Newsletter 19 October

Sino-Indian Standoff: No expectations of a concrete Breakthrough

Chinese soldier apprehended by Indian Army in Ladakh

Reportedly, Chinese PLA soldier caught in Demchok, Ladakh by Indian Army. India handed him over to Chinese side with a warning. Soldier might have entered the Indian territory inadvertently.

The latest incident was reported as both India and China held 8^th round of discussion to resolve the border dispute in eastern Ladakh.

Peaceful LAC bare minimum for stable China ties: India

As Indian and Chinese troops continue to maintain their mountain vigil, India has signaled to China repeatedly in the past few days that the minimum requirement for stable relations is a peaceful border.
Speaking to former Indian ambassador to China Gautam Bambawale at an online event, foreign minister S Jaishankar said: “Now, if peace and tranquility is deeply disturbed, then obviously there will be an impact on the relationship and that is what we are seeing,” Jaishankar said.
While both sides work on disengagement protocols amid a big trust deficit, there are two views within the Indian national security establishment. One set of opinions is there may be some modest disengagement in November, with the Chinese side returning to the heights next spring. The second believe China will continue to press India on the LAC because China wants to change the ground position, .
But both views agree on one thing — the LAC in eastern Ladakh will now be forever manned by Indian troops, making it another Siachen-like situation. At least until a border agreement is reached.

Twitter location tag pins J&K as a part of China

Twitter landed in a controversy after the location tag in a live broadcast showed J&K as a part of China. The lapse was brought to attention by national security analyst, Nitin Gokhale, who went live from Leh’s popular war memorial, Hall of Fame. TOI reached out to Twitter for comment over phone and email but did not get a response till the filing of this report.

BrahMos supersonic cruise missile successfully test-fired

BRAHMOS supersonic cruise missile was successfully test fired on Sun from the Indian Navy’s indigenously-built stealth destroyer INS Chennai, hitting a target in the Arabian Sea, the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) said on Sun.

BrahMos as ‘prime strike weapon’ will ensure the warship’s invincibility by engaging naval surface targets at long ranges, thus making the destroyer another lethal platform of Indian Navy.

The original 290-km range BrahMos has already been deployed in Ladakh as well as Arunachal Pradesh during the ongoing military confrontation with China.

The armed forces have already inducted the 290-km range land and warship-based versions of the BrahMos missiles, which fly almost three times the speed of sound at Mach 2.8, over the last decade. A sleeker version of air-breathing missile was also test-fired from Sukhoi-30MKI fighter jets last year. These air-to-ground BrahMos missiles can conceivably be used for pinpoint strikes on terror camps located deep inside enemy territory, or to take out underground nuclear bunkers, command-and-control centres and other high-value military targets like aircraft carriers on the high seas, from long stand-off distances. India also carried out successful test firing of a laser guided anti-tank guided missile and nuclear capable hypersonic missile ‘Shaurya’. The successful test firing of Rudram-1 was seen as a major milestone as it is India’s first indigenously developed anti-radiation weapon.

With India joining the 34-nation Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) in June 2016, which “removed the caps” on the range of the missile developed jointly with Russia, the range of the missile has been extended to 450-km. The MTCR basically prevents the proliferation of missiles and drones over the range of 300-km.

By firing a BrahMos missile from a naval destroyer, India signals its operational readiness, should the border confrontation expand to the sea.

However, recent flurry of Indian missile firings are more about development testing than strategic signaling.

The only other missile test that could be interpreted as strategic signaling was the September 23 test of a Prithvi-II nuclear capable, short-range ballistic missile. However, nuclear signaling against China would typically threaten value targets, which are towns and cities in the mainland and would, therefore, involve firing a longer-range missile such as the Agni-5.

India set to lose Farzad-B gas field in Iran: Sources

India has all but lost the ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL)-discovered Farzad-B gas field in the Persian Gulf after Iran decided to prefer domestic companies over foreign firms for the development of the field, sources said. OVL and its partners had offered to invest up to $11 billion. Farzad-B holds total reserves of around 21.7 trillion cubic feet of which around 60% is recoverable.

A judge must be fearless in giving decisions: Justice Ramana

Facing Andhra Pradesh CM YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s complaint To CJI against him, most senior SC judge NV Ramana on Sat said a Judge needs to take decisions fearlessly and stand up bravely to all pressures and odds. “There are innumerable qualities that a person needs to live what can be called a good life: humility, patience, kindness, a strong work ethic and the enthusiasm to constantly learn and improve oneself,” he said.

