Tribune News Service,Amritsar, December 15

The ABVP’S youth wing cited a survey report to indicate that recruitment in the Indian Armed forces from Punjab had reduced significantly, and the youth have been made unfit for Army owing to the drug menace. While many still contemplate on these report and the fact that the findings might be true, two young boys from Amritsar have managed to dress in olive green and proudly so.Lieutenant Ranjit Singh Gill and Lieutenant Iqbal Singh have taken the oath to serve the Army and have been recently commissioned to the mechanised infantry. Clearing the air about the hesitation of the youth from Punjab in donning olive green, 29-year-old officer Ranjit said, “The recruitment at the officer level has been less as compared to other jobs and there have been less selections overall.”Ranjit though says that the tough interview and training course requires focus and determination. “One has to dedicate oneself to the job. My passing out course was 138 regular.”Belonging to Bhure Gill village, near Ajnala, Ranjit completed his graduation from Khalsa College before training for four years to become an officer. “I trained at Army Cadet College and then at IAFA, Dehradun. I was recruited in the Army Education Corp and it’s a great privilege to become the first officer from my village,” he said. He also completed his Masters of Business Administration from Sikkim Manipal University and is now looking forward to his long years in service.Lieutenant Iqbal Singh followed in his father’s footsteps and joined Army. “My father retired as Subedar Major and I have always wanted to serve.”

NEW DELHI: Congress MP Deepender Hooda slammed the Centre for bringing in a flawed OROP scheme, blaming it for the agitation among ex-servicemen despite the implementation of the pension.

Raising the issue in Lok Sabha during zero hour, Hooda clashed with the Chair and was reprimanded. He then walked out and spoke to reporters about the grievances of ex-servicemen.

Deepender said the OROP notification lay down that pension be reviewed every five years, adding the misplaced provision would make it ‘one rank-five pension’. He demanded that the pension review should happen every year.
He said premature retirement remains outside the ambit of OROP, attacking the government decision to keep the armed personnel motivated by allowing 3.1% of them to leave army annually.

The Rohtak MP demanded that those opting for premature retirement should be included in the ambit of OROP, and a new notification be issued to remove both these flaws.

“Because of these flaws, retired servicemen have been protesting for past 180 days. Despite the promise of implementing OROP within 100 days of coming to power, it has not been implemented after the passage of 600 days,” he claimed.

He had moved an adjournment notice to discuss the grievances of protesting retired armed personnel which was not allowed by the chair.

Simran Sodhi
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 6

As Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe prepares for his mid-December India visit, the government is hopeful that ties between the two nations, which have got better of late, will get further boost.
The progress can be attributed to the China factor and its recent aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea, which has seen Japan and India move closer. Another reason could be the “personal chemistry” shared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Japanese counterpart.
While the dates for the visit are yet to be announced, sources said it could be December 11-12. On the second day of his visit, Abe is likely to travel to Modi’s constituency Varanasi and may also pay his respects at Sarnath. It has been learnt that Foreign Ministry officials have been working with other central agencies to take care of this visit.
Of late, India-Japan relations have grown in many dimensions. The civil nuclear co-operation agreement, currently under discussion, however, has seen a slow progress. The main reason is Japan’s domestic concerns where signing such a deal with India, which has yet to sign the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty), is seen as a risk by many.
India, despite its clean track record in proliferation, is negotiating hard with Japan, the only country to have faced an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War-II and the Fukushima tragedy of 2011. Both the incidents have made the country extremely sensitive towards nuclear threats. While the signing of this deal would be the highlight of Abe’s visit, negotiations continue on both sides and are likely to go on till the last minute.
India and Japan are also likely to give a major boost to their defence co-operation and a number of agreements are likely to be signed during the visit. The most significant one would be the agreement to jointly produce the amphibious aircraft US-2.
During Modi’s visit to Tokyo last year, Japan had announced doubling of its private and public investments in India to the tune of USD 34 billion over the course of five years. Two months ago, India, Japan and the United States held the first ministerial trilateral in New York. The coming together of these three countries, who then called for freedom of navigation and promised co-operation in maritime security, set Chinese alarm bells ringing.
May come in mid-Dec
India and Japan are likely to discuss the civil nuclear co-operation agreement, which is currently under discussion
On defence front, the most significant deal could be of the amphibious aircraft US-2

