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Impressed by early deliveries and the aircraft’s performance in recent operations, the Indian air force (IAF) is actively considering a proposal to acquire more than the 12 Lockheed-Martin C-130J Super Hercules tactical special mission aircraft already expected. With the last of six C-130Js from an original 2008 contract to be delivered in November, and a follow-on order for six more to be signed shortly, the IAF has lavished unusual praise on the program and indicated it will ultimately need more than a dozen. The IAF has not released an official figure, but Indian sources have said it could be as...

BANGALORE -- Hair tucked into a surgical cap, eyes hidden behind thick-framed magnifying glasses, Devi Shetty leans over the sawed open chest of an 11-year-old boy, using bright blue thread to sew an artificial aorta onto his stopped heart. As Dr. Shetty pulls the thread tight with scissors, an assistant reads aloud a proposed agreement for him to build a new hospital in the Cayman Islands that would primarily serve Americans in search of lower-cost medical care. The agreement is inked a few days later, pending approval of the Cayman parliament. Dr. Shetty, who entered the limelight in the early...

WASHINGTON: In an extraordinary endorsement of the United States’ economic resilience, India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said questions about the American economic model and the setbacks it is suffering are temporary, and the country has the capacity to bounce back. Singh also gave a thumbs up to the beleaguered US dollar, saying ''as far as I can see right now, there is no substitute for the dollar.'' His own feeling, he said, ''is that we have not entered an era of irreversible shift in economic strength of the United States.'' The Indian prime minister’s comments came in an interview...

Pakistan's intelligence agency 'is like a woman with multiple lovers' By Saeed Shah, McClatchy Newspapers Fri Aug 1, 8:25 PM ET ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency is often portrayed as a rogue operator whose agents pursue their own agendas. In fact, the ISI, as it's known, is part of the Pakistani military, headed by a senior Army general and subject to the military chain of command. "It's a very disciplined organization, but with a very large freedom of action. When they get a policy directive, they have certain room for maneuver, keeping the interests of the state in...

Delhi: 50% Christian quota in St Stephen's NEW DELHI: After months of speculation, St Stephen’s on Saturday clearly stated its stand on its minority status - 50% of seats in the college will now go to Christians. In what could be a blow to the hopes of students from other communities, St Stephen’s spokesman Sunil Mathew made it clear the percentage could even increase in future. ‘‘For this year, 50% is the cap on reservation for Christians. Next year we will look into the issue again.” Some seats will, however, be added for the sports quota. Of the seats, 40%...

ILA 2008: Indian bids add spice With India prominently labelled as the show’s ‘official partner country’, the importance of the Indian market, and the growing power of India’s aerospace industry is being underlined and highlighted at Schoenefeld. Jon Lake reports With the recent, long awaited release of a $10 billion request for proposals (RFP), India’s Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition is hotting up, and the main contenders are all present at Berlin, doubtless hoping to impress and persuade India that theirs is the best choice as India’s next fighter. Originally launched as the Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA) requirement, the...

Renton (Washington State),May 15 Indian Navy will soon have an edge in the Indian Ocean once it inks $2.2 billion deal for eight maritime patrol planes from Boeing.The agreement is expected to be signed soon. The Boeing P-8i Poseidons long-range maritime reconnaissance (LRMR)patrol aircraft will enable the Indian Navy to operate a platform almost simultaneously with the USNavy. Richard Buck,Boeing's international programme manager for P8,said that India would be able to leverage on the substantial investment made in the P8 by the US Navy. A lot of issues relating to the P-8i for the Indian Navy are still in the...

Another democracy threatens the Mideast By MIDDLE EAST TIMESPublished: May 08, 2008 The 60th anniversary of Israel's founding has understandably focused much of the attention of Middle Eastern analysts on this old and familiar problem. But if they think this remains the prime security issue for the region, they may be looking in the wrong direction. India this week successfully completed the testing program of its nuclear-capable Agni-3 missile, designed and developed by the state-owned Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO). The third test launch took place May 7, and flew 3,000 kilometers to its targeted impact site in the...

LEMOORE NAVAL AIR STATION (CALIFORNIA): The race for a $10 billion Indian order for 126 fighters just got hotter with the US Navy enthusiastically batting for the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, saying it was best suited for an Indian Air Force (IAF) requirement for a multi-role combat aircraft (MRCA). Such was the spirit with which UN Navy pilots put the jet through its paces at this sprawling air base in central California that it left no doubt it was making a strong pitch for the fighter that it assisted Boeing in developing. "The F/A-18 has delivered on all that it...

NEW DELHI: India on Wednesday entered a select club of nations possessing intermediate range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) with a range of up to 3,000 km, when it successfully test-fired, surface-to-surface nuclear-capable Agni-III missile. With this, the Indian security establishment has acquired the capability to hit targets deep inside China, including Beijing and Shanghai. The all-solid fuel missile took off from Wheelers Island off the coast of Orissa 9:56 am and achieved its full range and accuracy by reaching its pre-designated target in 800 seconds. ”The missile is now ready for induction,’’ visibly happy DRDO scientists said after the missile achieved...

