EAST COAST EDITION FRIDAY, JANUARY 2, 2015
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2014DROPS In RetRospect MAHI A BOMBSHELL ‘MODIFICATION’ OF INDIA-US TIES | TWO OF A KIND IN BOLLYWOOD Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni sent world cricket into | MODI ERA: DIPLOMACY AT ITS PEAK | TAMIL NADU IN FLUX | TOPSYa tizzy by announcing retirement Test cricket, making way TURVY YEAR FOR INDIAN CRICKET |from IT INDUSTRY DONS INNOVATION >>Page for talented Virat toBAZAARS.. take charge PAGES 6 | E-TAILERS STUNKohli INDIAN >>INSIDE
MIDWEST EDITION | EAST COAST EDITION | Volume 6 • Issue No.293 JANUARY 2 2015 | THE COMMUNITY FIRST
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Defense on priority list Big boost for armed forces’ modernization with the allocation of `1.23 trillion/$19 billion; some gaps special report remain
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BHARAT RATNA Defense on priority list FOR VAJPAYEE, MALVIYA
Big boost for armed forces’ modernization with the allocation of `1.23 trillion/$19 billion; some gaps remain VISHNU MAKHIJANI, NEW DELHI
2014 IN RETROSPECT
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odernization of the armed forces got a whopping `1.23 trillion/$19 billion boost in the year just ending, but worrisome gaps — the failure to close a deal to replace a combat jet inducted in the 1960s and a crippling shortage of “fighting-rank” officers — remain. That the funding came in the first six months of the new BJP-led government was indicative of its determination to overcome almost a decade of sloth caused by A.K. Antony’s bid to keep his image “clean” while he was defense minister (till May). The funds were cleared by five meetings of the Defense Acquisiton Council — four chaired by
Arun Jaitley when he held additional charge of the ministry and one by Manohar Parrikar. The monies will go towards the purchase of six stealth submarines (`500 billion), “Spike” Israeli antitank guided missiles (`32 billion),
India has for long been working on a missile defence shield and this would get a further boost with the construction, under wraps at Visakhapatnam, of a stealth vessel armed with an Aegis type system. two midget submarines (`20.17 billion), 12 Dornier maritime reconnaissance aircraft (`1,8.50 billion), 363 BMP-II infantry combat vehicles (`1,8 bn), shipborne Russian Uran missiles (`1,4.36 bn), 1,768 railway wag-
Children targeted living dangerously for Pakistan
Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ campaign. Other positives during the year included raising the foreign direct investment (FDI) in the defense sector from 25 percent to 49 percent, the indigenous nuclear pow-
ered submarine INS Arihant heading out for sea trials, and beginning of series production of the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft. Once INS Arihant is commissioned about two years from now, it would complete India’s nuclear triad of strategic bombers, intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). India has for long been working on a missile defense shield and this would get a further boost with the construction, under wraps at Visakhapatnam, of a stealth vessel armed with an Aegis type system that employs powerful computer and radar technology to track and guide weapons to destroy enemy targets. As for the combat jet, it was in 2012 that the Indian Air Force (IAF) zeroed in on French
aviation major Dasault’s Rafale after a six-aircraft competition for a $20 billion deal for 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) to replace its Soviet-era MiG-21 jets that have been crashing with maddening regularity. The tender itself was floated in 2007 and the six aircraft shortlisted in 2010, but there has been concrete action only in the last two years due to protracted price negotiations and differences in calculating life-cycle costs and factoring in the cost of transferring technology. “It’s not just a case of depleting squadrons. The Rafale dates from the mid-1980s and even assuming the deal is clinched this year, by the time the last of the jets are inducted, the technology will be more than 40 years old,” said an officer involved in selection process.
A prominent victim was Karachi’s counter-terrorism chief Chaudhry Aslam Khan, killed in a blast on January 10. But in a case of rare bravery, 14-year-old Aitzaz Hasan — late for school in KhyberPakhtunwa’s Hangu — January 9 sacrificed his own life to stop a suicide bomber at the gate, saving hundreds of his schoolmates inside. The June 8 Karachi airport attack led to operation “Zarb-eAzb” in North Waziristan against the Nobel Peace Prize (awarded IANS, ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) jointly with Indian rights activist and other terrorist groups. The rom a teenaged schoolboy Kailash Satyarthi). TTP retaliated with the NovemTerrorism continued to wreak who gave his life to stop a ber 2 Wagah bombing, leaving at suicide bomber to the havoc right from the year’s first least 60 dead, and the December dozens of young boys and girls day. Everyone was a target — pil16 Peshawar school massacre gunned down in their Peshawar grims in Quetta, pro-government which left 141 dead, including school — children increasingly tribal elders in Khyber Agency, 132 children aged 8 to 18, and of students became terror targets in Pakistan, soldiers in Bannu, the general thousands acutely traumatized. which continued to reel under headquarters in Rawalpindi, polio Termed “Pakistan’s 9/11”, it attacks, political turmoil and nat- vaccination teams in KhyberPakhtunkhwa, a court in Islamwas the country’s worst-ever terror ural catastrophes in 2014. attack , surpassing the 2007 But one youth who made news abad, the Jinnah International Karachi attack on Benazir Bhutfor the right reasons was feisty Airport in Karachi, the flag-lowerto’s motorcade when 139 teenager Malala Yousufzai, who ing ceremony at Wagah and finalhi INDiA weekly newspaper distribute free copies for readers, community for benefit of our readers as well as advertiser. hi INDiA reserves it’s right to distribute copies limited to 1 free copy per reader became the us youngest of lysend Peshawar’s Armythe Publiccopies School. via mail or deliver to you @ $2.00 per copy. were We killed. distribute our which is available in the stores near to your area, However if you need more copies, reader can call andrecipient we will you copies only at major Indo-Pak stores, where we have obtained the permission from the owner of the location. We reserve the right to protect our copies from illegal activities like, picking up more than one copy for other than reading purposes. We watch our inventory at the stores constantly and we will notify authorities of any and all illegal activities as well as will file law-suite for the punitive damages.
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ons (`7.40 bn) and 1,761 vehiclemounted radio relay containers (`6.6 bn) crore, among others. Much of this, for instance the submarines and the Dorniers, will be made within the country and will majorly take forward Prime
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