Mauritius lauds India's efforts to fight piracy

Port Louis: Mauritius on Thursday lauded India's contribution in fighting piracy in the Indian Ocean Rim region.

Mauritius Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam said India made "significant contribution to fight against the scourge of piracy in our region."

He was speaking after inaugurating the first Economic and Business Conference of the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC).

The two-day conference, among others, is being attended by Indian Commerce and Industry Ministry Anand Sharma and representatives of several nations including Japan, Singapore, Sri

Lanka, Bangladesh and South Africa.

IOR-ARC is a grouping of 20 nations.

Ramgoolam also underlined the need for focusing on concrete deliverables by the governments of the Indian Ocean Rim (IOR) countries to improve the lives of about 2 billion people living in region.

"We need for focus on concrete deliverables," he said.

He also said trade and investment among the member countries has remained much below potential.

In this regard, Ramgoolam made a case for increasing cooperation in the field of deep sea mining, rare earth metals, defence and other emerging sectors among the member nations. IOC-ARC is a 15-year old association which was formed in 1977 to promote mutually beneficial cooperation among countries in the Indian Ocean region through a consensus- based, evolutionary and non-intrusive approach.

The Maurtius Prime Minister called upon the member countries to adopt right approach and and formulate new trade agenda for the region.

Ramgoolam, however, ruled out any move towards a common currency saying that the system had created problems in the European Union.

The focus, he added, should be on "exploring the best possible arrangement in a structured manner to boost trade and investment."

The combined GDP of IOR-ARC member countries in 2012 rose to an estimated USD 6.9 trillion from USD 5.8 trillion in 2010.

By 2016, the combined GDP of IOR-ARC countries is expected to reach over USD 9 trillion. The recent performance of the regional economies indicates that they have successfully come out of the global financial crisis.

The economies in the region have both traditional and knowledge-based sectors, having the capacity to absorb increasing pressure of the regional demand in most of the sectors, he said.

India has been on the forefront in combating the menace of piracy through naval exercises and seeking cooperation from other countries.

PTI

Guard of honour for 20 bravehearts who died in Uttarakhand chopper crash

DEHRADUN: Home minister SushilkumarShinde led the nation in paying tributes to the twenty bravehearts, who died in Tuesday's chopper crash while rescuing stranded people in flood-ravaged Uttarakhand.

Shinde, tourism minister K Chiranjeevi, Uttarakhand chief minister Vijay Bahuguna, Army chief Gen Bikram Singh, senior officials of Army, Air Force, ITBP and NDMA paid their respect to the personnel at a special function organised by the Uttarakhand government and NDMA.

The 'guard of honour' — a ceremonial mark of respect — to the 5 Air Force, 6 ITBP and 9 NDRF personnel was led by Shinde.

The NDRF personnel were from ITBP on deputation to NDRF. Those killed in the chopper crash included Wg Cdr Darryl Castelino, Flt Lt K Praveen, Flt Lt Tapan Kapoor, JWO A K Singh, Sgt Sudhakar Yadav (all IAF).

The men from NDRF who died were commandant Nitya Nand Gupta, inspector Bhim Singh, sub inspector Satish Kumar, constables K Vinaygan, Bassavaraj Yaragatti, Santosh Kumar Paswan, Sanjiva Kumar, Shashi Kant Ramesh Pawar and Ahir Rao Ganesh.

Six ITBP personnel who lost their lives were commandant Nand Ram, sub inspector Jayender Prasad, constables Jomon P G, Bibhuti Roy, Sarvesh Kumar and Ajay Lal.

The sophisticated Mi-17V5 helicopter of IAF had crashed in bad weather during a rescue mission in the flood-ravaged hill state.

Shinde said the nation would not forget the supreme sacrifice of these 20 brave men who gave their lives while rescuing thousands of people in the Uttarakhand floods.

"The guard of honour to the 20 bravehearts is a little step from our side to remember their supreme sacrifice for the service of the nation. We offer our prayer to all those who lost their lives," he said.

'Know Your Army' Mela generates interest in Tawang

Tezpur: To fortify the confidence of people in the good intent of the Army and motivate the North East youth to join the defence force, a two-day 'Know Your Army' Mela was organised at Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh.

The first of its kind Mela in Tawang from Monday was also to generate goodwill among the local populace and to familiarise them with the army's capabilities and equipment profile so as to provide requisite stimuli and motivation to the youth for joining the Army.

In the 20 stalls assorted equipment and weapons were on display and information provided on various entry schemes of army with the help of books, charts and v

ideo clippings, defence sources today said.

A cultural programme was presented by the troops and locals of Tawang exhibiting the rich cultural heritage in the form of traditional dances of India, the sources said.

About 2000 people from interior villages and Tawang witnessed the event with school children being enthralled by the display.

PTI 

India develops robotic soldiers to replace humans

New Delhi: With futuristic warfare in mind, India is working to develop robotic soldiers as part of efforts to boost unmanned fighting capabilities, joining a select group of countries in this endeavour.

