A load of crap from an idle brain

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin closed more than $10 billion in agreements with India, increasing Russia’s role as a partner in defense, nuclear energy, aerospace and communications.

“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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Leander Paes equalled the record for most Grand Slam title triumphs by an Indian as the veteran and his Zimbabwean partner Cara Black clinched the Australian Open mixed doubles Championship with a straight-set win here on Sunday. Top seeds and favourites, the 36-year-old Paes and the 30-year-old Black beat 10th seeds Ekaterina Makarova of Russia and Jaroslav Levinsky of Czechoslovakia 7-5 6-3 in just about one and a half hour.

The triumph gave the Indian his 11th overall and fifth mixed doubles title. With this, Paes has equalled one-time doubles’ partner Mahesh Bhupathi’s tally. The last couple of times they reached a Grand Slam final, Paes and Black ended up on the losing side and eager to make amends for that, they were dominant from the word go.

They broke their rivals as early as in the third game and save for a couple of breaks lost on Black’s serve, the Indo-Zimbabwean pair seemed hardly troubled by Makarova and Levinsky, who committed far too many unforced errors. Black, whose net game and serve were the weak links for the top seeds, raised her game when it mattered after getting some pep talk from Paes.

Full article here

Above picture source: Topnews

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Picked this book at the library just for the heck of it and it really turned out to be a racy read.  Andy Hayman, Asst Commisioner at the Scotland Yard was in overall command of the counter terrorism offensive at the time of the bombings in the bus and train tunnels in London.

He writes about the way the police along with the MI5, MI6, and various other investigative agencies put the pieces together in the biggest manhunt ever undertaken in the UK to catch the culprits involved in the mayhem.

Andy also goes about his frustration with the inefficient policing and investigative system; the self centered politician who wants his 2 minutes of fame; the ego clashes within the police department which are neatly exploited by the terrorists etc.

Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman, CBE, QPM, was in overall command of the UK’s national counter-terrorism offensive, at the centre of every major terrorist investigation – overt and covert – of the past five years. He handled the Metropolitan Police’s response to 7/7 and dealt with the politically explosive murder of the Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko.

Based at New Scotland Yard, in charge of thousands of Special Branch and counter-terrorism officers in the UK and across the globe, deciding strategy, working directly with the Prime Minister with a budget of GBP500 million, Hayman is able to give unprecedented insight into key top-level crisis meetings he attended with intelligence chiefs and political leaders worldwide. In an inspirational and at times heart-breaking account, he describes how he led a dedicated team of men and women, committed to protecting the UK from dangerous enemies. Hayman lived through the pain and soul-searching when terrorists did succeed – and the pride when intelligence officers prevented attacks.

Andy Hayman leaves no holds barred in his analysis of the way law enforcers tackle terrorism. He outlines his radical blueprint for the future to protect the public, in the run-up to the 2012 Olympic Games and beyond. If you thought you knew the stories behind the news, you’ll realise you didn’t until you read this book.

The Terrorist Hunters
Authors – Andy Hayman & Margaret Gilmore
Pages – 352
Publisher – Bantam Press

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Time changes, people change, economies change and the powers wielded by countries change.  There was a time when Britain ruled half the world, today its nowhere.  There was a time when the US was the undisputed economic champion, today that aura is on the wane.

Its in these changing times we wonder if a group that consists of countries like Italy, Canada etc wield any power when the world is going throught the worst recession (courtesy the developed countries).  Of course the US, Japan and Germany are also a part of the G-7 group of countries, but do they really have any clout?  The G-7 as usual came out with a statement asking China to re-value it currency and hardly anyone cared a hoot.

After decades in charge, the club of rich, industrialised nations is fast losing sway as a share of global economic power shifts towards big developing countries. That was a lesson of the Group of Seven’s meeting in Istanbul at the weekend, when the absence of China showed the G7 could no longer tackle the world’s economic problems on its own.

Finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the G7 implored China in a diplomatically worded statement to let the Chinese currency rise, as they have done for several years. But China showed no sign of complying, and the G7 spent much of its time to discussing whether it should meet less often, with less pomp and perhaps with fewer public statements.

