[ NATIONAL ]

Rajnath Singh says SOPs being reviewed after Pakistan missile incident

Days after India accidentally fired a missile into Pakistan, defense minister Rajnath Singh on Tue stated that standard operating procedures (SOPs) for “operations, maintenance, and inspection” of such systems were being reviewed. A statement in Rajya Sabha on the March 9 incident drew a strong reaction from Pakistan. He assured the House the Indian missile system is reliable and safe. He said the inadvertent release of the missile took place during routine inspection and maintenance of the system around 7 pm. He said it was later learnt the missile landed in Pakistan. “I would like to inform the House that the government has taken serious note of the incident. A formal high-level inquiry has been ordered. The inquiry would determine the exact cause of the said accident,” he said.

The US and China calls for direct Pakistan-India talks

The United States and China urged India and Pakistan on Mon to hold direct talks for reducing tensions between the two nuclear-armed nations. The US has said there is no indication that the recent firing of a missile from India was anything other than accidental. “We called on relevant countries to have dialogue and communication as soon as possible and launch a thorough investigation into this incident,” spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters in Beijing. He also urged India and Pakistan to “strengthen information sharing and establish a notification mechanism in time to avoid the recurrence of such incidents and to prevent miscalculation”.

India, Canada exchange views on regional, global issues of mutual interest

ANI – India and Canada held Foreign Office Consultations (FOCs) here on Mon and reviewed the progress of bilateral cooperation in domains such as political, security, trade and investment, and education and science and technology. The delegations agreed that the two countries should continue work to renew the momentum in relations and convene meetings of bilateral dialogues and working groups. Both sides agreed to continue their productive consultations. The next FOCs will be held in Ottawa on a mutually convenient date.

Modi-Kishida summit this week, Ukraine and Indo-Pacific on agenda

The March 19-20 summit called at the behest of Japan is a continuation of the canceled 2019 Modi-Abe summit in Guwahati due to orchestrated CAA protests

Assam and Meghalaya to ink border pact on March 27 in Delhi

Assam and Meghalaya will sign an agreement to resolve the dispute in six border areas of both states in New Delhi on March 27, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said on Monday. “The signing of this agreement and the final discussion with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will take place within this month. The tentative date which has come to me is March 27,” Sangma said during the budget session in the state assembly.

Karnataka HC rules Hijab not an essential religious practice of Islam, dismisses petitions challenging the ban

ANI -The Karnataka High Court on Tue dismissed various petitions challenging a ban on Hijab in education institutions and said that wearing Hijab is not an essential religious practice of Islam. A bench of Karnataka High Court comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice Krishna S Dixit, and Justice JM Khazi said that no case is made out for invalidating the Govt Order of Feb 5. The Hijab row had erupted in Jan this year when the Govt PU College in Udupi barred 6 girls wearing the hijab from entering. Following this, the girls sat in protest sat outside college over being denied entry. After this, boys of several colleges in Udupi started attending classes wearing saffron scarves. This protest spread to other parts of the state as well leading to protests and agitations in several places in Karnataka. As a result, the Karnataka government said that all students must adhere to the uniform and ban both hijab and saffron scarves till an expert committee decides on the issue. On Feb 5, the pre-University education board released a circular stating that the students can only wear the uniform approved by the school administration and no other religious attire will be allowed in colleges.

42 military personnel died in 45 air accidents over the last 5 years: Govt

Obsolete flying machines, shoddy maintenance, and inadequate training to aircrew and ground-crew continue to exact a heavy toll in the armed forces. At least 42 military personnel have lost their lives in 45 aircraft and helicopter accidents in just the last five years, as per the latest figures tabled by the defense ministry in Rajya Sabha on Monday.

Why Russian strikes on Ukraine’s defense industry sites are worrying Indian Navy & IAF

Pictures and videos have surfaced, showing factories of aircraft manufacturer Antonov and gas turbine maker Zorya-Mashproekt on fire in Ukraine due to Russian missile and artillery strikes. The strikes spell trouble for the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force, though they seem to be insulated for now from the immediate impact of the ever-widening war in Ukraine. India procures several parts of the Russian systems in use with the armed forces from Ukraine. When the USSR disintegrated, many of its defense manufacturing hubs remained in Ukraine. Navy is heavily dependent on Ukraine for gas turbine engines, while IAF runs Antonov An-32. Spare parts are stocked, but supply from Ukraine may be affected later. (Sources)- they are still studying the full impact of the Russia-Ukraine crisis on India’s military. They added it seems the Russians are specifically targeting the defense-industrial installations of Ukraine, and this could eventually impact India in the long run.

