Chinese legislator urges enhanced drone usage in border regions

• • Larger UAVs to provide longer endurance, better reliability, heavier loads: Chinese State Media reported citing experts
  • A Chinese legislator who leads a regiment in the country’s southwestern border defense frontline will submit a proposal at the upcoming 2 sessions, suggesting that China should enhance border management and control by deploying more smart equipment like drones, as his experience and research indicate huge room for improvement despite the wide use of such devices by the People’s Liberation Army.
  • To tackle current issues, which include the short endurance, high dependence on weather conditions and insufficient payload capacity resulting from the initial commissioning of only easy-to-use, small drones, the PLA could use more sophisticated, larger drones in its arsenal, experts said on Sun.
  • The proposal comes after a months-long border standoff between China and India started by Indian troops’ provocations since April last year.
  • The goal is to resolve three key problems: to see where people can’t see, hear where people can’t hear and go where people can’t go, Hou Yun, the commander of a border defense regiment affiliated with the PLA Tibet Military Command and also National People’s Congress deputy, said.
  • During the Galwan clash, the PLA deployed drones developed by SK Enterprise Development Co, a private firm, to conduct reconnaissance on the hostile forces, the company revealed on Wed.
  • The company’s drones are widely used by the PLA Xinjiang Military Command to monitor and control the border, and also by the PLA troops in Tibet to transport supplies to isolated border defense outposts.
  • Fu Qianshao, a Chinese military aviation expert said that China’s state-owned and private companies, together with the military’s development departments, are fully capable of developing more advanced drones to meet the demands of the PLA border defense forces, and China has world-class technology in drones and smart robots.

  Centre unlikely to adopt open-door policy for Chinese investments soon; FDI only in sectors crucial for India

  • The Govt is likely to approve large Chinese investments in areas that have a minimal Indian presence.
  • However, security clearance will continue to be obligatory in all cases.
  • The Centre is unlikely to adopt an open-door policy for Chinese investments anytime soon.
  • However, the Govt is reportedly considering opening the door to foreign direct investment (FDI) to a limited extent where local manufacturing units don’t have sufficient capacity or in sectors extremely crucial to India’s interests.
  • As a part of a standard operating guideline all investment proposals from Beijing are to be examined by the ministry-concerned, Also, the proposals will get clearance those from entities or investors based elsewhere but sending funds through Hong Kong and those that entail small investments by Chinese investors.
  • Amid talks about putting a limit for Chinese investment, below which prior approval for sectors that are on the automatic approval route would be waived.
  • No final decision, however, has been taken on setting such a cap, the business daily said.
  • In April, the Department for the Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) had issued guidelines mentioning that foreign investments from countries that share a border with India will require Govt approval from now on.
  • The rules change in April had hit Chinese entities as they had emerged as a big source of flows in recent years, especially in the digital and technology sectors. Since April, the Centre had received over 120 FDI proposals worth about Rs 12,000 crore from China.
  • Last year, tensions were running high between India and China along the border area, with reports of clashes between troops at multiple locations in Ladakh and one location in Sikkim.
  • After disengagement started last month, raising hopes of easing restrictions on Chinese FDI and quicker approval. That’s unlikely, as per people familiar with the matter, the financial daily mentioned.

  CERT-In alert helps avert bid to hack TS power systems

  • Days after a report of the China-based cyber-attack during the Mumbai power outage last year, the Computer Emergency Response Team of India (CERT-In) issued an alert that helped avert a similar hacking attempt of the power systems at Telangana’s TS Transco and TS Genco allegedly by the same Chinese group.
  • TS Transco and TS Genco run the power utilities in the state.
  • The China-based malware targeted at least 40 substations in Telangana, The Times of India quoted a trusted source of the CERT-In, but the attack was successfully thwarted by the state Govt agencies.
  • According to the report, the China-based groups were trying to communicate with TSLDC systems and take control of the server.
  • Chinese Hackers Targeted Serum Institute, Bharat Biotech, Claims Report by Cyber Firm
  • However, the Modi Govt repeatedly coming to China’s defense? First it sang the line that there had been “no Chinese intrusions.” Now it is saying “no Chinese cyberattack.”
  • Experts said attempts from China have increased in the last year, which further amplified after the Indian Govt banned Chinese applications post the Galwan clash.
  • Sources in the Govt said that all alerts were issued regarding such attempts and concern agencies have been asked to educate organizations about such attempts and keep them updated with new threats.
  • Chinese hackers, majorly focus on big institutions instead of ‘Individual’, sources claimed.
  • The NCIIPC, national nodal agency to protect the nation’s critical information infrastructure, which comes under the National Technical Research Organization also documented details about Chinese hackers and their modus operandi about attacks generating from China recently.
  • Sources said this organization has compiled data of attempts of cyber-attack from China in the last year, which had seen an upward trend.
  • Chinese hackers still actively targeting Indian port in shadow war, says US firm
  • At least one connection opened by Chinese state-sponsored hackers into the network system of an Indian port is still active, even as authorities block attempts to penetrate the South Asian nation’s electrical sector, according to the US firm that alerted officials.
  • As of Tue, Recorded Future could see a ‘handshake’ — indicating an exchange of traffic — between a China-linked group and an Indian maritime port, said Stuart Solomon, the firm’s chief operating officer.
  • Recorded Future calls the group RedEcho and says it had targeted as many as 10 entities under India’s power grid as well as two maritime ports when the company first notified India’s Computer Emergency Response Team on Feb. 10.
  • Most of these connections were still operational as recently as Feb. 28, Solomon said.
  • “There’s still an active connection between the attacker and the attackee,” Solomon said, referring to the port. “It’s still happening.”
  • A spokesman for India’s Min of Electronics and IT wasn’t immediately available for comment.