Newsletter 23 February

Sino-Indian Standoff: India-China disengagement

To counter China, India's DSA begins scouting for star wars technology-TOI

Nearly 2 years after India demonstrated its anti-satellite (ASAT) technology through ‘Mission Shakti’, the newly formed Defense Space Agency (DSA), a quiet dedicated organization established to drive India’s counter-space activities has officially begun scouting for technologies to augment its capabilities to deal with threats in, and from space.
TOI has learnt reliably that the agency has requested proposals from multiple companies for technologies that provide complete SSA (space situational awareness) solutions which can detect, identify and track enemy assets while also warning about any impending attacks.
The DSA, the nod to form which under the Ministry of Defense (MoD) was granted in mid-2019, is a tri-services agency headed by Air Vice Marshal SP Dharkar.
TOI reported that the agency had been talking with multiple space technology companies as early as last year, but it officially issued an RFI — to select companies — sometime in January 2021.
The DSA is also looking for a system that can fuse space surveillance data available from various sources into a common operating picture (COP) so as to better evaluate threats and to maximize the effectiveness of Indian operations in space, land, sea and air domains.
From neighborhood watch screenings to analysis and prediction of threats — from ASAT, space debris, DE (direct energy) weapons and RF (radio frequency) interference, the DSA’s requirements are specific.
As reported by TOI in Sept 2020, the PLA continues to acquire and develop technologies including kinetic-kill missiles, ground-based lasers, and orbiting space robots, as well as expanding space surveillance capabilities, which can monitor objects in space within their field of view and enable actions.
According to a 200-page annual report to the US Congress prepared by the Department of Defence finds, China is developing electronic warfare capabilities such as satellite jammers, offensive cyber capabilities and directed-energy weapons.
And, India appears to be lagging compared to its most apparent competitor, notwithstanding some commissioned project within the DRDO. It was in this background that the Centre created DSA.

Buzz around Pres. Xi’s visit surprises India, says no dates for Brics summit yet-HT

The buzz around President Xi’s possible visit to the summit of the 5-nation group comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa was triggered by positive comments of the Chinese spokesperson about relations with India on Mon.
The spokesperson also expressed Beijing’s support to host this year’s meeting though he hadn’t responded to a direct question about President Xi’s visit to Delhi.
Diplomats based in Moscow told HT that the no Brics dates were mentioned by visiting Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla to his Russian interlocutors either.
“Not even the dates of the annual India-Russia summit have been finalized due to the pandemic,” said a senior diplomat.
India assumed the rotating chairmanship of the Brics forum on Jan 1^st, 2021, taking over from Russia, which hosted the last summit as an online event in Nov 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
India’s assumption of Brics leadership, the third time since the group was formed in 2006, comes at a time when New Delhi’s relations with Beijing are facing their worst challenge in decades.
Troops of the two neighbors had been engaged in a standoff for over nine months and have only now started disengaging from one of the friction points; the South and North banks of Pangong Tso.
While Beijing would like to portray that it was business as usual after the Pangong Tso disengagement, the Indian military commanders are not so convinced and are still wary of the intentions of PLA commanders till such time there is peace along the LAC.
It is in this context that India wants status quo ante to be restored all along the LAC before the revival of ties, a position that has been agreed to by the Chinese interlocutors during the backchannel talks.
While much of the speculation around President Xi possible visit for the Brics summit has been flagged as a breakthrough in bilateral relations, officials underline that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has shown no signs of withdrawing troops from anywhere along the 3,488 km long Line of Actual Control (LAC) except Pangong Tso.
The Chinese military infrastructure build-up all along the Eastern sector across Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh is showing no signs of receding with the PLA redeploying forces for tactical reasons. There is no change of force in either the Depsang Bulge area or the Gogra-Hot Springs area.

Meanwhile, one of the Ruling party BJP’s lawmaker tweeted “Government sources tell me the Chinese have made it clear: No question of vacating Depsang area. Chinese say India has an April 2020 cut off for disengagement. But Depsang was acquired by Chinese bit by bit from July 1998 till 2013. We thus have to evict them which needs nerves.”

China backs Brics meet in India, Xi may attend it-TOI

China on Mon backed the Brics summit to be hosted by India this year saying it’s willing to work with India and other member states to strengthen cooperation in various fields.
President Xi Jinping is expected to visit India in the second half of this year for the summit, if the Covid situation continues to improve in the next few months.

