Monthly Archives: August 2018

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during Holi celebrations, in Ahmedabad on March 8, 2023. @AlboMP/PTI
PTI

Ahmedabad, March 8

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday announced that his country and the Indian government have finalised the ‘Australia-India Education Qualification Recognition Mechanism.’ Albanese, on a visit to India, was speaking at a programme here to officially announce that Australia’s Deakin University would be setting up an international branch campus at GIFT City in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar.

“There is a significant development in our bilateral education relations. I am pleased to tell you that we have finalised Australia-India Education Qualification Recognition Mechanism,” he said.

“This new mechanism means that if you are an Indian student who is studying or have studied in Australia, your hard-earned degree will be recognised when you return home. Or if you are a member of Australia’s very large Indian diaspora—5,00,000 and growing—you will feel more confident that your Indian qualification will be recognised in Australia,” he said.

It is the most comprehensive and ambitious arrangement agreed to by India with any country, Albanese said.

“It paved the way for commercial opportunities for Australian education providers to offer innovative and more accessible education to Indian students. And it provides a solid basis for education institutions to consider new ways to partner with each other,” he said.

“It is a fantastic piece of work that will have really tangible benefits,” the visiting prime minister added.

He also announced a new scholarship for Indian students who want to study in Australia.

“I am pleased to announce a new scholarship offering—the Maitri scholarships. This is for Indian students to study in Australia for up to four years. The scholarships are part of the wider Maitri programme that seeks to boost cultural, educational and community ties between Australia and India,” Albanese said.

Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and Governor Acharya Devvrat were also present on the occasion.

Addressing the Naval Commanders’ Conference aboard INS Vikrant, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said “secured borders” are the first requirement to ensure economic progress
New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday (March 6, 2023) reviewed the operational capabilities of the Indian Navy and told the top Naval commanders “to be ready” as future conflicts will be “unpredictable”. During the Naval Commanders’ Conference held aboard India’s first Indigenous Aircraft Carrier INS Vikrant, he examined the operational demonstrations at sea and highlighted the Navy’s capability to undertake multi-dimensional missions towards safeguarding the maritime interests of the country.
“Future conflicts will be unpredictable. The constantly-evolving world order has forced everyone to re-strategise. Constant vigil on the Northern and Western borders as well as the entire coastline must be maintained. We need to be ready to deal with all future challenges,” Singh said.
In his address to the Commanders, the senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader lauded the Indian Navy for “standing firm” and protecting national interests with “courage and dedication”.
He exhorted them to continue focussing on futuristic capability development to effectively overcome the emerging security challenges in the maritime domain.
‘Secured Borders’ First Requirement To Ensure Economic Progress
Rajnath Singh asserted that “secured borders” are the first requirement to ensure social and economic progress and said that India — under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership — is moving forward in ‘Amrit Kaal’ with renewed thrust and zeal to achieve this objective.
“In the next 5-10 years, orders worth over $100 billion are expected to be placed through the defence sector and it will become a major partner in the economic development of the country. Today, our defence sector is on the runway, soon when it takes off, it will transform the country’s economy,” he said.
“If we want to see India among the top economic powers of the world by the end of ‘Amrit Kaal’, we need to take bold steps towards becoming a defence superpower,” Singh added.
Huge Country Like India Needs To Be ‘Completely Self-Reliant’
Rajnath Singh said that a huge country like India needs to be “completely self-reliant” and not dependent on others for its security.
The BJP parliamentarian, who also celebrated ‘Holi’ with the naval personnel on board INS Vikrant, termed the recent announcement of an earmarking record 75% of the defence capital procurement budget for the domestic industry in 2023-24 as a testament to the Government’s “firm commitment to achieve self-reliance in defence manufacturing”.
He listed out numerous steps taken by the Modi Government to achieve ‘Aatmanirbharta’ in defence, including notification of four Positive Indigenisation Lists, increase in FDI limit and creating a favourable environment for Indian vendors including MSMEs.
On the commissioning of INS Vikrant, Singh said that it has further reinforced the belief that India’s Naval designing and development is at a promising stage and more progress will be made in the times to come.

