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BrahMos missile set for production |
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Business Line, Coimbatore , Dec. 27
THE supersonic cruise missile — BrahMos — is now ready for
production. The commercial sale would happen next year,
Dr. A. Sivathanu Pillai, CEO and Managing Director,
BrahMos and Chief Controller (R&D), Defence Research and
Development Organisation (DRDO) said here on Saturday.
Stating that the product developed under the Indo-Russian
joint venture was the first of its kind in the country
starting from design to market, Dr. Pillai said it was a
symbol of "true strategic partnership between the two
countries." The project has given a new dimension to the
political relationship between long-time associates.
The technical competence of both — the Indian and Russian
scientists — has been proved to perfection, Dr Pillai
said, and added that the joint venture was more flexible
with least interference or control from the Government.
"Our government has given top priority to this project
which enabled us to cut down the time by half when
compared to the envisaged timeframe. The government has
invested in the project and is expected to reap the
maximum benefit from the investment," he added.
Without quantifying the investment, Dr Pillai said, "It is
not much. But the benefits we will derive will be
phenomenal, for the product (read missile) is good, cheap
and has excellent quality. It is anyway, up to the
Governments of the two countries to sit and decide as to
which country it can be sold, particularly because it is a
weapon," he added.
Dr Pillai said that the two systems, which could be fired
from warship to sea targets and mobile autonomous launcher
— had been developed while the anti-ship target and
anti-land versions were being developed. The joint venture
is a business proposition and is towards debt repayment,
he added.
Dr. Pillai perceives that more such ventures would propel
India 's future projects.
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Samyukta' presented to the Army
By Our Special Correspondent, The Hindu.
The President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, presenting a model of ``Samyukta'',
part of an electronic warfare system, to the Army chief, General
N.C. Vij, at the Defence Electronics Research Laboratory in
Hyderabad on Monday. The Defence Minister, George Fernandes, looks
on. — Photo: Mohammed Yousuf
HYDERABAD, JAN. 19. In a landmark event aimed at strengthening the
country's defence security, the first block of `Samyukta,' an
indigenous, state-of-the-art Integrated Electronic Warfare (IEW)
system was presented by the President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, to the
Chief of the Army Staff, Gen. N.C. Vij, in the presence of the
Defence Minister, George Fernandes, here on Monday.
With this technological accomplishment in the electronic field,
India has joined a select band of nations which possess this kind of
world class system.
Hailing as a "fantastic job" the combined effort of the defence
scientists, Army personnel, public sector units and private industry
in developing the system which incidentally was sanctioned when Mr.
Kalam was the Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, the
President said "India has got the capability to design, develop and
produce integrated electronic warfare system to meet the mission
requirement. This system is uniquely configured for the frequencies
from High Frequency to Millimetre wave for reconnaissance, direction
finding and position fixing, listing, prioritising and jamming of
adversaries' emissions."
Mr. Kalam handed over the first block of 26 vehicles to Gen. Vij. `Samyuktha'
is a joint venture undertaken by the Defence Electronics Research
Laboratory (DLRL) in a consortium approach with other agencies. It
is mounted on ground mobile vehicles and covers HF to Millimetre
wave frequencies range. The Coverage of the electronic spectrum of
frequencies is done in two segments — communication segment and
non-communication segment — which are finally integrated with the
master control centre (MCC) through appropriate transmission
stations.
It is capable of handling both ground-based and airborne threats. It
has the capability to intercept, detect, search, identify and locate
complex communication and radar signals. It monitors and analyses
communication and radar activity across Forward Edge of the Battle
Area (FEBA) and many other sophisticated features. Once deployed,
the system has operational frontal coverage of 150/70 km.
Mr. Kalam also praised the team effort displayed in realising the
system in a relatively short time, in spite of many denials. Now
that the basic building blocks were indigenously available, user
driven multiple systems could be evolved, he added. With India
graduating in the development of electronic warfare systems, he said
the time had come to take major decisions so that we could maintain
our competence level and ensure provision of contemporary future
systems to the armed forces. In this direction, he suggested that
the Defence Research and Development Organisation consider
conceptualisation of future systems with flexible architecture which
are networked across the services.
The other suggestions include the need to create a world-class high
quality infrastructure at Hyderabad by BEL to meet the ever
increasing requirements of the services for the EW systems; DRDO and
EW production agency should visualise the futuristic EW scenario
through comprehensive simulation studies and work on demonstrable
systems for user evaluation, specification modification and
deployment, need to create a dedicated EW Quality Assurance agency
and ensure meticulous software maintenance.
