“Putin has been the architect of the strategic partnership between India and Russia,” Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said after meeting with his Russian counterpart in New Delhi today. “Relations with Russia are a key pillar of our foreign policy.”

Putin, in five visits over the past decade, has spearheaded Russia’s effort to revive Cold War-era ties to India and fend off growing competition for defense and energy contracts from the U.S. and Europe. The Kremlin is playing on Indian ambitions to become a global power capable of rivaling China and sending manned missions to outer space.

Russian companies signed more than a dozen deals, including agreements to deliver India’s second aircraft carrier in 2012, build as many as 16 nuclear reactors and sell 29 MiG-29 fighter jets. India also became the first country to win access to military use of Russia’s Glonass navigation network, a rival to the U.S. Global Positioning System. Putin promised to help send India’s first cosmonaut into space in three years and held open the possibility of joint moon exploration.

Full article here

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He laid the foundation of India’s huge atomic energy establishment almost singlehandedly, nurturing and expanding it with his dynamic vision. Thanks in no small measure to Homi J. Bhabha’s dream, India’s atomic energy programme has acquired global stature today, capable of designing and testing nuclear weapons and aspiring to meet its growing demands for nuclear energy.

Born to Jehangir Hormusji Bhabha and Meherbai on Oct 30, 1909, in Bombay (now Mumbai), the young Bhabha led a sheltered and emotionally secure childhood. The very first glimmerings of a keen and inquisitive mind became apparent when a specialist told his very worried parents why he slept little — a hyperactive brain that kept him awake at nights.

Excellent family ties with the Tatas and their association with national leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Vallabhbhai Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru and also with the British imbued the sensitive boy with a sense of nationalism and perspective.

In 1924, Homi Bhabha passed the Senior Cambridge exam at the age of 15. But by then he had grasped the complexities of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity as well as the intricacies of classical painting.

His arrival in Cambridge, a fount of nuclear physics, three years later in 1927, permitted his native genius to bloom for the next 12 years, where he obtained his PhD in physics with specialisation in cosmic rays, in 1934. He was just 25 then.

Bhabha met many of the greatest physicists of the time, namely Niels Bohr, James Franck, and Enrico Fermi, who played key roles in the Anglo-American atomic weapon programmes.

In March 1944, even before the world acquired a nodding acquaintance with the mighty potential of nuclear energy, Bhabha, then a professor, wrote to Sir Dorab J. Tata, who headed the Tata Trust, proposing an institute for nuclear physics in India.

“When nuclear energy has been successfully applied to power production in, say, a couple of decades from now,” Bhabha wrote with remarkable prescience, “India will not have to look abroad for its experts but will find them ready at hand.”

Thus the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) came into being on Dec 19, 1945, just four months after Hiroshima and three years before Indian independence.

Bhabha served as its first director, which placed him at the commanding heights of the country’s nuclear future, until his premature death in a plane crash in the Swiss Alps on Jan 24, 1966.

Bhabha was very particular about maintaining excellence. Addressing the then National Institute of Sciences, Bhabha said: “This is a field in which a large number of mediocre or second rate workers cannot make up for a few outstanding ones, and the few outstanding ones always take at least 10-15 years to grow.”

As the new nation’s prime minister, Nehru entrusted Bhabha with complete authority over all nuclear-related affairs and programmes. Both of them shared a close rapport. In April 1948 at Bhabha’s bidding, Nehru agreed to legislate the Atomic Energy Act in the Constituent Assembly, creating the Indian Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC).

On Jan 3, 1954, the IAEC decided to set up a new facility, the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET). In August the same year, the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) came into being with Bhabha as its secretary. Till date, it remains answerable only to the prime minister. Prime minister Indira Gandhi renamed AEET the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).

Full article here

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More deals with countries would mean that India wouldnt need to depend on a select group of countries for its demand of uranium to power its energy sector.

India on Monday signed a civil nuclear pact with uranium-rich Mongolia that will help it source uranium for its power plants.

