Army plans to acquire Israeli air defence system

Sunday, 10 September , 2006, 16:20

New Delhi: In a move to overcome the vulnerability of its formations to threats from the air, the Army plans to induct the Israeli quick-reaction Spyder air defence system, officials sources said.

The Army has finalised plans to acquire four regiments of the Spyder systems equipped with Derby surface-to-air radar guided missiles and Python-5 infra-red missiles from Israel's Rafael armament company.

The Army, according to sources, has finalised the contract and the deal worth about Rs 1,100 crore and is awaiting the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS).



The Spyder systems will be mounted on indigenous trucks and will replace the Army's Russian-made OSA-AKM and Strela-10M missile systems.

The road-mobile Spyder system was developed by Rafael along with the MBT missile division and ELTA radar division. It is capable of countering threats from helicopters, aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and precision guided munitions.

The system can target aerial threats 1-35 km away. A Spyder squadron consists of a mobile command-and-control centre and four mobile firing units, each carrying up to six missiles.

The system is equipped with an EL-M-2106 ATAR 3-D surveillance radar and two operating stations. The radar can simultaneously track up to 60 targets

Blast in mumbai-11th july 2006



The bombs were placed on trains plying on the western line of the suburban ("local") train network, which form the backbone of the transportation network of the city. The first blast took place at 18:30 IST (13:00 UTC), and continued for at least an hour afterwards. This is the time of day when the number of people returning home from work is at its peak. The bombs had been placed in first-class compartments of several trains running from Churchgate, the city centre end of the western railway line, to the western suburbs of the city. They went off at or in the near vicinity of the suburban railway stations of Matunga Road, Khar Road, Santacruz, Jogeshwari, Borivali and Bhayandar.


These bomb attacks in Mumbai came hours after a series of grenade attacks in Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir. Home Secretary V.K. Duggal has said, however, that there is no link between the Srinagar and Mumbai bomb blasts.


Injuries and fatalities
11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings
Confirmed casualties
Place Deaths Injured Sources
Mahim 3 27
Borivali 3 12
Jogeshwari 3 16
Khar Road 2 14
Matunga 2 23
Mira Road - -
Santacruz 2 39



The Police Commissioner of Mumbai, Mr A N Roy, indicated more than 137 killed and hundreds wounded in these blasts; he also added that "there have been seven blasts along the city's commuter rail network, which is among the most crowded in the world." The entire Western Railway has been shut down , while services are running on the Central Railway Suburban lines. The Associated Press reports that at least 137 are dead. MSNBC and Reuters report that 135 are dead.



Response
A state of high alert was declared in India's major cities. Both the airports in Mumbai have been placed on high alert. The western line of the Mumbai suburban rail network has been shut down, and stringent security arrangements, including frisking and searching of commuters, has been instituted on the other lines of the network. The city's bus service, the BEST, has pressed extra buses into service to transport stranded commuters home.


Investigation
The New Delhi police in New Delhi's Jungpura area arrested a person who is said to be associated with these bomb blasts; two kilograms of RDX were reportedly found with him.However, no official claim of responsibility has been made.


Rescue and relief operations

CNN-IBN TV reportThe railway ministry announced ex-gratia payments of IN Rs 100,000 (approx. US$2,000) to the next of kin of those who died in the explosion.
The injured would be given IN Rs 50,000 (approx. US$1,000) each.

Reaction
Various senior Political figures condemmed the attacks including the President, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Railways Minister, Laloo Prasad Yadav, and the President of the Indian National Congress (the reigning party), Sonia Gandhi.

L. K. Advani, President of the BJP (the main opposition party) has also expressed shock, while saying that the UPA Government was soft on terrorists.

Inside India's newest missile project


These days, the top brass of India's defence ministry and key scientists from the Defence Research and Development Organisation often get together to discuss how far an Indian missile can go.


The discussions seem to be bearing fruit.


Flush with the success of the medium-range ballistic missile Agni, India is now developing an intercontinental ballistic missile, better known as an ICBM.


rediff.com delves deep into this unique -- and perhaps the most prestigious -- missile programme that India has embarked upon indigenously.


What is this ICBM programme that India is working on?


It is a three-stage ballistic missile that DRDO, along with a number of defence agencies in the country, is working hard on.

The missile will have solid fuel rockets in the first and second stages, and a liquid propellant rocket in the third stage.