Under the project being undertaken by DRDO, robots would be developed with very high level of intelligence to enable them to differentiate between a threat and a friend.

These can then be deployed in difficult warfare zones, like the Line of Control (LoC), a step that would help avert the loss of human lives.

"We are going to work for robotic soldiers. We are going to look for very high level of intelligence in it than what we are talking today... It is a new programme and a number of labs are already working in a big way on robotics," said DRDO chief Avinash Chander in an interview.

The newly-appointed DRDO chief listed the project for development of robotic soldiers as one of his "priority thrust areas" saying that "unmanned warfare in land and air is the future of warfare. Initially the robotic soldier may be assisting the man."

He said in the initial phase of the project, the robotic soldier would be required to be told by the human soldier to identify an enemy or a combatant but "slowly in due course of time, the robotic soldier would be at the front end and the human soldier would be assisting him."

Chander said the need for a robotic soldier is felt to save precious human lives and already robots are used in areas where humans do not want to venture such as defusing bombs or getting inside a high-radiation territory.

"Robotic soldier is one step further. It will have multiple technologies in terms of communication with team members, ability to recognise an enemy," Chander said.

"Today, you have neural networks, whenever the soldier tells him (robotic soldier) that this is a human solider, he will derive his own logic as to what is the difference between him and others (civilians). That learning process will keep building up," he said.

Asked if it would be capable of being deployed in areas such

as the Line of Control, Chander said, "In due course of time but not before a decade in any way."

He said many new technologies have to be developed such as "miniature communication, materials, cognitive technologies, self-learning processes and interaction with human."

Chander said "already five to six countries are actively working. They have not yet developed it fully but they are in fairly advanced stages. This is one of my priority areas."

PTI

45 Indian fishers released by Pakistan to reach Veraval

Vadodara: 45 Indian fishers who were released by Pakistan will reach Veraval on Tuesday.

They hail from Maharashtra, the union territory of Diu and various parts of Gujarat.

Gujarat fisheries department official V J Moile, who is accompanying the released persons in the Vadodara-bound Golden Express train from Amritsar, said on Monday, "We will reach Vadodara around midnight tonight and after a night halt at Vadodara, we will leave for Veraval tomorrow morning."

The Indian fishers include three children and as many disabled people, who were held for allegedly violating naval borders of the neighbouring country.

The freed persons had left Karachi on a bus last week and reached the Wagha border in Punjab two days ago, where Indian authorities overtook responsibility of their travel homewards.

The Gujarat government fisheries department team was present at the Wagha border to take custody of these fishers after proper verification.

The 45 fishers were released after Pakistan's Interim Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso announced the decision in their favour on humanitarian grounds and as a gesture of goodwill.

"At present, 482 Indian prisoners are in Pakistani jails," Gujarat Fishermen's Association vice-president Veljibhai Masani said.

PTI

India's first defence university to come up in Gurgaon

PTI

Gurgaon: Indian National Defence University, a dedicated first-of-its-kind institution for training and research in military studies, will be set up in Gurgaon close to the national capital Delhi.

The foundation stone of INDU, to be constituted under an Act of Parliament, will be laid by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on May 23, Deputy Commissioner P.C. Meena said.

The proposed institute will be equipped with training and research facilities on all aspects of national security as part of the strategic national policy-making. While one-third of its strength will comprise of civilian students, the remaining seats will be reserved for in-service defence personnel.

The sprawling 200 acre campus will be set up in Binola village with an estimated cost of Rs 300 crore, Meena said, adding, land for the purpose has already been acquired by the state government. 

Gogoi proposes comprehensive package for youths

Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Thursday proposed a comprehensive training package for the local youth to enable them to join the defence forces.

The Chief Minister, presiding over a meeting of the state Sainik Board, urged members to be more responsive to the problems of armed force personnel, both serving as well as ex-servicemen and their families.

There are about 36,000 registered ex-servicemen, which include 3,850 widows in Assam, the Chief Minister said.

The Chief Minister also gave assurance that he would look into the issue of recruitment of personnel from the armed forces who retire from service at the age of 35-45 years, in government jobs.

He pointed out that the state government had revised a handful of welfare schemes introduced in 1986 with a new comprehensive scheme for the ex-servicemen community.

"In 1986, there were only six welfare schemes as against 26 schemes now," he added.

The meeting discussed revision of ex-gratia grant for those killed in action, enhancing grants for inmates in paraplegic home, setting up a war memorial for World War II veterans, scholarships, reservation of 10 per cent flats for ex-servicemen under Assam State Housing Board.

The meeting also discussed several other issues including setting up of Zilla Sainik Boards in Kamrup (Rural), Bongaigaon, Sivasagar, Hailakandi and Golaghat districts, enhancement of two additional seats reserved for students of defence personnel in the new medical colleges of the state and revision of norms for seats reserved for defence personnel in medical colleges.

Source : PTI , ZEE