India, US renew defence pact; to pursue co-production projects

January 25, 2015

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New Delhi, Jan 25: Vowing to take defence ties to a "new level", India and the US today renewed their 10-year Defence Framework Agreement and agreed in principle to pursue joint development and production projects.

The new framework will enhance bilateral defence partnership by stepping up joint military exercises and through more in-depth intelligence-sharing, maritime security efforts among others.

"Today, we have also decided to take our growing defence cooperation to a new level. We have agreed, in principle, to pursue co-development and co-production of specific advanced defence projects," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said after holding extensive talks with visiting US President Barack Obama here.

Modi said this will help upgrade country's domestic defence industry and expand the manufacturing sector in India.

He added that both countries will also explore cooperation in other areas of advanced defence technologies.

The Prime Minister did not specify what these projects were.

"We have renewed our Defence Framework Agreement. We will deepen our cooperation on maritime security," he said in a joint media interaction.

Obama, who arrived today on a three-day visit, welcomed the renewal of the pact and said it will guide the bilateral defence cooperation for next ten years.

"We agreed to deepen our defence and security cooperation.... And in a major step forward for our relationship, defence technology and trade initiative will allow us to jointly develop and produce defence technologies," he said.

Obama added that both Modi and he have also agreed to a "new vision for Asia Pacific".

"We are doing together more to advance our shared security and prosperity in this critical region," he said.

The first framework agreement, which expires this year, was signed in the US in 2005 by the then Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his US counterpart in the previous George W.Bush administration, Donald Rumsfeld.

The most-significant aspect would be the Defence Trade and Technology Initiative (DTTI) — aimed at enhancing the ones existing under the Defence Policy Group, which lay out the path for future defence cooperation.

The US is pushing for what it calls "transformative defence technologies" for co-development and co-production with India under DTTI, which could become the hallmark of the Modi government's 'Make-in-India' initiative.

The US has offered India 17 hi-tech items of military hardware for co-production and co-development under DTTI.

Of the 17, India is understood to be interested in five, including unarmed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and aircraft landing system for aircraft carriers.

Hectic parleys were being held between the two countries on the defence front.

Frank Kendall, Under Secretary of Defence for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (AT&L), arrived earlier this week here to hold discussions with Indian officials to come up with some "concrete" deliverables.

He is the Pentagon's point person on India-related defence issues, in particular on the India-US Defence Trade and Technology Initiative (DTTI).

His primary objective is to continue momentum on DTTI, which promotes collaboration on defence technology and enables co-production and co-development of critical defence systems.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had earlier said expansion of DTTI with the US can be expected during the high-profile visit.

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News Network
July 18,2020

Ayodhya, Jul 18: The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust has invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lay the foundation stone of a grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya either on August 3 or 5, both auspicious dates, said a spokesperson.

PM Modi had announced the formation of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust on February 5.

Mahant Kamal Nayan Das, the spokesperson of Ram Mandir Trust president Nritya Gopal Das said, "We have suggested two auspicious dates -- August 3 and 5 -- for the prime minister's visit based on calculations of movements of stars and planets."

After a protracted legal tussle, the Supreme Court had on November 9 last year paved the way for the construction of a Ram Temple by a Trust at the disputed site in Ayodhya and directed the Centre to allot an alternative 5-acre plot to the Sunni Waqf Board for building a new mosque at a "prominent" place in the holy town in Uttar Pradesh.

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Agencies
February 20,2020

Kanpur, Feb 20: Inspector general, Kanpur range, has ordered a probe into a woman's allegation that the cops misbehaved with her at Raipurwa police station when she went there with her father to lodge a complaint of harassment and eve-teasing.

The woman posted her complaint on the Twitter handle of Kanpur police.

The woman, 21, alleged that instead of listening to her complaint, Raipurwa cops asked her, "Zyada padh gayi ho, itna advance kisne bana dia hai, tumhare Papa ne?" (You are too educated. Who made you so advanced - your father?)

She further said that instead of taking necessary action on her complaint, the police forced her father to compromise with the accused, the son of her landlord, who harassed her on Monday.

The woman also stated that there were no female cops at the police station and she had to wait for several hours.

"Throughout my presence at the police station, I had to interact with male cops," she tweeted.

Inspector, Raipurwa, Sunil Kumar, however, has denied allegations.

"Her allegations are not true. Both the parties settled the dispute on their own," he said.

IG Range, Mohit Agarwal, meanwhile, said, "I have asked the SSP to initiate a probe in this regard and take action against guilty cops."

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Agencies
June 27,2020

Mumbai, Jun 27: The Shiv Sena on Saturday hit out at the BJP over its charge that the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) had accepted donations from the Chinese embassy, and asked it whether the issue had any connection with intrusion by the neighbouring country in Ladakh and the martyrdom of 20 Indian soldiers.

The Sena also alleged that those raising questions against the government over the standoff with China were being labelled as Chinese agents by the BJP.

BJP chief J P Nadda had on Thursday targeted the Congress and the Gandhi family saying that the RGF had allegedly accepted donations from the Chinese embassy. Hitting back, the Congress had said that the RGF issue raised by the BJP government was a "manufactured charge" and "diversionary tactic" to deflect attention from the LAC crisis.

"What do you mean by Congress gets money from China? Instead of responding to the issues raised by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi over the Chinese incursions, the BJP leaders accused the Congress of receiving funds from China," the Sena said in an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana'.

"Will BJP's revelations about the donations stop the Chinese activities along the border? The BJP should tell what connection does these donations have with the Chinese incursion and the martyrdom of 20 soldiers," it added.

"In our country, many political leaders and parties, and not just the Congress, are beneficiaries of foreign countries. The BJP speaking about this is like throwing stones in the mud," it said.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led party said that Chinese President Xi Jinping visited India twice in the last six years.

"He was hosted in Gujarat. But it is a fact that China has betrayed. Holding talks on the one hand and continuing with the offensive along the border on the other hand is China's old policy," it said.

In the present scenario, the entire country stands firmly with PM Modi. This crisis is not for the BJP or the Congress, but for the entire country, whose prestige is at stake, it said.

"The BJP can fight with the Congress any time later.

But now is the time to fight against China. It should speak on that," the Sena said.

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