The launch weight of the missile may reach 270 to 275 tonnes. The missile could have a 5,480 pound to 7,680 pound releasable front section with two to three warheads of 15 kilo tonne to 20 kilo tonnes each.

The ICBM is being developed by combining the technology of the Agni II with that of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. It is expected to have a range of more than 8,000 km.


When did India moot the production of such a missile?


In May 1998, DRDO and its then chief A P J Abdul Kalam, now the President of India, became symbols of national pride thanks to the Pokhran nuclear tests.

Four months later, the government entrusted DRDO with the Rs 20 billion (Rs 200 crore) ballistic missile defence project.

This is perhaps the most ambitious programme that DRDO has embarked upon. It would need to integrate the Russian-made anti-aircraft and anti-ballistic missile systems, which the army and air force are planning to induct, with an Israeli fire control radar.

India's ace missile to get leaner


Is the project part of the India's integrated guided missile development programme?


Yes, development of the ICBM is part of the integrated guided missile development programme and the nuclear submarine programme that DRDO has engaged in over the years.

It is meant to lay India's foundation of strategic missile programme and security stability.


What does the integrated guided missile development programme comprise?


It comprises five core systems. The Agni IRBM and Prithvi series of missiles have already been developed in close association with India's space industry.

Other programmes are the surface to air missile Trishul, the medium-range missile Akash and the anti-tank guided missile Nag.

In addition, India is developing the Sagarika, a submarine-launched cruise missile with a range of about 300 km. The biggest project among these is the development of the ICBM.

India test fires medium-range, surface-to-air missile


What is the ICBM going to be called?


DRDO scientists have code-named it Surya.


When will the ICBM be ready?


According to officials involved in the project, the ICBM is likely to be test-fired by 2008. They expect it to be added to the Indian armed forces' deterrence arsenal by 2015.

India, Pakistan to sign missile launch pre-notification pact


Why does India want to test-fire the Surya as early as possible?


First, there is consensus among India's political parties on the need to enhance the country's missile defence capabilities. Experts say future warfare will be heavily dependent on missiles.


Second, India's neighbouring nations are bristling with missiles. Pakistan has developed and tested a number of missiles including the Hatf-1 and Hatf-2 missiles. China has an arsenal of short and long-range missiles. China is far ahead of others in the missile race in the region as it has already done two-test flights of the Dong-Feng-31 and Julang-2, a combined ICBM and submarine-launched ballistic missile.

India successfully test fires Trishul


Given DRDO's slow pace in executing major defence works, will the deadline stand?

Given DRDO's track record, not many believe the ICBM project will meet the deadline.


For instance, for the last 20 years, DRDO has been building two types of anti-aircraft missiles -- Trishul and Akash.


According to the government's defence plans, these surface-to-air missiles were to have replaced the Russian-supplied OSA-AK and Kvadrat systems by the early 1990s. But the DRDO has been unable to meet the deadlines.


The Trishul project began in 1983. The original deadline was 1992.

DRDO has spent more than Rs 2.6 billion (Rs 260 crores) on the missile, but it is still undergoing trials.

THE INDIAN MISSILES

Name Type/propulsion Warhead Payload Range Status

Prithvi-1/ SS-150 Ballistic/ Single-stage/ Liquid-engine Conventional/ nuclear 1,000 kg 150 km Operational

Prithvi-2/ SS-250 Ballistic/ Single-stage/ Liquid-engine Conventional/ nuclear 500 kg 250 km Undergoing user trials

Dhanush/ Prithvi-3/ SS-350 Ballistic/ Single-stage/ Liquid-engine Conventional/ nuclear Undisclosed 350 km Undergoing flight tests

Agni Technology Demonstrator Ballistic/ Two-stage hybrid/ solid-motor/ Liquid-engine Nuclear 1,000 kg 1,200 km to 1,500 km Small number available to army

Agni-I Ballistic/ Single-stage/ Solid-motor Nuclear 1,000 kg 700 km to 800 km Undergoing flight tests

Agni-II Ballistic/ Two-stage/ Solid-motor Nuclear 1,000 kg 2,000 km to 2,500 km Completed flight tests

Agni-III Ballistic Nuclear Undisclosed 3,000 km to 4,000 km Flight tests expected this year

BrahMos/ PJ-10 Cruise/ Two-stage/ Solid-booster/ Liquid-sustainer engine Conventional 200 kg to 300 kg 280 km to 300 km Serial production to begin this year

Sagarika Class contested Conventional/nuclear Undisclosed Undisclosed Expected to be operational by 2010