According to a joint declaration signed by the two countries, participation of Indian companies through joint ventures and investments in the mining sector in Mongolia is on the cards. “A delegation from India has been invited to Mongolia to discuss the prospects for such a cooperation,” the declaration said.

Mongolia is the sixth country with which India signed the civil nuclear pact after the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers’ Group lifted a 34-year-old ban that had prevented it from trade in the field with the international community. India has earlier signed such agreements with US, France, Russia, Kazakhstan and Namibia.

The agreement — a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the field of peaceful use of radioactive minerals and nuclear energy — was signed between officials of Department of Atomic energy from both sides in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj at Hyderabad House.

Four other agreements that were signed between the two countries dealt with loan assistance, health and medical science, cultural exchange programme and cooperation statistical matters.

“We have decided to update our bilateral ties to the level of a ‘Comprehensive Partnership’,” Singh said.

India has also agreed to provide Mongolia a soft loan of $ 25 million to help it stabilise its economy in the wake of the financial crisis. In the area of human resource development and capacity building, India will double the number of annual slots for Mongolia under its Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation programme from 60 to 120.

“I have assured the President of our readiness to assist Mongolia in the field of education, particularly in the teaching of English language, and information technology. We will assist Mongolia in the establishment of an Information Technology Centre,” the PM said. While describing the conversations with the Mongolian President as “extremely productive”, the PM said relations with Mongolia are an important pillar of our policy in the Asia-Pacific region.

The declaration also said that development of defence exchanges and cooperation on the basis of the Agreement on Cooperation in Defence Matters signed in 2001 will continue. “The fifth joint military exercise will be held in Mongolia later this month. The third meeting of the Joint Working Group on Defence Cooperation will be held in Ulaanbaatar at a mutually convenient time in 2010,” it said.

Picture source: EFTrends

News source: IndianExpress

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For those who know Premji, it is not uncommon to see the fifth richest Indian on the Forbes List and the 63-year-old chairman of Wipro switching off the lights before leaving office. It is this commitment to avoid waste that has turned Premji’s attention to ecology and sustainability.

In October 2008, even as it warned of slowing growth in its main software outsourcing business in the backdrop of a global financial crisis, Wipro released a recruitment ad for two new businesses, Wipro Water and Wipro EcoEnergy. The company has spent the previous two years preparing for this diversification, which may turn out to be the company’s third big change. The first was when a 21-year-old Premji took charge at Wipro after his father’s sudden death; the next was when the vanaspati and soap maker transformed itself into a multi-billion dollar information technology giant in the 80s and 90s.

Chief Financial Officer Suresh Senapathy says green services and solutions will bring in up to one out of every four dollars of the company’s revenue, three years from now. In the financial year ending March 2009, Wipro had revenue of more than Rs. 25,000 crore. Even if the revenue were to stagnate, a fourth of it — Rs. 6,250 crore — from ecology is no small amount. The plan also aligns well with Premji’s desire to ease down IT’s profit contribution from 93 percent currently to 70 percent in the next few years.

The new idea was first thought up by the 41-year-old head of Wipro Infrastructure Engineering (WIN), Anurag Behar. The two new ecology businesses will be housed under WIN. In January 2007, Behar made the first formal presentation about the ecology business to Wipro’s board of directors. The board reacted positively but also advised caution: Ecology was a nascent field with rapidly evolving technology and Wipro should not get locked in a technology that ran the risk of becoming obsolete soon.

Wipro has turned its 50-acre campus at Electronic City in Bangalore into a test bed. While 25,000 software engineers write code for Fortune 500 corporations, waste food from the cafeteria turns into methane for lighting burners, harvested rainwater is used to cool air-conditioning towers, a paper pulping plant recycles waste paper into writing pads and a micro windmill lights bulbs along the perimeter of the campus. Wipro’s Sarjapur campus a few kilometres away has India’s largest LED installations — all compact fluorescent lamps have been replaced with LED lights, helping save 75 percent in electricity consumption. Since 2003, Wipro has cut water usage in its offices across India by nearly two-thirds.