In view of our "Doctrine of no first use," he said that it was
essential to study how synchronised action between EW systems of the
Army (Samyukta), Naval EW (Sangraha) and Air Force EW (Tempest)
could prevent the entry of warheads in our territory.
Stating that future technologies for national security would be
required to be developed and deployed in the areas of strategic
electronics, strategic aeronautics and strategic astronautics, he
said that almost each and every strategic technology would be dual
purpose in that they served concurrently the needs of economic
development of the nation.
Mr. Fernandes described the EW system as a weapon which would be
useful not only during war but at peace time too. He said the guns
had fallen silent on India's borders with both Pakistan and China.
He expressed the wish that the situation should remain like this
forever. While there was peace on the one hand, there was the
problem of insurgency on the other and stressed the need for
remaining alert always. He also said that such sophisticated systems
should be exported to friendly countries.
The Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, V.K. Aatre, talking
to reporters earlier, termed it as major milestone. He said that it
was the largest electronics project of the DRDO.
Only a few other countries possessed such a sophisticated system.
"It implies how we can dominate the electromagnetic spectrum during
a battle."
He explained how it helped in jamming the enemy's communication and
other systems and provided an upper hand.
He said that each system of `Samyuktha' would consist of 145
vehicles of five blocks — three communication and two
non-communication segments.
The entire system would be ready for deployment by the end of 2005.
He declined to divulge the number of systems required by the Army.
Replying to another question, he said that the Agni-3 missile would
be launched by this year-end.
The DLRL was designing and developing the EW systems for the Army
and Navy and Defence Avionics Research Establishment (DARE) for the
Air Force.
Expressing his happiness over the Army acquiring the sophisticated
system, Gen. Vij described it as a dream come true for the Army.
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Rs 150-crore pharma fund fails to impress industry |
P.T. Jyothi Datta , Business Line
Mumbai , Jan. 20
FOUR years after it was announced, the Rs 150-crore
Pharmaceutical Research and Development Support Fund finally
looks set to get off the blocks.
And while the Department of Science and Technology (DST) feels
that it is better late than never, the domestic pharma industry
does not seem to be cheering the late-starter.
DST officials told Business Line that the initial corpus of Rs
150 crore could be tapped by both institutions and pharma
industry for research purposes. "Pending the evaluation of
individual or joint-projects, the funds would be given as a
grant to institutions, or a loan to companies, at an interest of
three per cent. Further, to avail themselves of the funds,
companies would have to meet a set of requirements such as,
researching on diseases relevant to India or having the
infrastructure and capabilities to execute the project," the
official said. Also, only 50 per cent of the project cost would
be given and the rest would have to be put by the company.
Only late last week the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA)
had approved the fund and constitution of Drug Development
Promotion Board (DDPB).
But what seems to have upset the domestic drug industry is that
only interest on the fund, or about Rs 9 crore, will be actually
available to the industry. "The promise of Budget 2000-01, where
Rs 150 crore was to be augmented to Rs 750 crore over a
five-year period, seems to be forgotten. At Rs 9 crore, it will
not make a material difference to our efforts," lamented
industry representatives.
Echoing similar sentiments, Mr D.G. Shah, Secretary General,
Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, said: "the Government has failed
to appreciate the need and urgency of the local industry to
emerge as a knowledge power." According to him, the Government
could stand guarantor and leverage the fund to raise capital for
research done by companies.
DST officials, however, are not perturbed and feel it is
important to get the fund operational without further delay.
According to the DST official, companies have already started
sending in proposals. "The proposals would be evaluated by an
expert panel, chaired by a nominee of the Secretary, Science and
Technology (S&T).
``Subsequently, the proposal and the funds allocated for the
project would have to be cleared by the DDPB, an apex body under
the chairmanship of the S&T Secretary," the representative said.
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WASHINGTON :
India and the United States , acting swiftly to give a strategic
dimension to their relationship, will move together “promptly and
aggressively” in implementing a range of non-military co-operation
in nuclear, space, missile and other high-technology areas. The
agreement on such co-operation, announced by the two countries last
week, got further impetus after a meeting between US President
George W Bush and visiting Indian External Affairs Minister
Yashwant Sinha.
Mr Bush met Mr Sinha despite his
pre-occupation with the State of the Union address later in the day.
In their 20-minute meeting at the Oval office here Tuesday
afternoon, Mr Bush and Mr Sinha
discussed the proposed co-operation in non-military, nuclear
regulatory and safety issues and missile defence as envisaged in
identical statements issued by Mr Bush and Indian Prime Minister
Atal Behari
Vajpayee last week.