China back as top India trade partner even as relations sour-TOI

Two-way trade between the longstanding economic and strategic rivals stood at $77.7 billion last year, according to provisional data from India’s Commerce Ministry.
China regained its position as India’s top trade partner in 2020, as New Delhi’s reliance on imported machines outweighed its efforts to curb commerce with Beijing after a bloody border conflict.
Although that was lower than the previous year’s $85.5 billion total, it was enough to make China the largest commercial partner displacing the U.S. — bilateral trade with whom came in at $75.9 billion amid muted demand for goods in the middle of a pandemic.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi banned hundreds of Chinese apps, slowed approvals for investments from the neighbor and called for self-reliance after a deadly clash along their disputed Himalayan border, India continues to rely heavily on Chinese-made heavy machinery, telecom equipment and home appliances.
As a result, the bilateral trade gap with China was at almost $40 billion in 2020, making it India’s largest.

After 9-month freeze, Centre starts clearing China FDI plans-TOI

The Govt has begun clearing foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals from China on a “case-by-case” basis, ending the freeze on such clearances that lasted around nine months.
Over the last few weeks, approvals have started, although it is so far limited to “smaller cases”, TOI reported through Govt sources.
It further said that it clear that the large proposals would be take up later after a careful analysis of the situation.
To help smoothen the process, the Govt has also set up a coordination committee comprising officers from the Ministries of Home, External Affairs, Commerce & Industry and Niti Aayog, which looks at the issues.

Defense Ministry all set to clear over Rs 6,000 cr Arjun Mark 1A tank for Army ANI

Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated the Main Battle Tank Arjun Mark1A to the nation, the Defense Ministry on Tue is all set to clear the acquisition of these tanks worth over Rs 6,000 crore by the Army.
The Ministry had recently cleared the induction of 118 Arjun Mark1A tanks into the Indian Army.
The tank has been fully designed and developed by the DRDO in close coordination with the Indian Army.
118 tanks would be joining the fleet of the first batch of 124 Arjun tanks which have already been inducted into the Army and are deployed in the western desert along the Pakistan front.
The 118 Arjun tanks would also form two regiments in the Armored Corps of Indian Army like first 124 tanks.
Officials said the Army has reduced the number of tanks required for the formation of a tank regiment and that is why the present order has 6 lesser tanks than the previous order for two regiments.
The DRDO has been developing the Arjun Mark 1A for quite some time now and the project was hastened by both Chief of Defense Staff Gen Bipin Rawat and DRDO chief Dr G Satheesh Reddy to increase the level of indigenous weapon systems in the armed forces.

Private Sector Key for Indigenous Defense Production: PM

Exhorting for greater private sector participation in defense production, PM Narendra Modi said India was already exporting military equipment to over 40 countries in its quest to become a top arms supplier in the world in the years ahead.
“Without the participation of the private sector, the 21st-century ecosystem of the defense sector cannot stand on its feet,” the PM said while delivering the keynote address at a webinar with industry chambers hosted by SIDM on effective implementation of the Union Budget’s provisions in the defence sector.
PM gave out some fundamentals of the current government’s approach to enhancing the role of the indigenous defense industry.

Bharat Forge receives order from Indian Army for supply of Kalyani M4 vehicles

Bharat Forge on Tue said it has received an order worth Rs 177.95 crore from the Ministry of Defense for supply of Kalyani M4 vehicles.
The company has received the order from the Indian Army for protected vehicles under emergency procurement, Bharat Forge said in a regulatory filing.

India permits Imran Khan's aircraft to use its airspace for travel to Sri Lanka ANI

India has allowed Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s aircraft to use Indian Air Space, according to informed sources. Imran Khan will be travelling to Sri Lanka on his maiden visit on Feb 23.
In 2019, Pakistan had denied opening its airspace for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flights to the US and Saudi Arabia citing alleged human rights violations in Kashmir.

India a victim of terrorism, leading global action against it: S Jaishankar

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tue, while addressing the high-level segment of the 46th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, said action against terrorism is only possible when it is understood that terrorism can never be justified nor equating its perpetrators with victims.
The Foreign Affairs Minister also said that India has championed the global fight against terrorism having faced it as a long-standing victim.
He added that while there is a need for everyone to come together to overcome these challenges, reform in multilateral institutions and mechanisms is also important to deal with the evil effectively.
Lauding India’s efforts in supplying Covid-19 vaccine globally, Jaishankar said, “India has pledged its vaccine manufacturing capacity to make vaccines accessible and affordable to all.”