Read the full article here

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Was it unexpected? Not really.  For anyone who has knowledge of the past record of Reliance Industries, they have always done this.  Merging their subsidiaries with the parent company.  The only thing i was worried about was the merger ratio.  That’s why i kept buying the RPL stock when it was below 100 rupees only.

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), India’s largest company by market capitalisation, has offered one share for every 16 held in Reliance Petroleum (RPL) to merge its refinery subsidiary.  RIL will issue 69.2 million new shares to shareholders of RPL in order to buy back the company and will have 3.7 million shareholders after the merger. RIL’s equity capital will rise to Rs 1,643 crore and the promoter’s holdings will fall by 2 per cent to 47 per cent, the company said in a statement issued today.

Alok Agarwal, RIL’s chief financial officer, told reporters here today that no fresh treasury stock would be created and the parent’s holding in the petroleum unit would be cancelled. Almost 200 million existing treasury shares would continue, he added.

RIL’s absorption of RPL will be tax neutral for both the entities. “This merger is not about tax benefits. As far as taxation is concerned, the SEZ refinery is a separate undertaking. Both refineries will retain their tax benefits,” Agarwal said.

“This is about size, this is about diversification,” Agarwal said, adding the merger would give RIL the ability to take on projects much larger than done before.  RIL has set April 1, 2008 for the date of the amalgamation. The takeover is subject to approvals by the high courts at Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

Full article here.

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• Liberalizing the economy in the 90s as Finance Minister with Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao.

• Breaking the shackles of nuclear isolation in 2008

Its an envious stature for a person who was always mentioned as the “reluctant PM” unlike so many of his detractors and rivals who believe the PM’s post is god given for them.

Encyclopedias of data are around to stress either sides of the nuclear deal.  Only time will tell who was right or wrong. As of now, let’s see how this deal will affect India.

The deal with the US entails India to continue with its dual path of nuclear technology; for both military as well as civilian uses (energy, medical, space etc).  The nuclear reactors for civilian purposes will be open to IAEA inspections.  The reactors meant for military purposes will be out of bounds for the IAEA. India can buy / tie-up for nuclear material and technology from any country.   In fact, India has already signed a treaty with France that has given it unlimited access to technology as well as reprocessing of the spent fuel.  A similar deal with Russia is expected to be signed when the Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev visits India in December. India can still pursue its nuclear weapons technology without any hindrance. In short, the world now, has the 6^th declared nuclear power in the form of India.

If India explodes a nuclear bomb (for testing purposes)

The US will stop all nuclear co-operation.  India will have to return all the fuel given to it till then.  There will be a one year cooling down period where both parties (India & USA) will talk, deliberate and break heads on how to go along or if not they should part.  During this one year period, if they reach a deal, they continue or else its all over between them.

How does this affect India’s deal with France (already signed, details yet to be released) or Russia (details of which will be available only after the December signing), will be only known in some time to come.

India’s position on nuclear testing

Soon after the nuclear testing in 1998, the Vajpayee led BJP government declared a unilateral moratorium over further testing.  The Vajpayee government assured the world, that it would keep its promise of keeping a lid on further testing.  So, that demolishes all the opposition that BJP has over testing.  The Congress government has merely reiterated what the BJP government had proclaimed in 1998.  Its an accepted fact that India no longer needs any more testing (according to scientists and the party in power in 1998).  Any more noise that the BJP makes over this issue is just plain politicking which can be ignored.

Economic benefits for India due to the nuclear deal

• The agreement could open up around $27 billion in investments in 18-20 nuclear plants over the next 15 years, according to the Confederation of Indian Industry.

• By 2030, the overall economic benefits that will accrue to India’s economy as a result of nuclear trade could touch $500 billion, says Imagindia Institute, an Indian lobby group.

• The deal is expected to double nuclear power’s share in India’s electricity supply to five to seven per cent in the next two decades.