Later addressing a press conference at the Indian embassy here, Mr
Sinha said the US and India would start
discussions “very soon” on the first phase of the quartet issues —
civilian nuclear, space and missile programmes and creation of the
appropriate environment for successful high-technology commerce.
On the high-technology trade front, the two sides will tighten
restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of weapons of mass
destruction, the minister added. Mr Sinha
said Mr Vajpayee and Mr Bush had given a broad policy framework
through the statement. “Now it is up to the two foreign offices to
start working on implementation of the whole thing.”
Besides Mr Bush, the minister met Secretary of State Colin Powell
and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, both of whom were
present at the Oval office meeting. Later, Mr
Sinha met with Mr Powell for almost 90 minutes at the State
Department where Mr Powell welcomed the recent progress between
India and Pakistan and noted the growing India-US co-operation in
the areas of trade and technology exchanges.
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DuPont Donates Intellectual Property to Colorado State
DuPont recently donated
intellectual property – patent and grant gifts – to the College
of Engineering at Colorado State University. The donation will
support the development and commercialization of an innovative
process to clean contaminated soils.
The technology holds the promise of being far more effective and
much less expensive than current options for cleanup of such
hazardous waste areas as Superfund national priority list sites,
Department of Defense facilities, drycleaners, agricultural
storage facilities, chemical plants, automotive maintenance
facilities and other sites that house chlorinated solvents.
"The generous gift from DuPont provides the university a
remarkable opportunity to address a critical national need that
will greatly benefit society while also allowing outstanding
opportunities for student education and leading-edge
environmental research," said Anthony Frank, vice president for
research and information technology at Colorado State.
The cornerstone of the DuPont gift is two patents which cover a
process to remediate hazardous areas by mixing contaminated
soils with degradative and stabilizing agents. With the new
process, contaminated soils will not need to be excavated from
the polluted site, eliminating a costly step.
"We appreciate the confidence of DuPont in our ability to
optimally develop this innovative technology as well as the
university's capability to effectively commercialize and market
the process," said Neal Gallagher, dean of the College of
Engineering.
"We are pleased to provide Colorado State University with this
intellectual property," said Robert Hirsch, director, DuPont
Intellectual Assets. "This process puts technology in the hands
of competent researchers where developmental work can be
continued."
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DSIR, Osmania varsity sign MoU for MBA |
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Business
Line,Our Bureau
Hyderabad , Jan. 18
THE Technology Management Division of the Department of
Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) and the Osmania
University Department of Business Management signed a Memorandum
of Understanding (MoU) for the starting of a two-year Master's
in Business Administration in Technology Management.
Speaking on the occasion, the Secretary, DSIR, Dr R.A. Mashelkar
said technological innovation would be a key feature in the
development of the country. Technology management should be
given its due course and India should leverage it.
Dr Mashelkar, who delivered a keynote address on `Technology
Management Education for India's competitiveness' said it was
not resources but being resourceful, that mattered in the highly
competitive world.
The Vice-Chancellor of OU, Prof J. Ananthaswamy emphasised the
need for linkages between institutions of excellence and
Universities. The University would start the two-year
post-graduate course from the academic year.
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Professional help at hand for trade, industry
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Business
Line,G. Srinivasan
New Delhi , Jan. 13
THE Indian industry and trade can now look for
intermediation and resolution of sector-specific problems
from a professional group of experts who have banded
together to launch a new Foundation for Promotion of
Indian Industry & Trade (FPIIT) in order to make them
globally competitive in all parameters of manufacturing,
price, quality and delivery.
FPIIT as a society to help industry and trade has been
registered as per the Society Registration Act, 1980 and a
first meeting of the Board of Governors was held here on
January 8, 2004, the Chairman of the Foundation, Mr N.
Rangachary, former Chairman, Insurance Regulatory
Authority of India, told Business Line.
Other members of the Board of Governors include Mr A.K.
Luke, Managing Director, Gujarat State Fertiliser
Corporation, Mr P.K. Taneja, Managing Director, Gujarat
Alkalise Chemicals Ltd, Dr Ashwan Kapur, Managing
Director, Uniproducts (India) Ltd, Mr Sanjay Bansal,
Member, Ambootiya Tea (Kolkata), Mr Nishant Gowda, Coffee
entrepreneur, Bangalore, and Mr Sai Rajagopal, lawyer and
intellectual property right (IPR) consultant, Mr S.