The Road to Bollywood: Introduction


There has always been a sense of derision built into the word “Bollywood,” a slang term for the commercial side of the Indian movie business that was supposedly coined in the late Seventies by a gossip columnist in Bombay. That origin may be apocryphal, but it rings true because the word itself has a “Who-the-hell-do-they-think-they-are?” subtext. “Bollywood” is exactly the kind of tag that a jaded (and envious) journalist would invent, and it makes sense that it has become a sore point with Indian film professionals and fans who resent the implication that the country’s entire movie industry—which produces over a thousand films a year in more than a dozen regional languages, for an enraptured global audience of over a billion people—is merely a jumped-up imitation of the real thing.

But this controversial term continues to be widely used, in part because it offers a useful way to refer to Indian popular cinema, both as an industry and as a world apart. Javed Akhtar, an influential screenwriter-turned-lyricist, has described Bollywood as in effect another “state” within the confederation of modern India, along with Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Bengal. “Hindi cinema’s culture is quite different from Indian culture,” Akhtar says, “but it is not alien to us. . . . As a matter of fact, Hindi cinema is our closest neighbor. It has its own world, its own traditions, its own symbols, and those who are familiar with it understand it.”

Most of us have experienced this alternate universe of cinema only in puzzling fragments, perhaps as a grainy video image running on the big-screen TV in a Punjabi restaurant. (What’s the first image that comes to mind? Pudgy lovers in disco shirts dancing around trees?) Now for the first time, in the new wave of subtitled DVD releases aimed at NRIs (Non-Resident Indians) around the world, we firangis (Hindustani for “foreigners”) have a golden opportunity to turn in our tourist visas and “go native,” to become resident aliens in Bollywood. The discs you can rent from your local Sweets & Spices shop are not always top notch, and the desi (opposite of firangi) videophiles who post reviews on websites like zulm.net are mad as hell about that. But for those of us who don’t speak a word of Hindi-Urdu, the mere availability of all these movies, in a form we can watch all the way through and at least begin to understand, makes all the difference in the world. If you like, you can think of this Midsection as a tour guide for day-trippers from Firangistan: Bollywood on Ten Thousand Rupees a Day.

You have to be ready to relax and settle in for the long haul, however, because Bollywood movies tend to be lengthy by Western standards, ranging from a minimum of around 160 minutes to 225 for an epic production like Lagaan (Land Tax, 01), Ashutosh Gowariker’s Oscar-nominated cricket drama. Many of the characteristics that Westerners initially find off-putting here can be thought of, at least for convenience’s sake, as a consequence of all the extra running time the moviemakers have to fill. The central storylines almost always branch off into a number of subplots of varying importance, and the films have adopted a catch-all heterogeneous structure in which several additional conventional “attractions” (a love story, a “comedy track,” some violent action, the famous song-and-dance sequences) are attached to the central braid of interwoven narratives.

The sheer richness of Bollywood’s masala format (a culinary term for a mix of several flavors in a single dish) turns out to be one of its greatest strengths. Bollywood cinema’s peak achievements, like those of Hong Kong, devote immense amounts of creative energy, ingenuity, and highly evolved craftsmanship to the life-affirming task of delivering intense pleasure to the largest possible audience. But while Hong Kong cinema works by radical compression, Bollywood operates by expanding in all directions. Indian popular cinema demands an investment of time and patience that may be alien to some, but learning to adjust to the long-stemmed rhythms of these films may possibly be good for us.

Some minor aesthetic adjustments are required, too. As critics like M. Madhava Prasad have pointed out, Indian popular movies have never fully embraced the Hollywood aesthetic of “seamless realism” and disguised artifice, in which the desired effect is a voyeuristic sense of eavesdropping upon secretly unfolding events. Bollywood filmmakers may (if they wish) reach for that kind of illusion, but they are under no obligation to deliver it. Far from disguising the stylized artifice of dovetailed plotting, setpiece “dialogues,” and interpolated song sequences, the auteurs of Bombay often seem to revel in their awareness of convention. The critic Ravi S. Vasudevan may have put his finger on something crucial when he defined Bollywood as “a cinema which imagines its audience to be present.”