• With nuclear fuel in short supply, India’s nuclear power plants are running at 55 per cent of their capacity of about 4,000 megawatts.

• India’s electricity supply, about 15 per cent short of demand in peak hours, will get a boost after the deal, but any new nuclear power plant may take a decade to be completed, leaving the country dependent of coal and liquid fuels.

• Indian media say the country’s monopoly Nuclear Power Corp has tentatively picked four suppliers, including US-based Westinghouse Electric and France’s Areva, for planned new projects. Westinghouse is a unit of Toshiba Corp. Areva said on Monday that it hoped to sign a contract with Indian authorities to deliver two advanced EPR reactors.

• India is also reported to be negotiating with General Electric, Hitachi and Russia’s atomic energy agency Rosatom.

• Russia is already building two 1,000 megawatt reactors at Kudankulam in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu as part of a deal signed in 1988. Indian officials say the two countries will begin discussions on a multi-billion dollar agreement to build four more nuclear reactors in Kudankulam which has been delayed because of international restrictions against New Delhi. Russian nuclear reactors cost up to $2 billion each but India could expect to get a hefty discount on such a major deal, as Russia competes with the United States for influence in India.

Above info courtesy: IBNlive

This is not to count the approximate generation capacity of 60,000 MW of power by nuclear means by the year 2030 and the billions of dollars of technology exchange between India and the other countries in Space technology, Medicine, Science and other high tech industries.

Why is the Left against the deal?

Simply because their masters in China have paid them to behave that way.  The Left (CPI – CPM) never had any issues with China being a nuclear power or their nuclear testing. They sided with China during the 1962 war.  Its just natural that the mongrel is being faithful to the master.  The Commies have problems with everything US and when asked why they were not complaining against the Indian deal with France, they had no comments.  That simply shows how hollow their ideology is.  They love to oppose for the sake of opposing.

Why is BJP against the deal?

Because they just cant believe that a person who was so reluctant to be the Prime Minister has pulled off the deal.  Its a known fact that the BJP was on the verge of signing the NPT deal and giving away the nuclear sovereignty on a platter.  Even though the BJP was in power when the nuclear testing happened, its the Manmohan Singh government that has brought India out of a 34 year nuclear isolation.  They simply can’t accept the fact that their Iron man (sic) LK Advani, the perennial PM in waiting couldn’t get a chance to negotiate the deal.  Its a plain and simple case of the fox that didnt get the grapes and declared it sour.

Why the SP is in favour of this deal?

The Amar Singh – Mulayam Singh combo of Samajwadi Party needed someone to cling on to.  The Mayawati government was hot on the heels of the SP duo in UP fostering cases of corruption against them, hence the temporary deal with Congress.

So, will the Congress win the elections on this issue?

NO.  They wont.  The Indian electorate still loves mandir, masjid, gurudwara, church, SC, ST, OBC, hindutva, swadeshi, sycophancy, religion, region, family kinda politics.  And then they wonder why the country is so screwed up.

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So, its least surprising to know that inspite of the assurances given by Chinese President Hu Jintao to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on their previous meeting, China used the non-proliferation supporters (Ireland, New Zealand, Netherlands etc) to torpedo the NSG waiver to India. It was only after a personal call from George Bush to Hu Jintao and his typical “My way or the highway” straight talk that the Chinese relented.

Under criticism from India on the nuclear waiver, China is on the defensive for its role at the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) meeting in Vienna. But the visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi has denied that China tried to sabotage India’s chances at getting the NSG waiver.

India has reportedly registered its strong disappointment with Yang over the country’s role at the NSG meeting in Vienna.  Chinese President Hu Jintao had assured Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that Beijing would do nothing to spoil India’s chances at the NSG.

But at the NSG, China relented only after a phone call from US President George W Bush, apparently disregarding India’s own missives in that regard. China, which had earlier given to India signals of positive cooperation in the NSG came out openly with reservations at the Vienna NSG meet last week joining some ‘hold out’ countries virtually threatening to stall the move for NSG waiver to New Delhi.