G7 statements have all too often “interested nobody because there’s no follow-up most of the time”, said Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund.

Read the full article here

The G-7 or the group of Industrialized countries comprise

Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, United States

The G-20 comprises of

Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa,  South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, European Union

A G-7 official hit the nail on the head when he mentioned

“The moment you have to tell people you are still relevant, it’s because you are not relevant,”

Above picture source: Astrocrush

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Other countries are taking benefits of all the hardwork done by the Bush government in signing the nuclear deal with India.  After US, France, Russia, Kazhakstan, Namibia, its the turn of Mongolia to sign the nuclear deal with India.

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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In the IPL and cricket mania, its very difficult to find more information about such a sport.  A stupendous effort by the players inspite of the fact that their effort gets no recognition in the Indian press.

Jayanta Talukdar clinched the men’s individual recurve gold and helped India win the team event in the Archery World Cup Stage 2 at Porec, Croatia, on Saturday.

Talukdar upset Athens Olympicgold medallist Marco Galiazzo of Italy 110-108 in the final to clinch his second gold. Earlier, the trio of Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee and Mangal Singh Champia won India the men’s recurve team gold.

Jayanta Talukdar

This was the trio’s second consecutive team gold after bagging the first at Santo Domingo World Cup Stage 1 on April 5. India had beaten Great Britain in Stage 1 final.The trio had bagged India the first team gold in World Cup series winning at Antalya (Turkey) in 2008. This was followed by two more already this year.

Talukdar also won his third head-to-head contest against the Italian Galiazzo, all played at Porec. He first tamed Galiazzo in 2006 on way to the gold medal, and again beat him in 2008 and now in the final today. Talukdar held the lead in the first two ends of three arrows each at 55-52. He surprisingly conceded two points in the third end to allow the Italian to narrow the gap to 81-82.

Mangal Singh Champia

When Galiazzo hit an eight with his second arrow of the final end of the three arrows, the Indian needed a nine to win. Talukdar hit a 10 to take the second crown in Porec. The women’s recurve team, however, failed to clinch the bronze medal losing the play-off to Ukraine 197-212.

In the men’s team summit clash, Russia trailed by one point (54-55) in the first end, recovered in the second end to tie the match at 108 points at halfway mark. However, India took the lead in the third end at 164-162. Russia showed their best in the last end, but it was not enough to beat the Indians.

Rahul Banerjee

In the women’s third place play-off, it was pretty good performance in dusty conditions as Indian eves took 53-49 lead in the first end. They, however, could not overcome the windy conditions as they did in the first end and went on a wayward shooting, 7-9-8-8-9-6, all on the right side of the target.

The Ukrainians tied the match at 100 points and took the lead in the third end at 154-150. The last end for India was stressful as the last arrow slipped from the arrow rest as Ukraine eves settled the issue. Archery Association of India president VK Malhotra and secretary general Paresh Nath Mukherjee congratulated the winners.

Article courtesy: Rediff and pictures source: Hindu, Tata Steel & NDTV

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From left Parvathy Omanakuttan of India (1st runner up), Kseniya Sukhinova of Russia (Miss World 2008), Gabrielle Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago (2nd runner up).

Above picture courtesy: IBNLive

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Russia on Friday became the third country after the US and France to sign a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with India since this country acquired the waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). The agreement was signed in the presence of President Dmitry Medvedev and PM Manmohan Singh.

In the initial stages, Russia will help India build two additional nuclear power plants at Kundakulum. Even before the NSG waiver, Russia was helping India build two 1,000 MW nuclear power plants at the same site. The Russians, however, had to wait for the NSG waiver to India for a more more focused nuclear cooperation. More such power plants of Russian design, according to the two sides, will come up at other places in the country. The location for at least two more nuclear power plants is being finalised.

The modalities of the agreement had been thrashed out in November 2007 during Singh’s visit to Moscow but India refrained from signing it citing the need for a clearance from the NSG.

The two sides also signed agreements in other fields like defence, space, trade and commerce.

Full article here

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