The National Socialist Council of Nagaland has demanded the government of India and Myanmar immediately release all Naga Political Prisoners of War (NPPoW)
In a press release, the NSCN stated that the political conflict between India, Nagalim, and Myanmar has lasted more than seven decades, making it one of modern history’s oldest international conflicts.
The NSCN also alleged that were no official or informal treaties between the Naga people and the British during the colonial British Empire’s occupation of the Free Naga country.
“Similarly, on August 14, 1947, as the British were about to leave the region, the Nagas declared independence. Under these conditions, all countries’ sovereignty must be respected. International law, including the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter, must be strictly followed,” the release added.
The occupying forces, India, and Myanmar must recognize that all countries, large or small, powerful, or weak, rich or poor, are equal members of the international community.
The perspectives of India and Myanmar shaped how the international community viewed the conflict; however, for the Nagas, we are defending our own country against forces that are purely an invasion and illegal occupation by India and Myanmar after the colonial British Empire left the Naga homeland.
While India and Myanmar illegally occupied Naga country, they also systematically framed the conflict as an internal issue, viewing the Nagas defending their own country as a security threat to their respective countries. The conflict has resulted in the detention of numerous Nagas by the respective governments, many of whom have been labelled as “insurgents”, “terrorists”, or arrested under “terror funding”. Mrs. Alemla Jamir, a cabinet minister in the National Socialist Council of Nagalim/Government of the People’s Republic of Nagalim/(NSCN/GPRN), for example, was detained by India on December 17, 2019, at Domestic Airport (T-1) in New Delhi and later arrested in a “terror funding case” and remains in Indian custody.
The self -styled government of the the People’s Republic of Nagalim also raised a series of question for India and the international community are and asked if the NSCN/GPRN is a terrorist organization.
“We urge the international community to uphold and defend international fairness and justice, to promote an equal and uniform application of international law, and to reject double standards. We oppose the occupation of Nagalim, and the international community must immediately call India and Myanmar’s illegal occupation into question,” the release stated.
The NSCN also said that the international community should remain committed to the right approach of promoting peace talks, assisting India, Nagalim, and Myanmar in the conflict, and creating conditions and platforms for the three entities to resume negotiations or call for an immediate withdrawal of occupying forces from Nagalim.

New York: Ministry of External Affairs Under Secretary Jagpreet Kaur on Wednesday said the entire Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh is an integral and inalienable part of India.
“We reject the factually incorrect and unwarranted references to India in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) statement. The entire territory of Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh is an integral and inalienable part of India. OIC has lost its credibility by taking a blatantly, partisan and factually incorrect approach on this issue,” the MEA Under Secretary said at the UN 17th Meeting of the 52nd Regular Session of Human Rights.
She said India denies the baseless allegations.
The response by India came after Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari recently mentioned “occupied” Jammu and Kashmir several times while speaking about violence and crimes against women in his remarks to the Council debate on women, peace and security held under Mozambique’s Presidency for this month, on the eve of International Women’s Day.
Kaur, speaking at the UN meeting, said further, “It is chronicle that Pakistan’s own institutions, legislations and policies over the course of seven decades have denied its population and the people in the territories under its control. These truths have obliterated their hope of true democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice.”
She said it is especially true for the people in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh who have been politically repressed and persecuted. Non-discrimination remains a far cry in today’s Pakistan.
“The state of freedom of religion or belief and the plight of its minorities is well documented by this Council’s Human rights mechanisms, including treaty bodies and Universal Periodic Review (UPR),” she said.
“Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Ahmadiyyas, Hazaras, and Shias have been targeted by blasphemy laws that carry draconian penalties, including mandatory death sentences. In the face of recommendations that Pakistan has received, in January 2023, its National Assembly amended the Criminal Law to enhance the punishment for insulting sacred personalities from imprisonment of three to ten years,” the MEA Under Secretary added in her scathing response.
Further, Kaur said Pakistan’s apathy to its minorities is evident from last month’s vigilante action in Nankana Sahib where a mob stormed a police station in broad daylight and lynched a blasphemy suspect.
“While Pakistan masquerades as a champion of human rights, its top leadership has in the past openly acknowledged creating terrorist groups and training them to fight in Afghanistan and the Indian Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir,” she said.
She added, “Its policies to aid and abet terrorism have been directly responsible for the violation of human rights, including the right to life of people, not only in India but in our region and the whole world. Not surprisingly, it is now a victim of its own malevolent state policies of nurturing terror organizations as it is beset with a wide range of serious human rights concerns and other crisis especially at the current juncture.”

