'INS Tarmugli' handed over to Seychelles:
[India News]: New Delhi, Feb 24 : Close on the heels of carrying out a hydrographic survey of the Island nation, India today handed over a patrol craft to the Seychelles.
The patrol craft 'INS Tarmugli' was formally handed over by the Naval Chief Admiral Arun Prakash to Col LF Payet Chief of the staff Seychelles Defence forces in the presence of President James Alix Michel and other top dignataries.
The fast attack craft, with the capability of achieving top speed of 27 knots, is capable of undertaking anti-terrorism, EEZ surveillance, anti smuggling and other roles.
India has also set up a repair facility for the Seychelles coast guard.
Later, the Naval Chief called on the Seychelles President and assured him of India's continued assistance in developing the armed forces of the island. He also offered Indian Naval Air Surveillance for Seychelles EEZ protection and training of Island nation helicopter pilots in India. PTI
The patrol craft 'INS Tarmugli' was formally handed over by the Naval Chief Admiral Arun Prakash to Col LF Payet Chief of the staff Seychelles Defence forces in the presence of President James Alix Michel and other top dignataries.
The fast attack craft, with the capability of achieving top speed of 27 knots, is capable of undertaking anti-terrorism, EEZ surveillance, anti smuggling and other roles.
India has also set up a repair facility for the Seychelles coast guard.
Later, the Naval Chief called on the Seychelles President and assured him of India's continued assistance in developing the armed forces of the island. He also offered Indian Naval Air Surveillance for Seychelles EEZ protection and training of Island nation helicopter pilots in India. PTI "
America's brain drain = India's gain
The highly skilled, Indian-born talent that once flocked to the US is now returning home, "turning America's brain drain into India's brain gain," a report released by a high-tech lobbying group in Silicon Valley said.
Titled 'Losing the Competitive Advantage? The Challenge for Science and Technology in the United States,' the report also says that countries like India and China, through the restructuring of their economies, were dramatically increasing the skill sets of their work force, thereby posing a challenge to the US leadership in the technology domain.
"Public-private partnerships (in India) have invested in technical universities and communications infrastructure to create cutting-edge technology parks in places like Bangalore. This will only make India more competitive and alluring to investors and multinational companies," the report by AeA, formerly known as the American Electronic Association, says.
India is embarking on further reforms to provide labour flexibility, free flows of capital, and desperately needed infrastructure improvement, it says adding that the country, along with China, was catching up in critical areas and has restructured their economy to benefit from the free market system they once resisted.
"They are dramatically increasing the skill sets of their workforce, investing in research and development, and adopting advanced technologies, all to create wealth and spur economic growth," the report says cautioning that America can no longer remain idle if it hopes to continue its lead in science and technology.
Emerging countries are churning out more scientists, engineers and technology workers to staff these nascent industries, while the numbers of students entering these fields in the United States has remained flat.
The United States is cutting research and development funding while foreign governments are creating public-private partnerships to invest in R&D projects and persuade their brightest youth to pursue high-tech careers, the report pointed out.
US policymakers, the media, and the public often underestimate the emerging competitive threat of nations like China and India, it said, adding that these and other countries increasingly offer skilled, educated, professional knowledge-based workers as well.
The US higher education system is also not graduating enough engineers, computer scientists, and mathematicians to support the growth of its high-tech industry, the report notes adding that the country had raised bureaucratic barriers for high-skilled immigration.
"Foreign workers are indispensable to American science and engineering; one out of five US scientists and engineers are foreign-born. Yet, the number of skilled workers immigrating to the United States has declined by 27 per cent between 2001 and 2003," the report said.
"We need to better educate our domestic workforce, tap into the world workforce through immigration, and rebuild a system that supports innovation and technology adoption." AeA President and CEO William T Archey said.
'Panic in Pakistan over Patriot sale to India':
Washington, Feb 20 : There is near panic in the higher echelons of the Pakistan Army following reports that the US is to supply the advanced Patriot missiles to India, a US-based news website reported.
The Pakistan Army believes the supply of the Patriot advanced capability-2 anti-ballistic missile system, capable of shooting down any Pakistani nuclear missiles, will virtually end Islamabad's nuclear deterrence, South Asian Tribune said in a Karachi-datelined report.
It noted that a top-level team of US technical experts was expected in New Delhi this week to brief Indian defence experts on the missiles.
Strategists in the Pakistan Army's Strategic and Planning Division cannot believe that US President George W. Bush could be doing "such a devastating thing to Pakistan", though he calls President Pervez Musharraf his "closest ally and friend in the war against terror", the report said.
"If India gets the Patriot anti-missile defence system, where do we go, because it would be almost impossible to penetrate with the indigenous Ghauris and Hataf missiles that we have," it quoted one "worried analyst" as saying.
It noted that Pakistan defence managers had been claiming over the last few years that a level of deterrence had been achieved with the development of nuclear-capable long and short-range missiles.
It was this deterrence that prevented India and Pakistan from going to war during the military standoff in 2002, the report said.
The Pakistan Army's general headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi is depending wholly on the personal rapport and skills of Musharraf to persuade Bush not to create the huge arms imbalance in the subcontinent, the report said.
"If Musharraf fails, there would be a lot of angry and depressed faces in the GHQ and Musharraf will have to double his own personal security and cut down inter-action with many of his brothers in uniform. He will have to spend more time ensuring his survival," it quoted an analyst as saying.
The report said a four-member team, led by Edward Ross of the Defence Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), would be in New Delhi Feb 20-24 to brief Indian officials about the Patriot system.
The Bush administration gave clearance for a classified technical presentation of the Patriot system as part of the Next Step in Strategic Partnership (NSSP) agreement signed between India and the US last year, including cooperation in missile defence.
The report said: "While the Indian defence establishment is keen to have a look at the PAC-2 system, it has its eyes on the future because this opens the way to PAC-3, the latest upgrade of the anti-missile system developed by US defence majors Raytheon and Lockheed Martin."
PAC-2 is a long-range, all altitude and all weather air defence system to counter tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and advanced aircraft.
Patriots were first used by Israelis in the first Gulf War when Iraqi missiles fired at Israel were intercepted during flight and destroyed. Since then, much advanced versions have been developed.
Till date, Washington has shared this technology, updated in 1991, with key allies, including Israel, Japan, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan.
"Neither China nor Pakistan have this type of anti-ballistic missile capability and the geo-strategic location of Pakistani missiles makes the Patriots more effective as any Pakistani missile could be intercepted in the air while in Pakistani airspace or much before it could reach any major Indian city," the report said.
It said analysts were of the view that the US decision had a lot to do with the "intrinsic lack of trust in Gen. Musharraf and his generals, specially their double games and cover ups of (leading nuclear scientist) Dr A.Q. Khan's nuclear sales network".
"So while the official Pakistani media is spinning yarns about the latest CBMs (confidence building measures) with India and opening of a bus service to Srinagar, the GHQ strategists are in a state of semi-shock as all their levers vis-à-vis India have been neutralised and now Washington is willing to provide the Indians with the capacity to neutralise the nuclear deterrent as well."