NEW DELHI: US civil and defence aerospace major Boeing has decided to outsource two critical components of the F-18 Super Hornet combat aircraft to India and the order for one of them could go to the Tatas. Lt Gen Jeffrey B. Kohler, Boeing vice president for international strategy, told the India Strategic defence magazine that as a “responsible world player in aerospace, Boeing wanted a long-term, trusted partnership with India and that the orders for these two components are being placed now irrespective of whether or not the company wins the tender for 126 Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA).” Both...

Kailash Colony market, a middle-class shopping area in south Delhi, is an unlikely headquarters for one of the world's most successful warship design programmes. A single armed sentry post and a strand of barbed wire atop the boundary walls are all that hint at an ultra high-security installation -- the Directorate General of Naval Design -- that has fathered battleships like the INS Mumbai, which turned heads across the globe when it sailed into war-torn Beirut in 2006 to evacuate hundreds of Indians stranded by Israel's attack on Lebanon. Rear Admiral MK Badhwar, the navy's design chief, explains how the...

Pakistan Expels Writer for NY Times By MUNIR AHMAD – 6 hours ago ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan has expelled an American journalist who wrote in The New York Times Magazine about the rise of pro-Taliban militants in this key U.S. ally, a media rights group said Saturday. A Pakistani official denied that Nicholas Schmidle had been deported, however, and said the American lacked a journalist visa. Schmidle, a visiting scholar at Pakistan's state-run Institute of Strategic Studies in the capital, Islamabad, occasionally wrote media articles. A statement issued by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said the Interior...

The Tata Rs 1-lakh car is here! And it's called the Nano! Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata on Thursday unveiled the Tata Nano at the 9th Auto Expo in New Delhi. Details of the People's Car: Ratan Tata, while unveiling the nano, said: "The car will meet all current safety norms and all emission criteria. The pollution it will cause will be lower than 2-wheelers." The car, Tata said, is smaller than a Maruti [Get Quote], but has 21 per cent more volume or space inside than the 800. He said that the dealer price of the car will be...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp LMT.N> was awarded a $498.2 million contract to supply F-16 aircraft to Pakistan, the Pentagon said on Monday, as Pakistani officials mulled whether to go ahead with a January 8 election after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. Lockheed will sell 12 F-16C plus 6 F-16D planes to Pakistan under the contract, the Pentagon said in its daily list of defense contract awards. The Defense Department, which oversees sales of military weapons to foreign governments, did not say how soon the fighter jets would be delivered. Pakistan has received about $10 billion in...

DEFENCE Smashing hit T.S. SUBRAMANIAN The DRDO’s Advanced Air Defence missile propels India into a select group of countries with the ability to intercept ballistic missiles. PTI THERE was applause at first, followed by five minutes of silence as missile technologists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) scanned the consoles in front of them. After 25 seconds of tension, a deafening applause broke out in the Mission Control Centre (MCC) on Wheeler Island, 17 kilometres from Dhamra on the Orissa coast. The atmosphere turned electric as the young men and women missile technologists went delirious with joy. Full-throated...

NEW DELHI: In what will be the biggest defence deal with US till now, India is now firmly moving ahead to seal the contract for acquiring six C-130J 'Super Hercules' military transport planes for "special operations" at a cost of around $1 billion. Defence ministry sources said the FMS (foreign military sale) contract — a government-to-government arrangement — for the C-130Js will be concluded "soon" since it had been catered for in the ongoing defence budget. "We are closely studying the offer after the US Defence Security Cooperation Agency notified the American Congress in May. The contract will be signed...

Osama's handling officer was incharge of Benazir's security B Raman According to latest reports, at least 132 persons -- 20 of them police officers deputed to protect former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto [Images] -- were killed in a suspected suicide attack on the convoy by which she was being taken from the Karachi airport to the mausoleum of Mohammad Ali Jinnah on the night of October 18. The suicide attack or attacks were clearly aimed to kill her on arrival in Karachi to a triumphant welcome by her supporters, but she managed to escape. Reliable sources say one or...

WASHINGTON/NEW DELHI: Pakistan, a country about a sixth of India in size, population, economy and several other metrics, has for the first time outstripped India in purchasing military hardware and software, notching up arms deals worth $5.1 billion in 2006, as compared to $3.5 billion by India, to be ranked the world’s largest arms shopper, according to a Congressional study released Monday. According to the report, ‘Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations’, produced by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, Pakistan concluded $5.1 billion in agreements to buy arms in 2006, well ahead of second placed India with $3.5 billion in...

Editorial: Pakistan army and the nation The politics in Islamabad today is posited by the opposition as a battle for civilian rule and the confinement of the Pakistan army to its constitutional role. The lawyers’ community and the opposition political parties may have different agendas up their sleeves, but at the declaratory level it is the civilian-military relationship that everyone is supposed to be trying to correct. Even the ruling party, by keeping a general as president, promises a more reliable reversion to more democracy. The consensus is apparently shared by President General Pervez Musharraf himself. But the antagonists fall...