PTI

United Nations, March 8

India tore into Pakistan after its foreign minister raised the issue of Jammu and Kashmir at a Security Council debate on women, peace and security, saying it is “unworthy” to even respond to such “malicious and false propaganda”.

Responding to Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s remarks on Jammu and Kashmir, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj on Tuesday termed his statement as “baseless and politically motivated”.

“Before I conclude, let me dismiss the frivolous, baseless and politically motivated remarks made by the delegate of Pakistan regarding the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir,” she said.

Speaking at the UN Security Council open debate on ‘Women, Peace and Security’, Kamboj said: “My delegation considers it unworthy to even respond to such malicious and false propaganda.”

“Rather, our focus is where it shall always be – positive and forward-looking. Today’s discussion is critically important to strengthen our collective efforts to accelerate the full implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda. We respect the topic of the debate and recognise the importance of time. As such, our focus shall remain on the topic,” she said. 

hinese President Xi Jinping attends a session of China’s National Peoples Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, on March 7, 2023. AP/PTI
Reuters

Beijing, March 8

China needs to improve its use of defence resources such as technology, supply chain and national reserves “to strengthen its army and win wars”, President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday.

Xi is commander-in-chief of China’s armed forces and is due to be formally re-elected as president later this week.

Consolidating and improving “integrated strategic capabilities” is a new requirement set by the ruling Communist Party, Xi told representatives of the People’s Liberation Army and the military police during the annual session of parliament, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Wearing a Chinese suit in army green colour, he reminded the military that it must be led by the party. Xi secured a precedent-breaking third term as party chief last year.

“China needs to better use defence science, technology and industry to strengthen its army and win wars,” Xi said.

He asked national laboratories to accelerate their research in defence technology so that China would not have to rely on foreign countries.

He also said that industry supply chains must be more resilient and called for more infrastructure building and the setting-up of national reserves for defence purposes.

Xi did not specify what the “strategic risks”, as he put it, were that the military needed to address.

China is taking an increasingly assertive stance towards the United States and other countries and has never renounced the use of force to take back Taiwan, which rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claim over it.

With Indo-Pacific getting heated with China threatening the US over Taiwan, India’s two aircraft carriers will be battle-ready post-monsoon and will project dominance in the Indian Ocean region and synergize with QUAD navies
Indian Navy is racing against time to get aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya battle-ready before the onset of monsoon with fighter operations to begin at the end of this month even as the second aircraft carrier INS Vikrant will be fully operational post monsoon.
It is understood that the Indian Navy’s battle posture was discussed during the Naval Commanders meeting onboard INS Vikrant this week with a MiG-29K fighter and TEJAS-M landing on the deck of India’s latest aircraft carrier. Powered by GE-turbine engines, the new vessel with fighters and anti-submarine warfare helicopters is set to dominate the Indo-Pacific in the coming years.
While the sea trials to make INS Vikrant fully battle ready are on, INS Vikramaditya will be handed over to the Indian Navy after a 15 month major overhaul by March 31. It is understood that fighter test landings and take-offs will soon begin after the handing over with the 45000 ton aircraft carrier with complement of MiG-29K fighters battle ready before May 2023.
With both aircraft carriers battle-ready this year, the Narendra Modi government will have to take a decision on acquisition of 26 fighters including eight trainers for INS Vikrant. Even though US Boeing has offered to shift its F-18 manufacturing line to India, the other viable option is the French Rafale-M fighter which has operational commonality with IAF’s Rafale fighters. The two fighters were tested by the Indian Navy at its Goa based shore test facility last year and the report has been forwarded to the Department of Military Affairs to take a final decision based on the advice of the government.
The operationalization of both the aircraft carriers this year comes at a time when the PLA Navy is expanding its war fleet rapidly and is currently operating three aircraft carriers with the latest Fujian launched in June 2022. With the Xi Jinping regime making threatening noises to take over Republic of Taiwan, the US has also decided to replace Japan based USS Ronald Reagan, its sole forwardly deployed carrier, by 2025. The present warship will be replaced by USS George Washington with new unmanned refuelling drone capabilities that will allow the fighters on board to be refuelled some 800 kilometers away from the nuclear powered aircraft carrier. This will allow US aircraft carriers to operate beyond the reach of Chinese intermediate range DF-21 “carrier killer” missiles and allow America to send its carrier-based fighters to contested areas from long distances with unmanned refuelers.
With China expected to send carrier patrols into the Indian Ocean by 2025, the QUAD navies will have enough firepower to deter any PLA Navy misadventure in the Indo-Pacific. India’s two aircraft carriers will be also patrolling the Indo-Pacific but their prime focus will remain the Indian Ocean Region right up to Australia and Africa’s eastern seaboard.