India biggest importer of arms in 2017-2021, but atmanirbharta push sees volume fall by 21%

India may be pushing for ‘atmanirbharta (indigenous development)’ in defense equipment — the central government earmarked 68% of the capital budget for 2022-23 for domestic manufacturing industries — but the country remains the largest importer of arms globally, a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has shown. Most of India’s defense imports come from Russia, the report says. However, according to SIPRI’s Trends in International Arms Transfers, 2021 — published this month — India’s total volume of imports fell by 21% from 2012-16, which could be a reflection of the push to manufacture arms and weapons systems indigenously.

India is considering rupee payments for trade with Russia: Report

The government is discussing how trade can be settled in rubles and rupees as Indian exporters are awaiting payments of about $500 million that have been stuck after the sanctions on Russian banks, said the people, who asked not to be identified before a final decision is made. When the US slaps sanctions on a state, a timid India is normally left footing the bill even as its rival China defies the sanctions with impunity (a classic example relates to Iran). Now India faces a key test: If it repeats the same pattern, it will cement its soft state image, says Brahma Chellaney.

J&K Delimitation draft finalized

The Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission on Monday released its draft report and sought objections and suggestions from the public and residents of the union territory before Mar 21, after which it will be considered by the panel in open sittings on Mar 28 – 29.

Major terror attack averted in Srinagar, 6 Chinese grenades recovered, placed along NH 44

Security forces on Monday averted a major tragedy by detecting and defusing six hand grenades placed by militants on the busy Parimpora-Panthachowk axis in Srinagar, officials said here. “During a routine road opening exercise along National Highway 44, alert troopers of the 73 Battalion of the CRPF recovered six Chinese grenades from a sandbag placed on a divider of the road,” a spokesperson of the force said.

[ NEIGHBORHOOD ]

The U.S. raises concerns about China aligning with Russia at the meeting it calls ‘intense’

Reuters – U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Mon raised concerns about China’s alignment with Russia in a 7-hour meeting, took place in Rome with Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi as Washington warned of the isolation and penalties Beijing will face if it helps Moscow in its invasion of Ukraine.

China warns ASEAN countries not to be pawns in major power confrontation

Smaller countries should not be used as “tools” in great power confrontations, China’s foreign minister has told Indonesia, urging it to “cherish peace” in the region as the Russia-Ukraine war continues. Speaking with Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi on Monday, Wang Yi said that behind the ongoing crisis in Ukraine was the “intensification of long-accumulated conflicts over European security” and talks between the European Union, security alliance Nato and Russia were needed to establish “a balanced, effective and sustainable security framework”. “Under the current situation, we should cherish the peace and stability in East Asia and the Asia-Pacific region,” Wang said, according to an FM ministry statement.

China drill meant to ‘coerce’ South China Sea claims

ANI -As China continues to maintain a no-go zone for a military drill in the South China Sea, analysts believe that this could be used to push its claims in the waterway. The drills certainly form part of the routine set of exercises that are conducted with greater intensity in recent years, Collin Koh Swee Lea, a research fellow at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, told VnExpress International. Tensions in the South China Sea area have continued to rise in the context of China’s naval expansion and the establishment of military outposts on illegally built artificial islands. The “nine-dash line” claim that China has unilaterally and illegally made, covering almost the entire South China Sea area, has been rejected by the international community.

Ukraine war: China going its ‘own way’ on the peace process, says foreign minister

Beijing has been going its “own way” to foster peace talks on the war in Ukraine, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Monday as his Spanish counterpart became the latest European diplomat to lobby for China to mediate. “From the first day of the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis, we have been using our way to foster peace talks as a Permanent Five member of the United Nations Security Council,” Wang told Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares in a phone call. The call was arranged “by invitation” of the other side, according to the Chinese readout.

India-China border tension: app developers, tech sector win with Chinese apps banned

If there’s been one big winner from bristling India-China border tensions, it has been India’s army of app developers. In June 2020, two weeks after the worst fighting in half a century along their shared border, New Delhi aimed at leading Chinese tech firms including Tencent, Alibaba, and Baidu, by banning 59 mobile apps. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. The ban was part of New Delhi’s economic retaliation for a clash that it blamed China for instigating – an accusation Beijing has dismissed. Among the apps banned was ByteDance’s hugely popular TikTok, the first Chinese short-video sharing platform with a global fan base.

Pakistan: The water crisis in the country has become serious.

Due to this, there is a risk of a reduction in wheat production. IRSA has warned the provinces that the country is currently facing a 52% water shortage. Punjab s demand is 60,000 cusecs but it is getting 29,000 cusecs. Sindh is getting 22,000 cusecs of water against the demand of 45,400 cusecs. (Nawaiwaqt, Ummat, Daily Jinnah). All operations at Karachi’s largest Jinnah Hospital had to be halted after the water supply was cut off.