Sonia says Indian democracy passing through 'most difficult phase'

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Sunday exhorted party leaders to wage a struggle for people’s issues while noting that democracy was passing through “most difficult times”.

Tharoor's remarks at Lahore event spark BJP-Congress spat

The BJP and the Congress were engaged in a war of words on Sunday over MP Shashi Tharoor’s remarks at a Lahore event, as the ruling party accused him of “demeaning and discrediting” India and wondered if Rahul Gandhi wanted to contest elections in Pakistan.

ED questions former J&K CM Farooq Abdullah

The Enforcement Directorate on Mon questioned former J&K CM Farooq Abdullah in connection with the alleged misappropriation of Rs 94.06 crore when he was the chairman of J&K Cricket Association. Abdullah’s son Omar Abdullah tweeted that the National Conference would be responding to the ED summons shortly.

India falls just short of major power status in Asia: Study

India is the fourth most powerful nation influencing the Asia-Pacific after the US, China and Japan but has lost its “major power” status in 2020, a study showed. According to Lowy Institute’s Asia Power Index for 2020, India’s power score came down to 39.7 this year compared to 41.0 in 2019, leaving it marginally shy of the major power threshold of 40 points.

Bihar polls: BJP to telecast PM Modi's election rallies digitally

Devendra Fadnavis said that PM Narendra Modi’s rally will be telecast through a digital medium in the view of Covid-19 pandemic. “We will hold meetings in every five villages of a constituency through LEDs parallelly. This way we will hold 100 meetings at a time. This will be our effort towards ensuring social distancing in view of Covid-19,” Fadnavis said.

Modi to come face-to-face with Xi and Imran during SCO summit

At a time relations with China and Pakistan remain in a freefall, PM Narendra Modi will square off with both President Xi Jinping and PM Imran Khan at the SCO summit which Russia will host virtually, as Indian officials confirmed, on Nov 10. Modi and Xi will also come face to face at the BRICS virtual summit on Nov 17.

NEIGHBORHOOD/ WORLD

Pakistan fails to fulfil 6 key mandates of FATF

Pakistan is most likely to continue to be on the FATF ‘grey list’ pertaining to its failure to fulfil 6 key obligations of the Global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, including action against two of India’s most wanted terrorists Maulana Masood Azhar and Hafiz Saeed, and the sudden disappearance of more than 4,000 terrorists from its official list will most likely lead to its continuation in the ‘grey list’ of the Global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, officials said on Sun.

The FATF had given Pakistan a total of 27 action plan obligations for completely checking terror financing of which so far it has cleared 21 so far but has failed in some key tasks.

Besides, FATF has strongly noted the fact that there was sudden disappearance of the names of more than 4,000 terrorists from its original list of 7,600 under Schedule IV of its Anti-Terrorism Act.

The watchdog also put a general pause in the review process, thus giving additional four months to Pakistan to meet the requirements. Pakistan needed 12 votes out of 39 to exit the grey list and move to the white list. To avoid the blacklist, it needs the support of three countries. China, Turkey and Malaysia are its consistent supporters.

Currently, North Korea and Iran are on the FATF blacklist.

Pakistan politics is turning out to be so much fun.

Marryam Nawaz in her Karachi rally just called Pakistan PM Imran Khan ‘Nalayak’ and ‘Darpok Aadmi’.

Pakistan is a country like no other. Where else do you find Rangers or Paramilitary kidnap Inspector General Police in the middle of the night to issue orders to arrest a political leader by force? Pakistan Army should launching a political party which can remain in power always.

Open threat by Imran Khan to Nawaz Sharif. ‘Come back and I will show you which prison I will put you into’. Language of a street thug backed by a good Army which lacks basic values.

COVID-19

India can check pandemic by Feb-end: Expert panel

The number of active, symptomatic Covid-19 cases in India has already peaked at around 10 lakh on September 17, a government expert committee’s report said on Sun. The cumulative total cases may reach 1.06 crore, with

negligible growth by the end of February, thereby signaling a consistent downturn, the panel added.

The total cases mounted to 75,50,273 with 55,722 infections being reported in a day.

Drugs Controller General of India has allowed Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories and Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) to conduct phase 2 & 3 clinical human trials of SputnikV COVID19 vaccine in the country.

Ensure poll-like system for Covid vaccine delivery: PM Modi

Emphasizing the need to ensure speedy delivery of Covid-19 vaccine even in the remotest areas, Prime Minister Narendra Modi directed his Govt on Sat to deliver and administer the shots on the lines of elections conducted in the country, involving all levels of Govt as well as civil society.