Our Correspondent

Tarn Taran, March 7

A flying object suspected to be a drone intruded into the Indian airspace from the Pakistan side on Tuesday night at 2.51 am near border pillar number 154 falling under border observation post Harbhajan under Khemkaran police station.

BSF sources said that at 2.51 am, BSF personnel heard the buzzing sound of a flying object, suspected to be a drone coming from the Pakistan side to the Indian side.

BSF personnel fired 56 rounds but could not neutralise the flying object.

A search operation was carried out by the BSF in the area today but nothing incriminating was found.

BSF fire 56 rounds

• BSF sources said that at 2.51 am, BSF personnel heard the buzzing sound of a flying object, suspected to be a drone coming from the Pakistan side to the Indian side
• BSF personnel fired 56 rounds but could not neutralise it
• A search operation was carried out by the BSF in the area on Tuesday but nothing incriminating was found

PTI

Guwahati, March 8

Five men were arrested from Nagaon and Morigaon districts of Assam for allegedly supplying SIM cards to Pakistani agents, a police spokesperson said on Wednesday.

Several mobile phones, SIM cards and other incriminating materials, including a handset used to share defence information with a foreign embassy, were seized, he said.

Assam Police spokesperson Prasanta Bhuyan said the arrests were made during an operation carried out on Tuesday night, based on inputs from Intelligence Bureau and other sources.

“There were inputs that around 10 people from these two districts were involved in fraudulently procuring SIM cards from different service providers and supplying those to some Pakistani agents, thus working against the integrity and sovereignty of the nation,” he said.

Five of the accused were arrested on Tuesday night, he added.

Those arrested were identified as Ashiqul Islam, Bodor Uddin, Mijanur Rahman and Wahiduz Zaman, all from Nagaon, and Baharul Islam from Morigaon.

Among the items recovered from the arrested people and houses of the other five absconding accused are 18 mobile phones, 136 SIM cards suspected to have been procured for fraudulent purposes, one fingerprint scanner, one high-tech CPU and some documents such as birth certificates, passbooks and photographs.

During interrogation, it was revealed that Ashiqul Islam was using a mobile handset with two IMEI numbers from which a WhatsApp call was made, sharing defence information with a foreign embassy.

“That specific mobile phone was found in his possession. Other nabbed people were also found technically involved in this connection. A thorough interrogation along with the IB officials is under way,” Bhuyan added. 

Lahore, March 8

 Pakistani police lobbed tear gas shells and baton-charged supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan in clashes which injured several on both sides on Wednesday, a government minister and his party said.

The clashes erupted in the eastern city of Lahore ahead of a Khan’s planned rally to kick-start his election campaign, but which the government then banned.

The former premier has been demanding snap polls since he was ousted in a parliament vote of confidence last year. His successor has rejected the demand and stated elections would be held as scheduled later this year.

Khan was shot and wounded at one of his own political rallies last year.

Wednesday’s rally was banned owing to a threat to the law and order situation as there were International Women’s Day gatherings in the area, provincial information minister Amir Mir said, adding supporters attacked the police when they were ordered to disperse.

“In retaliation, police used water cannons, tear gas and batons to disperse them,” Mir told Reuters. He said at least seven police officials were injured. Twelve workers of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party were arrested, he added.

Khan’s aide Shafqat Mahmood said several of the workers were injured in the clashes, which, he termed, “fascist tactics.” Live TV footage showed the police using extensive teargas shelling on several spots around Khan’s Lahore home, with a couple of the workers seen bleeding.

Khan, who has been embroiled in several court cases since his ouster, is wanted in court on March 13 to defend charges that he unlawfully sold state gifts misusing his office from 2018 to 2022.

His party called off the rally after the clashes. Reuters