Canada sends uranium for N-power reactors

Toronto, December 6
Canada has sent the first uranium consignment of 250 tonnes to India for its nuclear power reactors, over two years after the civil nuclear deal signed between the two countries came into force.
“The first lot of Canadian uranium has been received in India,” a senior government official said.
In April, Cameco signed a uranium supply contract with India after the nuclear cooperation agreement between Canada and India came into force in September 2013.
According to the Canadian government, the contract to supply 7.1 million pounds of uranium concentrate (about 2,730 tonnes of uranium) to India’s Department of Atomic Energy was worth around 350 million Canadian dollars (USD 262 million).
The government of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan yesterday said the shipment consists of uranium mined and milled at Cameo’s McArthur River and Key Lake operations in northern Saskatchewan.
Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall said, “India has just received its first shipment of Saskatchewan uranium under the Canada-India nuclear cooperation agreement, and today we mark the economic milestone for our uranium mining industry and our province.”
India currently has 21 power reactors in operation, with another six under construction and scheduled to start up over the next four years. The country plans to increase its nuclear generating capacity from the current 5,800 MWe to 27,500 MWe by 2032. — PTI

Tribune News Service
Dehradun, December 4
A total of 55 cadets were awarded graduation degrees by Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, during the graduation ceremony of Army Cadet College (ACC) wing at the Indian Military Academy (IMA), here today.Maj Gen YS Mahiwal, Officiating Commandant, IMA, presided over the ceremony. Twenty cadets were from the science stream while 35 were from humanities. The cadets will now join the IMA.Brig Nikesh Nandan, Commander, ACC wing, read out the college report. He highlighted the high standards and admirable academic performance exhibited by cadets of the graduation course.The Officiating Commandant, IMA, congratulated the cadets for successfully completing their challenging three years of rigorous training at the ACC wing. He urged them to strive towards achieving excellence in their future military career. The COAS gold medal was awarded to Rakesh Yadav.General Mahiwal awarded the Commandant’s Banner to BOGRA COY. The banner is awarded to the company which excels in various competitions involving sports, academics, camps, debates and discipline.He appreciated the diligent efforts of the Commander, Army Cadet College wing, the head of the academic department and the faculty in shaping the cadets into potential officers.Cadets take part in end of term exhibitionThe end of term indoor club exhibition-cum-competition of the Indian Military Academy (IMA) was organised at the Shivalik Complex here today. Kiran Mahiwal, wife of Major Gen YS Mahiwal, Officiating Commandant of the IMA, inaugurated the event.The cadets, using their club days and leisure hours, gave vent to their creative skills at the Shivalik Complex. Visitors and parents got an opportunity to see the creativity of the cadets. The Arts club, Photography club and the Computer club participated in the event. The Computer club developed three projects “fly through of Training Area”, “Micro controller based Remote Access Application” and “Network Tracer”.Kiran Mahiwal released ‘Quest’, the professional journal of the academy aimed at faculty development, and the IMA Journal. Military training is not just about drill, physical training and handling of weapons but all round development. Cadets are given an opportunity to use their leisure time in honing their skills in various disciplines during club activities.

GLOBAL MEET India & China lead developing world charge

India and the US appeared headed for a face-off at the Paris climate summit starting Monday with the world’s biggest democracies divided over who should share the larger blame for greenhouse gas emission and, therefore, do more towards mitigating it.

Policemen clash with activists during a protest ahead of the 2015 Paris Climate Conference that opens on Monday.
Ahead of the high-stakes talks to be attended by negotiators from 196 countries, New Delhi and Washington have already engaged in a verbal war with US secretary of state John Kerry describing India as the “biggest challenge” for the Paris summit. India hit back by terming his remarks as “unfortunate” and “ill-timed”.
Officials of both countries as well as China – the world’s three largest emitters of greenhouse gases – agree that a successful outcome at the Paris conference will depend in a large measure on the three big players’ willingness to resolve their differences, some of which could prove deal-breaking otherwise.
Joined by China and other developing countries, India believes developed countries have contributed more to environmental degradation with their longer history of industrialisation and, therefore, they should do more and pay to the developing world to go green, called differentiation in negotiating parlance. “There is a difference between the developed and the developing world on historical responsibility and capabilities of each country. It cannot end,” Ajay Mathur, spokesperson for India’s climate negotiations team, told HT.
President Barack Obama has only two bilateral meetings scheduled to take place on the sidelines of the Paris conference so far — with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China’ Xi Jinping.
“The purpose of these meetings,” a senior White House official said last week, “is to make sure that leaders are on the same page about our objectives and strategy going into these final two weeks of negotiation.”
A comment piece on Sunday in the Chinese official news agency Xinhua pointed to the “stubbornness” of some developed nations in accusing developing countries and “blaming them for blocking the birth of a new international treaty.”
The US, and other developed economies, however, want every country to share the responsibility equally for global warming and contribute equally towards its mitigation, to keep it below the annual two degree Celsius threshold. The next big dispute is about how to ensure countries deliver on their commitments, the voluntarily fixed emission reduction targets with a stock-taking scheduled for 2025. India is advocating self-assessment and self-reporting. Environment Secretary Ashok Lavasa told HT recently “there could be stocktaking of climate action plans by a global body but not a review”. But the US and European Union want some sort of an international mechanism to verify those claims. The two also differ on providing public climate finance to help developing nations move to cleaner fuels and technology. A proposal for providing “predictable” financing to developing countries is being rested by the US, Indian officials said pointing to a paper circulated by the Americans in Paris on Sunday.
But there is convergence too. Both India and the US agree the Paris outcome not be binding on countries with penalties.
“We have come here to talk and move forward. I believe we will,” Mathur said when asked about the Modi-Obama meeting.

Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, November 26
Nation pays homage to 166 people, including 18 security personnel, killed in the terror act

Seven years after the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, the often-blamed bureaucratic ‘red tape’ is in full play and holding back a crucial legislation, while all Indian fishing boats still do not carry any automatic identification system — literally a nightmare for security agencies.
Despite various meetings, the security infrastructure and the related network to enforce the rule of law at sea which was planned after the Mumbai attacks is still incomplete. Creditably, some aspects of surveillance at sea have been and are backed by high-end technology – the very latest. Ten-armed terrorist came by the sea route to simultaneously attack five different locations in Mumbai on the night of November 26, 2008, killing 166 persons.
Immediately after the attacks the UPA-I government (May 2004 to May 2009) headed by Manmohan Singh issued an executive order that made the Indian Navy as over all in charge of coastal security. To date, the Navy is not legally empowered to take action against suspicious vessels. A coastal security Bill is doing the usual rounds of discussions.
Two years ago in December 2013, a draft coastal security Bill was prepared which earmarked responsibilities and duties of 10 central and state agencies security involved in coastal security. The Bill was sent to the Union Home Ministry for piloting it to Parliament after consulting the coastal states. The Bill will address aspects related to jurisdictions, maritime zones and the role of agencies involved in coastal security. It lay down powers of all agencies with the Navy in the lead.
The other key issue pending is of installation of an automatic identification system (AIS) on all boats. For boats that are less than 20 metres in length, the proposal to have an AIS is still in the phase-I and is being implemented in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu at a cost of Rs 333 crore.
The AIS is basically a transponder fitted onto a boat. The transponder constantly emits a signal that is unique to the boat and the same is picked up by ground-based radars and AIS receivers. The signal identifies the boat. With this system, it means the Navy and the Coast Guard are grappling to deal with thousands of unidentified boats. Fishing boats bigger than 20 metres anyway have the AIS.
On the positive side, a chain of 46 coastal radars and 74 AIS receivers is in place. The National Command Control Communication and Intelligence Network with the Information Management Analysis Centre at Gurgaon is operational. A total of 51 nodes of the Navy and Coast Guard are integrated — all to provide a comprehensive maritime domain awareness. Biometrics have been collected from 67.5 lakh people in 3331 coastal villages. The second phase of an additional 46 coastal radars is on track.
Meanwhile, The Israeli Ambassador to India Daniel Carmon today said the 26/11 attacks remind us all the threat of extremist terror against democracies and the free world by those who are committed to the killing of people who do not share their fanatic mindset and views. The Chahbad house –prayer house of Jews— in South Mumbai was one of the targets on 26/11.
Crucial Bill caught in red-tape
Immediately after the 2008 Mumbai attacks, the UPA-I government made the Navy as over all in charge of coastal security. To date, the Navy is not legally empowered to take action against suspicious vessels
A draft coastal security Bill prepared to earmark responsibilities of 10 central and state agencies security involved in coastal security has been caught in red-tape since 2013
The other key issue pending is of installation of an automatic identification system (AIS) on all boats. For boats less than 20 metres in length, the proposal to have an AIS is still in phase-I

Chandigarh, November 24

Legendary athlete Milkha Singh today joined the debate over returning of awards, saying there are other ways to protest in a democratic country like India and giving back awards will not set a system right.
“What is the idea behind returning awards? What aim will one achieve by doing so?” he questioned.
“If today, I get up and say that I want to return my Padma Shri, then my son (ace golfer Jeev Milkha Singh) will also talk on similar lines, but how is it going to help things and set the system right, about which they (those who talk of intolerance) feel it is so?” Milkha asked.
“If you have to express your views on something, returning awards is definitely not the answer. The government has given you an award keeping in view your achievements, if you return it, how does it affect the government,” he said.
Several authors, artistes and historians have returned their awards recently to protest against what they call as “rising intolerance” in the country.
When asked about Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan also joining the chorus, the 85-year-old ‘Flying Sikh’ said, “I have read about his comments, I think these are a bit too much”.
Aamir had yesterday said that he has been “alarmed” by a number of incidents and his wife Kiran Rao even suggested that they should leave the country. — PTI

GO-GETTER GENERATION In the final part of this year’s Youth Forum roll of honour, meet young achievers chosen to follow their passion to success, and how. The message is clear: Today’s youth dreams big and knows what it takes to live it.
An encouraging s