Pakistan: Opposition rejects negotiations with govt, says no-trust motion will not be withdrawn at any cost

ANI – Rejecting the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government’s offer for withdrawing the no-trust motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan, the Opposition has made it clear that the resolution will only be withdrawn if the premier announces his resignation, reported local media. The Opposition rejected any option of having negotiations with the government on the subject of the no-confidence resolution. “Government did not even bother to shake hand with the Opposition in last four years, therefore now, no dialogue will be held with the government,” the opposition said. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Tuesday said the opposition did not have enough numbers to succeed in its no-confidence move against the prime minister and questioned why the opposition alliance had announced holding a rally in Islamabad if their numbers were sufficient. With an eye on the no-confidence motion moved by the opposition parties against the Imran Khan government later this month in the National Assembly, Pakistan’s federal government has tightened the security to maintain law and order.

J&K Delimitation draft finalized

Delimitation-Delimitation is the act of redrawing boundaries of an Assembly or Lok Sabha seat to represent changes in population over time. The exercise is carried out by a commission whose orders have the force of law and cannot be questioned before any court.

The objective -To redraw boundaries based on census data so the population of all seats, as far as practicable, be the same throughout the state. Delimitation is a key step in the move to hold elections in the union territory, which could then be followed by restoration of statehood.

Who is heading the commission-retired Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, it has chief election commissioner Sushil Chandra and the state election commissioner of Jammu and Kashmir, KK Sharma, as its ex-officio members.

The delimitation commission was constituted in Mar 2020 and, last month, it was given two months of extension – till May 6 – to complete the exercise of redrawing Assembly constituencies in J&K. The panel was given a 12-month extension last year.

Seven new constituencies proposed-The proposal, published in the Gazette of India and the Gazette of Jammu and Kashmir, outlines six new constituencies in Jammu and one in the Kashmir Valley. It also proposes the carving out of seven scheduled caste and nine scheduled tribe constituencies in the region.

What will change if the proposal is cleared-If the proposal is cleared, the total number of Assembly constituencies will rise from 83 to 90, with 43 in the Jammu region and 47 in Kashmir; 24 seats will be kept aside (and vacant) for Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Currently, Jammu has 37 members and Kashmir has 46.

The number of Lok Sabha seats has been kept to 5 and no seat has been reserved for scheduled castes or tribes.

Parties opposing the draft-The Farooq and Omar Abdullah-led National Conference earlier distanced itself from the proceedings but decided to rejoin late last year. Party MPs have opposed the proposal in its current state. The Jammu and Kashmir unit of the Congress has strongly objected to the final draft of delimitation, stating ‘it is dissection, not delimitation, totally ignoring ground realities’.

Modi-Kishida summit this week, Ukraine and Indo-Pacific on agenda

Japan and India are expected to cement economic cooperation and share assessments on the crisis in Ukraine and Indo-Pacific during Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s visit to India this Sat. The Japanese

• PM arrives on an official visit on Mar 19 afternoon and leaves the next day for Cambodia.
• Kishida’s visit is a continuation of the canceled physical summit between PM Modi and then PM Shinzo Abe on Dec 15-17 due to orchestrated CAA protest.
• An early date for the Modi-Kishida meeting was sought by the Japanese side despite global turmoil due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

While PM Modi is expected to discuss

• The ongoing crisis with India calls for the cessation of violence.
• The main topic of discussion will be the Indo-Pacific with a belligerent China threatening anyone who provides military support to Taiwan.
• Participating in joint air exercises with the Russian air force in the Sea of Japan, and sending warships into territorial waters of the Philippines in the Sulu Sea.

Japan has increased conventional deterrence in wake of Chinese hostility in the Indo-Pacific,

• PM Kishida is opposed to Japan acquiring nuclear weapons or shedding its pacifist doctrine as he represents the city of Hiroshima in the Japanese House of Representatives.
• The two will discuss the possibility of expanding the bullet train project beyond the Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor.
• Building resilient supply chains between partner countries so that they are not impacted by vagaries of global politics and dependency on an adversarial country.
• The two leaders will also discuss the upcoming QUAD summit in Tokyo after the Australian general elections in May 2022
• The Chinese routinely took potshots at the security grouping by calling its Asian NATO against Beijing and a Cold war instrument.
• This was dismissed as a lazy analogy by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar at the Munich Security Conference last month.
• While Chinese military activity in East Ladakh and around the Japanese Senkaku Islands will be shared at the summit,
• The situation in the Af-Pak region with the Taliban in control of Kabul and the so-called Islamic State raising its head against the Shia Muslim community in Pakistan.

