Hi-tech Navy plans to have only BTech officers

April 23, 2012
HI_TECH

New Delhi, April 23: Slowly but surely emerging as a powerful three-dimensional "blue-water'' force to protect India's geo-strategic interests stretching from Hormuz Strait to Malacca Strait, the Navy is now also focusing on creating high-tech "sea warriors''.

The force, in fact, is steaming ahead with plans to ensure all its new officers have BTech degrees because of the unprecedented expansion in warship technology. "The advanced platforms we are inducting, with their state-of-art weapons and other systems, will require all officers to have cutting-edge technical knowledge,'' said Navy's assistant chief of personnel (HRD) Rear Admiral P Ajit Kumar.

"We already have a large number of MTechs, including in areas like nuclear technology. Moreover, we are also looking to send eight officers abroad every year for MTechs in niche areas. Our training pattern is in line with where the First World navies are headed,'' he added.

Navy's ongoing warship, submarine and maritime aircraft acquisition programmes as well as proposed projects in the pipeline will together cost well over Rs 3,00,000 crore over the next 15 years, as was first reported by TOI earlier.

With the "maritime capability perspective plan for 2012-2027'' pegging the number of major warships required at about 150, there are already 44 warships and six submarines on order. Moreover, contracts for another 45 warships, including six new submarines and seven stealth frigates, are in the pipeline.

All this will require a strong sea-warrior cadre. "The government has given us lot of manpower sanctions. We have to step up inductions as well as ensure quality manpower comes in,'' said Rear Admiral Kumar.

In tune with this, the first direct-entry batch of 70 BTech officers will pass out of the Indian Naval Academy (INA) at Ezhimala (Kerala) in June 2013. Plans are also afoot to get the existing BSc degree curriculum converted to a BTech one for naval cadets at the tri-Service National Defence Academy (NDA) in Kadakwasla (Pune).

"Naval cadets, who come to INA for their 7th and 8th semesters after passing out from NDA, get MSc (Tech) degrees as of now. But they will also get BTech degrees in the near future,'' he added.

Concurrently, INA is also set for a major expansion at a cost of around Rs 340 crore. From an existing annual capacity of 750 trainees, INA will begin training 1,200 cadets from 2015 onwards. Similarly, the "annual training load'' at INS Chilka will be enhanced to well over 4,500 sailors.

Overall, Navy plans to take the strength of its officer cadre from the existing 8,200 to over 11,000. Similarly, the number of sailors will be enhanced from the current 48,000 to over 60,000 by 2015 or so.

To cater for this, the Navy is also upgrading its selection infrastructure. There are plans for a new selection center at Vizag, with three SSBs (services selection boards), to add to the ones at Bhopal, Bangalore and Coimbatore. There will also be an additional SSB at Diamond Harbour at Kolkata by mid-2013.

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News Network
May 7,2020

New Delhi, May 7: Food ordering and delivery platform Swiggy on Thursday said its co-founder and CTO Rahul Jaimini will move away from active role in the company during the month to pursue another entrepreneurial venture.

Jaimini will be joining Pesto Tech, a career accelerator start-up, as their co-founder, Swiggy said in a statement.

He will continue to be a shareholder and board member of Swiggy, it added.

Functions currently led by Rahul, including platform engineering, analytics, IT and labs, will be realigned to Dale Vaz, Head of Engineering and Data Science, who has been with the company for close to two years, the statement said.

"Technology was crucial to what we set out to build when we started Swiggy. Nandan (Reddy) and I could not have asked for a better partner to handle this aspect of the company," Swiggy co-founder and CEO Sriharsha Majety said.

It was Rahul's immense passion to 'build for the billions' that drove technological innovations that set Swiggy apart as we grew phenomenally over the years, he added.

"Working with technology that has large scale impact is what excites me, and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to do just this at Swiggy and grow tremendously over the years," Jaimini said.

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News Network
June 16,2020

New Delhi, Jun 16: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday demanded a rollback of hike in fuel prices, saying the government's decision to increase the prices of petrol and diesel during the coronavirus crisis is "wholly insensitive" and "ill-advised".

The government is doing nothing short of "profiteering off its people" when they are down and out, she said in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Petrol and diesel prices were hiked for the 10th day in a row on Tuesday.

"I am deeply distressed that in these exceedingly difficult times since the beginning of March, the government has taken the wholly insensitive decision to increase petrol and diesel prices on no less than ten separate occasions," Gandhi said in her letter.

She accused the government of earning an additional revenue of nearly Rs 2.6 lakh crore through these "ill-advised" hikes in excise duty and increase in prices of petrol and diesel.

"I urge you to roll back these increases and pass on the benefit of low oil prices directly to the citizens of this country.

"If you wish for them to be 'self-reliant' then do not place financial fetters on their ability to move forward," the Congress president said.

Gandhi also urged the government to use its resources to put money directly into the hands of those in need in these times of severe hardship.

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Agencies
June 28,2020

New Delhi, Jun 28: Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday targeted former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, saying he was indulging in "shallow-minded" politics and making statements that make Pakistan and China happy when soldiers are fighting a spirited battle.

Shah said the government is ready for a discussion in Parliament about the situation from 1962 (when India-China war took place) and it is sad that a former president of a party making statements, which are being celebrated in Pakistan and China.

The Home Minister's comments came during an interview with ANI when he was asked about Rahul's "Surrender (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi" remarks while criticising the BJP-led government on India-China border row.

Rahul has been consistent in his criticism of the government on the handling of both Covid-19 situation and India-China border row, which escalated into a "violent face-off" earlier this month in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed.

"Let there be a robust debate in Parliament. Let us have one. Let us discuss from 1962. Nobody is scared of debate. But one should not make a statement that makes Pakistan and China happy when the soldiers are fighting a spirited battle and the government is taking strong steps," he said.

Asked whether India can handle the anti-India propaganda unleashed by Rahul's 'Surrender Modi' hashtag, he said the government is capable of handling it but it is a matter of introspection for the former Congress president and his party that their remarks are being used against the country.

Modi's remarks at an all-party meeting that no one has intruded into Indian territory triggered a controversy with a section arguing that it went against the previous statement of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

Claiming that he could not advise Rahul as it is Congress' job to do so, he said the government has fought Covid-19 well but some people have a twisted way of seeing things. He said India fought well against Covid-19 and the statistics will speak for itself as it is much better compared to the world.

Shah said under Modi's leadership, India is going to win both the battles -- Covid-19 and India-China border row.

The Home Minister also refused to be drawn into a question on whether Chinese soldiers are holding on to Indian territory on the border at present, saying the government is doing enough to address border row with China.

"I don't want to do anything that goes against my primary aim of this interview (to highlight the steps taken to fight Covid-19 pandemic in Delhi) and create headlines that keep citizens further in fear," Shah said.

When pointed out that people are also in panic due to the border situation, he said the government has taken steps to address the situation and at an appropriate time he would make comments, if needed.

Asked about his tweets on Emergency, which was targeted by Congress asking whether there is democracy in the BJP, he countered it saying that BJP has presidents L K Advani followed by Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath again, himself and now J P Nadda.

"After Indira-ji, was there any Congress President from outside Gandhi family? What democracy do they talk about? I did not do any politics during Covid-19. You look at my tweets of the past 10 years. Every June 25, I give a statement," he said.

"Emergency should be remembered by people as it attacked the roots of our democracy. No one should ever forget it. There should be awareness about it. It is not about a party but about the attack on the country's democracy," he said.

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