Indian Postal Services received 17 "suspicious" letters believed to contain Bacillus anthracis spores, a Bio-Safety Level 2 (BSL-2) Laboratory was established to provide guidance in preparing the Indian government for a biological attack. B. anthracis is one of many pathogens studied at the institute, which also examines pathogens causing tuberculosis, typhoid, hepatitis B, rabies, yellow fever, Lassa fever, Ebola, and plague.[94] The Defense Research and Development Establishment (DRDE) at Gwalior is the primary establishment for studies in toxicology and biochemical pharmacology and development of antibodies against several bacterial and viral agents. Work is in progress to prepare responses to threats like Anthrax, Brucellosis, cholera and plague, viral threats like smallpox and viral hemorrhage fever and biotoxic threats like botulism. Most of the information is classified. Researchers have developed chemical/biological protective gear, including masks, suits, detectors and suitable drugs. India has a 'no first use' policy.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

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49. http://www.opcw.org/about-opcw/member-states/status-of-participation-in-the-cwc/?tx_damfrontend_pi1[pointer]=2

[edit] External links

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