One of the founders of the modern Bollywood idiom, Raj Kapoor, is commonly referred to as “the great showman,” and the filmmakers who have followed in his footsteps seem to be equally dedicated to putting on a great show. All the articles collected here, which by design are as different as they can possibly be, have at least one thing in common: they take for granted that it is possible for us firangis to have a direct and personal relationship with these films. And in an odd way it seems to be the stylized unreality of the conventional Hindi movie that makes this immediate experience possible for us, because no matter how strange these spectacles seem on the surface, you still get a sense of the hospitable human beings who were hard at work behind the scenes, pulling the strings for our pleasure.

cheers vineet

More pictures On mumbai floods
latest:

Bombay Monsoon
Maharashtra monsoon 'kills 100'
Rains beat Cherrapunji record :
Mumbai today:94.4 centimeters (37.1 inches) in one day in suburban Mumbai
Cherrapunji:3.82 centimeters (33 inches) on July 12, 1910



The strongest rains ever recorded in India shut down the financial hub Mumbai today, snapped communication lines, closed airports and marooned thousands of people, according to officials.

Commuters struggle to work on Wednesday
Monsoon rains are continuing to cause havoc in India's Maharashtra state where the official death toll has now risen to nearly 100.
The state's chief minister says Tuesday's rain was the heaviest recorded in a single day in India.

Nearly one-third of the state capital, Mumbai (Bombay), is under water.

Schools are closed and trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange has been light. The armed forces have been called in to take part in rescue efforts.



Villages inaccessible

Maharashtra's Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh says it is now known that 99 people have been drowned or killed in mudslides in the state since heavy rain began on Sunday.



Nearly one-third of Mumbai is under water




Most of the deaths are reported in the Raigad and Ratnagiri districts. Twenty-two people are confirmed dead in Mumbai.

"We have not been able to reach some villages where more than several dozen people may be missing in landslides," Krishna Vatsa, the official in charge of the relief efforts, told Reuters news agency.



Major fire off Mumbai coast, ONGC platform destroyed.

Wednesday, July 27, 2005 (New Delhi, Mumbai):


A major fire has broken out at one of the oil platforms in Bombay High oil fields of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

The fire broke out at the main oil processing platform of the Bombay High North field, which is connected to two other platforms.

According to initial reports, the platform has been completely destroyed in the fire which began at 4.30 pm (IST).

"We had a major accident. We don't have details as of now. We are assessing the damage," said Subir Raha, ONGC Chairman and MD.

The Coast Guard has rescued 150 ONGC employees from the site of the accident while 200 others are still stranded



Little information

However, there is little information available on casualty figures and possible damage as incessant rains in the area have snapped all communications links.

The cause of the fire at the platform, located some 160-km from Mumbai coast, is also not known yet.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that the fire was triggered after two oil rigs collided.

Sources say the plant where the accident occurred has the capacity to produce 50 lakh tonnes of crude oil per annum



cheers
vineet

London attacks



Introduction
Four explosions ripped across central London on Thursday 7 July, killing more than 50 people and injuring 700.
The co-ordinated attack hit three Underground trains and a bus, as the morning's rush hour drew to a close.
The capital's public transport system was halted and a high-level emergency procedure swung into action. All hospitals were full by mid-morning.

Three bombs went off almost simultaneously at about 0850 on Underground trains just outside Liverpool Street and Edgware Road stations, and on another travelling between King's Cross and Russell Square.
The final explosion was on a double-decker bus.


Liverpool Street


TIME: 0850
The explosion happened on a Circle line train between Liverpool Street station and Aldgate.
Police said on Friday that the device was placed on the floor of the third carriage.
Passenger Simon Tonkyn told of an "enormous bang and a lot of smoke". He added: "A group of us got fire extinguishers and were able to smash through the carriage door."
Another man, Terry O'Shea, said passengers were led down the track past the carriage where the explosion was. "We could see the roof was torn off it, and there were bodies on the track."
Passengers were led out of the train to safety at Liverpool Street station and Aldgate.
Once above ground, mobile phones stopped working, leaving people unable to contact relatives and friends.
Police have confirmed that seven people died in the blast. More than 100 were wounded, at least 10 seriously.

King's Cross - Russell Square



TIME: 0850
The explosion was on a Piccadilly line train travelling between King's Cross and Russell Square.
The device was in the first carriage by the first set of double doors where passengers stand, police said on Friday.

Recovery teams are still trying to extract all the bodies from the damaged carriages. Twenty-one people are confirmed dead but police expect that figure to rise.

The Piccadilly line is 21.3 metres (70 feet) deep at this point. Recovery teams face intense heat of up to 60C, dust, fumes, vermin, asbestos and there were initially concerns that the tunnel might collapse.

