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ndia aircraft carrier: New Delhi launches first home-built carrier
Since the Battle of Midway in World War II, the weapon that has most defined naval power is the aircraft carrier.
By enabling countries to deploy air power far from their own shores, carriers have become the unit by which modern navies are measured. Only a handful of countries have them and can build them, with the majority of such vessels in the hands of the US Navy.
So it’s no small thing that India today launched its first domestically built carrier. With the first-phase launch of what will eventually be named the INS Vikrant, India joins an elite club of countries that have built their own carriers: Only the United States, Russia, France, and Britain have done the same.
The Vikrant weighs in at 37,500 tons, and will carry up to 36 aircraft, reports The Times of India. Though Read more…
1 billion face starvation worldwide if India, Pakistan unleash nukes: study
More than a billion people around the world would face starvation if India and Pakistan unleash nuclear weapons — even if that war is regionally limited, a study released Tuesday warned.
That’s because the deadly and polluting weapons would cause major worldwide climate disruption that would dramatically drive down food production in China, the United States and other countries.
“The grim prospect of nuclear famine requires a fundamental change in our thinking about nuclear weapons,” said study author Dr. Ira Helfand of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.
“The new evidence that even the relatively small nuclear arsenals of countries such as India and Pakistan could cause long lasting, global damage to the Earth’s ecosystems and threaten hundreds of millions of already malnourished people demands that action be taken,” Helfand said in a statement.
“The needless and preventable Read more…
India to test nuclear missile that can hit Beijing
This Agni-IV nuclear-capable missile is a forerunner of the Agni-V, which India plans to test as early as this week. (Saurabh Das/AP Photo)NEW DELHI (AP) — India is planning to test launch a new nuclear-capable missile that for the first time would give it the capability of hitting the major Chinese cities of Beijing and Shanghai.
The government has hailed the Agni-V missile, with a range of 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles), as a major boost to its efforts to counter China’s regional dominance and become an Asian power in its own right. The test launch was slated to come as early as Wednesday evening, but Indian media said a delay was likely because of poor weather conditions.
“It will be a quantum leap in India’s strategic capability,” said Ravi Gupta, spokesman for India’s Defense Research and Development Organization, which built the missile.
China is far Read more…
India surpasses China as Iran’s top oil client
FILE - In this Monday, July 19, 2010 file photo, a part of the South Pars gas field facility is seen on the northern coast of Persian Gulf, in Assalouyeh, Iran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)
GENEVA: India has vaulted to the top of the list of Iran’s oil customers, overtaking China, in a first-quarter buying surge ahead of tighter sanctions against Tehran this summer, data published by a leading industry consultant showed.
Direct imports to India from Iran were 433,000 barrels per day in the first quarter, compared with 256,000 barrels per day to China, according to data compiled by Geneva’s Petrologistics and seen by Reuters via an industry source.
The Indian import figure was up by around 23 percent from the 351,0000 bpd imported over the same period of 2011 and significantly above its 2011 average of 326,000 bpd.
Iran, like many oil exporters, does not publish its own oil sales data on a timely basis. The Petrologistics figures, however, reinforce indications that India has stepped up imports, while business has slowed between Tehran and Beijing over payment terms.
“The first quarter was likely the exception to the rule … China took a strong stance on negotiations, but its imports will Read more…
Sino-India military exchanges to help build more trust: China
Days after India and China agreed to have maritime cooperation, Beijing has favoured greater military ties with New Delhi, saying such exchanges would help build more “confidence and trust” between the two countries.
“Exchanges between our militaries will help us build more confidence and trust with each other,” Deputy Director General of Asian Department in the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sun Weidong said.
His remarks came ahead of President Hu Jintao’s visit to New Delhi from Wednesday to participate in the fourth BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit.
“Our military people are positive about military cooperation and exchange of visits with India. I think China and India are strategic partners military exchanges and cooperation are part of the partnership,” Sun said.
India had suspended Read more…
China Could Soon Overtake India As The Biggest Gold Market In The World
HONG KONG (AP) — China is poised to overtake India to become the world’s biggest gold market this year as rising incomes fuel demand for the precious metal and a weak rupee diminishes Indian purchases, an industry group said Thursday.The amount of gold bought in China rose 20 percent in 2011 over the year before to 770 metric tons, the World Gold Council said in its annual report. That put China behind only first-place India, where 933 metric tons were bought.
Worldwide, the amount of gold purchased rose 0.4 percent to 4,0671 metric tons worth $205.5 billion.
The council said it’s “likely that China will emerge” as the world’s largest gold market for the first time in 2012.
Rising incomes in China, which is the world’s No. 2 economy, have resulted in a surge in demand for gold jewelry and other luxury goods. China became the world’s largest market for gold jewelry in the second half of 2011 as demand rose in every quarter, the report said.
Gold bars, coins and other gold-backed products are also popular because of a lack of Read more…
India Bans Army From Using Social Networks
The contemporary soldier has to operate in a very sophisticated setting, using some of the latest technology, but many armies around the world are quite selective about which bits of technology they allow their soldiers to use.
One case in point is the Indian Army which has taken the rather broad and somewhat harsh approach of banning entirely, the use of social media and social networks by its soldiers. The reason given for the wholesale ban is the typical “security safeguards” excuse, and many in the blogosphere are simply not convinced by it. Although there hasn’t been an official confirmation from the Army, sources close to the situation say that the ban is effectively immediately and will affect the 36,000 officers and 1.3 million regular soldiers that currently make up India’s armed forces.
The ban means that once you a soldier is enlisted in the Indian Army, he or she is not permitted to even have Read more…
India to pay gold instead of dollars for Iranian oil. Oil and gold markets stunned
India is the first buyer of Iranian oil to agree to pay for its purchases in gold instead of the US dollar, debkafile’s intelligence and Iranian sources report exclusively. Those sources expect China to follow suit. India and China take about one million barrels per day, or 40 percent of Iran’s total exports of 2.5 million bpd. Both are superpowers in terms of gold assets.
By trading in gold, New Delhi and Beijing enable Tehran to bypass the upcoming freeze on its central bank’s assets and the oil embargo which the European Union’s foreign ministers agreed to impose Monday, Jan. 23. The EU currently buys around 20 percent of Iran’s oil exports.
The vast sums involved in these transactions are expected, furthermore, to boost the price of gold and depress the value of the dollar on world markets.
Iran’s second largest customer after China, India purchases around Read more…
India orders cull to tackle bird flu outbreak
NEW DELHI — India has ordered the immediate culling of chickens in an eastern part of the country in a bid to contain an outbreak of bird flu.
Outbreaks were confirmed in two villages in West Bengal, which has been severely hit by the virus in previous years, a government statement said late Tuesday.
Samples tested positive for the H5 strain of avian influenza, popularly known as bird flu.
All chickens will be culled within a three kilometre (nearly two mile) radius of the focal point of the infection, the statement said, without giving numbers.
Eggs and chicken feed will Read more…
Big earthquake in Sikkim, tremors across India; 28 dead, over 100 injured
Seven people, including two Armymen, were killed in Sikkim and 33 others received injuries there. In Bihar, a seven-year-old girl was among two dead. Latehar was one of the worst hit in India; two people died there and wide cracks were visible on houses. Roads also cracked in several places and Read more…
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