Lt Ramandeep Kaur 27, Bathinda, Army officer

Be the change you want to see
Lieutenant Ramandeep Kaur was the only woman from Punjab to have been selected in the judge advocate general branch of the Indian Army through a tough competition. Six women and 10 men from across the country made it to the JAG department in August last year. Lt Ramandeep graduated in law from Panjab University and did her postgraduation from Jaipur in Rajasthan before attempting theJAG entrance exam.
What did it take to be an achiever?
A disciplined study schedule, but not an exhaustive one, and commitment towards the goal were the keys to my
success.
Who is your inspiration and why?
My mother, Paramjit Kaur, has been my inspiration. She is a housewife and taught me that whatever you do in life, do it with utmost dedication. My father, assistant sub inspector Bhupinder Singh, also encouraged me to work hard.
What’s your next goal?
My goal is to serve my country and establish myself well in my career by working hard. I want to keep upgrading my skills too.
Is it the best time to be young in India?
Today in India, one can pursue a profession with basic educational qualification and technical training. I don’t think a youth who wants to work will have to remain jobless as there is no dearth of opportunities.
How can the youth be a change-maker?
The youth in India can be a changemaker by leading the change. If the youth start implementing things they preach and expect others to follow, it will lead to a big change in our country.

NEW DELHI: Did Colonel Santosh Mahadik, the 38-year-old Indian Army Officer who died in an encounter yesterday need to personally place himself in the line of fire in taking on terrorists in Kashmir?

Yes. Without doubt. That’s the message of the Army’s Northern Army Commander, Lieutenant General DS Hooda. In an interview to NDTV, Lt Gen Hooda was absolutely clear: “The ethos of the Indian Army, the culture of the Indian Army – these are things that are sometimes not very well understood. We have a concept of unlimited liability. A man goes into battle, a man faces terrorists and he faces them sometimes with certainty that he could lose his life.”

Mahadik would not have regretted going down the way he did. Speaking to NDTV, Colonel SS Shekhawat, an Officer of the Army’s elite 21 Special Forces who once commanded Mahadik says, “It is a great loss. But he has gone in style. With a bullet in the chest and we draw inspiration from him. This is the way to go for a soldier. And this is the way to lead for a soldier. From the front.”

Colonel Santosh Mahadik was killed in a counter infiltration operation in the Manigah Forest of Kupwara. He was in the forefront of a search party which was pursuing terrorists in extremely inhospitable terrain when terrorists targeted him with heavy machine gunfire. Mahadik was distinctly unlucky. The bullet that killed him struck his neck, an area that was not protected by his bullet-proof jacket. The operations to neutralise the terrorists are still continuing.

For those who were his course-mates, Mahadik was always there for them. According to Colonel Sumeet Dua, an old friend right from when the two were in the Indian Military Academy together, “He was the most prepared officer to come to the Academy. He was physically the fittest, the strongest with the most endurance. He had a penchant for helping not just his peers but also his subordinates.”

Colonel Mahadik is the second Commanding Officer of the Indian Army to have been killed leading soldiers from the front. In January, Colonel Munindra Rai of the Gorkha Rifles died in Tral in Kashmir in a similar operation.

Colonel Santosh Mahadik, who was given a military farewell in Srinagar today is survived by his wife, an 11-year-old daughter and a five-year-old son.

Aman Sood
Tribune News Service
Patiala, November 18
A veteran Armyman has finally won a battle for pension after 50 years of struggle. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has ordered restoration of service pension for 95-year-old Santa Singh Tatlay, currently settled in Canada.
Santa Singh represented 8 Cavalry during World War-II in Libya (North Africa). Colonel GS Sandhu (retired), who fought his case, wrote to every Army unit and branch to ensure that the veteran got what he deserved.
Santa Singh was enrolled in the Army on September 24, 1937 and transferred to the pension establishment on September 30, 1964 after 28 years of service. Since April 1, 1965 he had not received his pension.
In a letter dated October 9, to the Armoured Corps Records, the Director Adjutant General has ordered release of his pension. The letter reads: “…the undersigned is directed to refer to the PCDA (P), Allahabad letter… addressed to Army headquarters on the above subject and to convey the sanction of the competent authority for restoration of 100 % service pension in ex-Risaldar Santa Singh of Armoured Corps with effect from April 1, 1965 to 14 December 1976 and ex post facto sanction to stop service pension from 15 December 1976 to 28 July 1986 and restoration of 50 % service pension with effect from 29 July, 1986 (excluding period spent in jail)”.
“I am very happy for my friend Santa Singh. I had to write to Army chiefs, defence ministers and even the Prime Minister many times. The stock response was frustrating as we were directed to one or the other Army unit,” he said.