BBC News reporter Jacqui Head, who was on the train, told of a "massive bang" and added: "There was immediately smoke everywhere and it was very hot and everybody panicked. People started screaming and crying."


Edgware Road




TIME: 0850
The blast was on a westbound Circle line Underground train, just leaving Edgware Road station for Paddington.
Police said on Friday that the device was on the floor of the second carriage, close to the first set of double doors.

After the blast passengers began emerging from the underground station, many covered in blood and clearly distraught. Paramedics went inside, prompting fears there may still be injured people trapped underground.

A woman passenger told the BBC there was a huge bang as two trains passed in a tunnel just outside Edgware Road. "All the lights went out and there was a lot of smoke."

It later emerged that the explosion on the train blew through a wall and hit another train on an adjoining line.

Police have confirmed that seven people died in the attack

Tavistock Square






TIME: 0947
The blast tore through a double-decker bus at the junction of Tavistock Square and Upper Woburn place. The bus's roof was blown off and nearby cars were also damaged.
Police on Friday confirmed thirteen people had died.

One eyewitness described the bus as ripped to shreds - the result "carnage".

"It was a massive explosion and there were papers and half a bus flying through the air", said another.

The explosion happened outside the British Medical Association and doctors rushed from the building to perform triage and emergency care to those injured.

The bus was a number 30, travelling from Marble Arch to Hackney. It was following a diversion from its normal route.

Police said the device could have been placed on a seat or the floor.

They said there was no evidence to suggest it was carried on by a suicide bomber but they could not rule it out.


CHEERS!!!
VINEET

London blasts: Moroccan denies terror links


(Source: http://www.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?template=Terrorstrikes&slug=Moroccan+denies+terror+links&id=75842&callid=1")
Tuesday, July 12, 2005 (London):

A Moroccan dissident convicted in absentia in connection with the 2003 Casablanca terrorist attacks said he has no ties to militant Islamic groups.Mohamed al-Guerbouzi has also accused Moroccan intelligence of planting stories that he's a possible suspect in the London bombings. British media have reported that al-Guerbouzi was in hiding and that British investigators asked their European counterparts for information about him. Europol has refused to comment on the reports and Metropolitan Police haven't publicly named any suspects. "If I were in hiding where would I be talking to you from? The moon, the sky? I am on Earth," al-Guerbouzi said in a telephone interview in London yesterday, saying he was in the city. He was put in touch with AP by contacts who confirmed he was al-Guerbouzi. Murky linksAl-Guerbouzi refused a face-to-face interview unless he was paid, and he kept the telephone conversation brief. He spoke in classical Arabic with a slight Moroccan accent. The 44-year-old was convicted in absentia in Morocco in 2003 and sentenced to 20 years in prison in connection with the Casablanca bombings, which killed 32 bystanders at five targets hit by 13 suicide bombers. Morocco has demanded his extradition from Britain. French officials consider al-Guerbouzi, who has British and Moroccan nationality, to be the founder and principal recruiter of a Moroccan militant group, the Islamic Combatant Group. But al-Guerbouzi said he had no ties with any militant Islamic group. He accused Moroccan intelligence of trying to label him a militant. "I do not belong to any group whatsoever," said al-Guerbouzi. (AP)

One Day At A Time....
It seems that I don't have the urge to blog anymore..Is it cuz I have nothing to say, am I lazy or has the hype for blogging dyed down? I don't really know. I need to get back into this groove again. It seems that I have alot on my mind and have lot to say. Its maybe cuz its been so long since I really blogged last and why I have thought in my head. Things change. A friend of mind reminded me how much things can change in one day and she is right. For me its not about that, but the context is whatI'm more focused on. Circumstances happen and situations change to people that you had lead expect it to happen. Best friends become strangers is something that I hate to face again. Everything happens for the best and sometimes we question why the road in life is sometimes blurry and why there are so many wrong directions to things.
We often try to look towards someone as a map but than we get to blame them if it goes wrong. Seems that sometimes, I try to be this map, with the only intent to help, but sometimes I get under appreciated since I could've have led the person astray. I really didn't mean that. I apologize to whoever depended on my direction and led them wrong. I just hope that the next time, before looking at me again for directions, they think twice and call CAA instead!!
Other than having that on my mind, I am busy with my exam prepartions..it is too hard....eight subjects and too in 3 weeks!!! awesome.
till then take care
bye
vineet