Google is helping the Delhi Police to investigate toolkit creators Disha Ravi, Nikita Jacob and Shantanu.

According to IANS, Delhi Police have said that they have received a reply from Google over IP addresses and locations regarding the toolkit, which the sources say was uploaded from locations in Karnataka and Maharashtra.
The details shared by Google will help Delhi Police locate all the criminals involved in the creation and propagation of the explosive toolkit – whose sole agenda was to somehow effectuate chaos in India.
Delhi Police have also, according to the same report, contacted Zoom to get information about the virtual meeting that was organized on Jan 11, in which around 70 people had participated, including Nikita Jacob and Shantanu Muluk.
It is highly probable that the said Zoom meeting was also the one that was attended by Poetic Justice Foundation founder Mo Dhaliwal.

R-Day violence accused Lakha Sidhana holds rally in Punjab's Bhatinda

Wanted rioter Lakha Sidhana, who bears Rs 1 lakh bounty for his arrest attended a public meeting in Punjab”s Bathinda in support of the ongoing farmers” agitation against the Centre’s agri laws.
A video clip showed him seated on the dais. Sidhana is wanted by the Delhi police for his alleged role in the Republic Day violence in the national capital where a large number of farmers had broken barriers to reach the Red Fort.
Clashes broke out in multiple places, leading to violence in well-known landmarks of Delhi and its suburbs.
While there were no exact estimates of how many farmers were hurt, Delhi Police officials said 86 of their men were injured through the day. Of these, 41 were injured at the Red Fort.

PM Modi pushes PPP model for ‘aatmanirbhar’ health sector

India is now preparing to be aatmanirbhar (self-reliant) in the health sector, with focus on the public private partnership (PPP) model, to better deal with health emergencies and improve access to healthcare for all, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi while discussing health allocation in the Union Budget on Tue.
“The amount allocated for the health sector in this year’s budget is unprecedented, and is an attempt to provide better healthcare services to every citizen of this country.
The last year was a test, particularly for the health sector, but I am happy to announce that India managed to pass the test successfully as it managed to save lives and create testing infrastructure in a few months, with currently 2,500 labs active for Covid-19 testing and 210 million tests administered so far,” said Modi.
Giving credit to the private sector as well, Modi said the successful handling of Covid-19 pandemic in India has been possible because of the collaboration between the Govt and the private sector.

US looking forward to 'overarching' MoU to enhance health cooperation with India

The US has said it is looking forward to an “overarching” memorandum of understanding to enhance health partnership with India and asserted that the cooperation between the two countries on Covid-19 builds on decades of successful collaboration in health and biomedical research.
The US on Mon crossed the grim milestone of 500,000 Covid-19 deaths.
With 28184218 coronavirus cases and 500172 deaths due to the disease so far, as recorded by Johns Hopkins University, America is the worst-affected nation.
The total number of coronavirus cases in India stands at 11005850 — the second in the world after the US. The death toll is 156385 – 4^th globally.

NEIGHBORHOOD/ WORLD

Myanmar coup: US designates two additional officials following violence in Mandalay

Following the use of violence on the pro-democracy protesters in Mandalay by the Myanmar military, the United States on Mon (local time) designated 2 additional State Administrative Council (SAC) members, Maung Maung Kyaw and Moe Myint Tun saying, Washington will continue to work with a broad coalition of international partners to promote accountability for coup leaders and those responsible for this violence.
These designations were made pursuant to Section 1(a)(iii)(A) of Executive Order (E.O.) 14014, ‘Blocking Property with Respect to the Situation in Burma’,” told US State Secretary Antony J Blinken.
He also reiterated the US’ support to the people of Myanmar who are fighting “for a return to democratic governance, peace, and rule of law”.
“We condemn the security forces’ brutal attacks on unarmed protesters, which resulted in 4 deaths and injured over 40 individuals.
We also condemn the ongoing arrests and detentions of hundreds of politicians, human rights defenders, and peaceful protestors.
The US, in close coordination with our partners and allies, has underscored to the military that violence against the people is unacceptable,” he said.

Pakistan Govt urged to include Pashto as medium of instruction in schools ANI

The intellectuals of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have urged the Pakistan Govt to declare Pashto as the medium of instruction in schools.
According to a report by Dawn, poets, writers, academicians, research scholars, political workers and social activists held seminars, declamation contents, rallies, walks and book fairs across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sun to mark International Mother Language Day.
At these functions, the speakers opined that “saving a dying language was tantamount to saving a generation and its death meant the extinction of a culture”.