The Chinese Ambassador in Delhi was reportedly summoned to the External Affiars Ministry in the early on Saturday to convey the Indian government’s unhappiness over Beijing’s role. In Monday’s statement, China welcomed the NSG granting a waiver but hoped this cooperation should be “conducive” to safeguarding the global nuclear non-proliferation efforts.

“China hopes that the decision will contribute to peaceful use of nuclear energy and international cooperation on nuclear non-proliferation,” the statement said.

Beijing’s statement is being seen as a move to assuage New Delhi which has conveyed its unhappiness over the Chinese position at the NSG meet. The tough negotiations in Vienna went down to the wire after China, which had sounded positive in the run-up to the NSG  meeting, took a different line creating problems for a consensus on the waiver.

Full news report here.

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What the Congress has managed is a far far superior deal than what BJP could do.  No wonder the heart burn among the chaddi gang and the name calling of the Prime Minister.  They simply cant believe that the wily sardar has simply stolen the thunder from right under their nose.

As for the commies, no comments.  One doesnt need to bother much about mad barking dogs.  Prakash Carrot Karat, Bardhan, Raja (all are on the Chinese payroll and hence loyal pets to their masters). They thrive in the gutters and are better left there.

Meanwhile i would love to see Advani’s sorry face.  He’s nowhere to be seen these days.  Maybe he’s reconciled to the fact that he might never be able to become the Prime Minister of India

The group of nations which regulates the global nuclear trade has approved a US proposal to lift restrictions on selling nuclear technology to India. The controversial deal now needs to be ratified by the US Congress before it can be implemented.

India says the deal is vital for it to meet its civil energy demands. The approval came after India pledged to keep its nuclear non-proliferation commitments and to uphold a voluntary moratorium on testing atomic weapons.

The real leaders in the whole deal has been none other than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and George Bush. Though Bush had nothing to lose even in case the deal fell through, it was Manmohan Singh who staked his career and reputaion at the altar of the nuclear deal.  He’s been called the “weakest Prime Minister” by the eternal Prime minister in waiting LK Advani (he never will sit on that seat).  After decimating the opposition in the no confidence deal, the Prime Minister has marshalled his troops for a fine victory at the NSG.

For months, the oscillation continued till Manmohan Singh upped the ante saying he could not renege on this international commitment on a deal he firmly believed was the best for India. Despite critics from within his party, the support of the Gandhis gave him the backing he needed and it was a transformed prime minister who faced Parliament this July in a dramatic vote of confidence.

Eventually the government emerged victorious with a new ally and without the Left. Closely watching India’s domestic battle over the deal was the White House, the deal a personal legacy for an embattled President Bush. After the Iraq fiasco, the Indo-US nuclear agreement was seen by him as a foreign policy coup and a huge opportunity for American business, something he was willing to go the extra mile for.

On Saturday, as China threatened a walk out, President Bush picked up the phone and called his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, a toned down version of his infamous, ‘you are with us, or against us’ rhetoric.  A pact clinched by two men who couldn’t be more unlike each other, one a flamboyant Texan known for his foreign policy gaffes, the other a mild mannered economist turned politician.

In the end however, the two men came together to push through a historic deal for India amid huge domestic and international opposition.

Above pictures and news courtesy: IBNlive, NDTV, Atomic Archive

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Reliance Industries Limited, RIL is looking to foray into nuclear power generation, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting sources. RIL is in talks with a French nuclear power company. RIL and the French company is looking for eight-ten sites in India. RIL has said that it will not comment on market speculation, and has strongly denied a foray into nuclear power generation at this point.

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, RIL had said at the company’s Annual General Meeting that, “The second potential avenue for growth and transformation is in alternative energy. This is a natural extension of our conventional energy portfolio. I will be happy to share with you details once we have a concrete value creating plan in place.

It is not yet known who RIL is talking to, but the company does tend to go and forge partnerships with the largest companies in the world.

Rest of the article here

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