[ NEIGHBORHOOD ]

The U.S. raises concerns about China aligning with Russia at the meeting it calls ‘intense’

Reuters – U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Mon raised concerns about China’s alignment with Russia in a 7-hour meeting, took place in Rome with Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi as Washington warned of the isolation and penalties Beijing will face if it helps Moscow in its invasion of Ukraine.

• Washington told allies in NATO and several Asian countries that China had signaled its willingness to provide military and economic aid to Russia to support its war, two U.S. officials said.
• The U.S. message, sent in a diplomatic cable, also noted China was expected to deny those plans, said one of the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.
• After talks ended, the White House issued a short statement, saying Sullivan raised a “range of issues in U.S.-China relations, with substantial discussion of Russia’s war against Ukraine.”
• Sullivan described to Yang “the unity of the US and its allies and partners … in bringing costs on Russia for its actions,” this official added.

The official described the meeting as “intense,” reflecting “the gravity of the moment,” although it had long been planned, and covered other issues including N Korea, Taiwan, and tense bilateral relations.

The official said the exchanges had been “candid” but led to no specific outcomes.

• Before the talks, officials had said Sullivan planned to warn of the isolation China could face globally if it supported Russia.
• The US and other countries’ officials have sought to emphasize in recent weeks that siding with Russia could carry consequences for trade flows, development of new technologies, and expose China to secondary sanctions.
• It was Sullivan’s first-known meeting with Yang since closed-door sessions in Zurich in Oct that sought to calm tensions after an acrimonious public exchange between the two in Alaska a year ago.
• China’s official Xinhua news agency cited Yang as saying that Beijing was committed to promoting negotiations to resolve the Ukraine conflict.
• China and the United States should strengthen dialogue, properly manage differences, and avoid conflict and confrontation, he said. (1)

As Putin’s war drags on, China’s discomfiture increases

ANI- There is a lot of conjecture about the strategic relationship between China and Russia, and the degree of knowledge that Chairman Xi Jinping had before President Vladimir Putin launched his lamentable invasion of Ukraine.

• This war is proving to be fraught with risks for China, putting Beijing in an awkward nexus as it tries to juggle support for its ally while pretending to be neutral.
• This is the kind of absurd contradiction that Beijing tries to get away with, obfuscating the truth.
• China cannot even bring itself to label Putin’s gambit as an “invasion” or “war”.
• China has tried hard to portray itself as neutral in this conflict, but it is obvious that it is not easy walking such a tightrope.
• Russian talking points are blithely repeated by Chinese officials, one example being the ridiculous notion that the USA has biological warfare laboratories in Ukraine.
• Zhang Jun, China’s envoy to the UN, told the General Assembly, “The situation has evolved to a point which China does not wish to see. It is not in the interest of any party.”
• This comment went further than any other Chinese official has gone and sounded positive.
• However, the same ambassador also remarked that “intensifying unilateral sanctions” was more “deeply concerning” than the intensifying invasion of an independent country.
• China’s twisted thinking forces it to be creative in its verbal gymnastics as it defends the indefensible.
• One key principle that China cannot reconcile is the inviolable nature of sovereign territory, which it loves to preach about.
• Additionally, it decries anyone interfering in the internal affairs of others.
• Yet Russia has broken both of China’s cardinal rules and has received no criticism from Beijing.
• Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi thus told Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in a phone call perched the lesson of sovereignty and territorial integrity.
• These are empty words, for Xi refuses to criticize Putin, so be India.
• Also, Beijing has supported Putin’s narrative that Russia is the aggrieved party, that NATO is a guilty party, and that Ukraine has deservingly brought this attack upon itself. (2)

India’s Concern- In prevailing circumstances, India’s most serious concern is the proximity of China with Russia, as later was a time-tested friend of India, besides other issues of cooperation. The growing influence of Beijing in the Indo-Pacific, shall not be an issue for New Delhi but the whole world at large.

• Still, China is the biggest importer of Russia, accounting for nearly more than 11% of total Russian export, while India’s import lies within 2.5%.
• Moreover, sanctions of the West and the US will be in favor of China and against India.
• Experts are speculating that in the coming future, it is highly likely that Beijing will follow the Russian Path for Taiwan.
• Whosoever will be the loser, but in any case, China will be a winner on multiple fronts.

1. https://www.reuters.com/world/us-warn-china-perils-aiding-russia-rome-meet-2022-03-14/
2. https://www.aninews.in/news/world/asia/as-putins-war-drags-on-chinas-discomfiture-increases20220315112825/