Krishna Moorthy, retired senior bureaucrat, Dr
K.N.Raghavan, Managing Director, Rubbermark, Kochi, and Mr
A.K.Gupta, Member-Secretary and a consultant on WTO
issues.
Mr Rangachary said that at a time when the manufacturing
sector in India has been facing new problems in the
deregulated economy with competition from abroad posing
threat to its existence, there ought to be some inbuilt
support to Indian industry and trade and the proposed
Foundation would be a place where an integrated and
seamless services would be extended to them by a pool of
experts drawn from different fields of specialisation.
Mr Rangachary said the principal remit of the Foundation
is to strategically plan, introduce executive programmes
at the national and global level for promoting industry
and trade, agriculture and services, besides serving as a
platform in concert with the industrialists,
professionals, research scientists, technocrats,
agriculturists, service providers and trade bodies so as
to address their respective common critical issues through
collective thinking.
The Foundation would also make available to the members
specific advice for various projects including their
commercial, financial and economic viability for
operations and suitable expert advice and inputs to
prospective investors with a view to reinforcing the
respective sectors of national economy to world-class
levels in terms of technology and market access.
It would also maintain a centralised pool of legal,
technical, financial and management experts, advisors and
professionals, as also experts from the field of
anti-dumping, safeguards, subsidies, countervailing
duties, IPR issues relating to trade marks, patents,
copyrights, designs, geographical indications of goods,
protection of plant varieties and farmers' rights.
The Foundation would also organise and conduct promotional
and training programmes, entrepreneurial development
programme, executive development programmes, quality
orientation programme, refresher courses, lectures and
seminars, besides organising or assisting in the transfer
of technology from global organisations and institutions
engaged in or connected with any of the fields for which
the Foundation is established.
The Foundation would have a one-time contribution from
corporate member ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 15 lakh,
depending upon the turnover of the firm from Rs 20 crore
to Rs 500 crore for the preceding financial year.
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US has gained $50 billion from BPO: Shourie
India's talent, skill and low costs
in software service have made it imperative for American companies
to resort to outsourcing to India, said Union Communications and IT
Minister Arun Shourie on Tuesday.
The protest over outsourcing is a minor issue, he said on the
sidelines of the second Asian IT Ministers' conference in Hyderabad.
Quoting a McKinsey study, Shourie said that over the last five
years, the US economy has gained about $50 billion due to
outsourcing to countries like India.
The states in the US which have introduced anti-outsourcing bills
include New Jersey, Maryland, Connecticut and Washington.
According to a draft report by Unctad, India should take the lead to
bring legal restrictions placed on business process outsourcing
under the framework of multilateral trade negotiations.
The international body on trade and development in its preliminary
findings has suggested that "India should take the initiative to see
that legal restrictions placed on outsourcing (e.g. the New Jersey
Bill) are brought within the coverage of GATS (General Agreement on
Trade in Services."
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Underpaid geniuses: why USA, Inc. loves H1-B pros
ECONOMICTIMES.COM[ WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 07, 2004 07:13:17 PM ]
Corporate America loves the H1-B professional – one out of three is
an Indian – for obvious reasons. They don’t demand salaries as high
as their American counterparts with similar skills. They’re flexible
in terms of location, willing to move anywhere within the country.
And, critically, they have skills in fields that there aren’t enough
American pros in.
That’s why, even though unemployment among highly-educated Americans
rose by about 400,000 from March 2001 to March 2003, standing at 1.2
million, American companies still employed around 240,000 H1-B pros
in this period – including 80,000-and-odd from India. (Do you think
the Indian pros are underpaid in the USA?)
What makes them so attractive? According to a September 2003 survey
conducted by the US General Accountant’s Office (GAO), it’s a killer
combination of skills of pros from countries like India and their
willingness to work on salaries lower than those of Americans with
simialr qualifications and experience.
That US employers continue to abuse the H1-B by not paying as much
as they should is now documented by the GAO. The number of cases
under investigation for violation of the condition that H1-B
salaries must not be less than those paid to American citizens has
doubled from 2000 to 2002. Most of these cases have to do with
companies that brought H1-B visa-holders over to the US but did not
pay them till jobs were available.
Just how much money have H1-B pros been deprived of by way of unpaid
back wages? As much as $1.6 million in 2000, going up to $4.2
million in 2002. With that kind of money being at stake, it wouldn’t
be surprising if American recruiters paid lip service to the
obligation of looking for people at home before turning to H1-B
pros.
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Experts Call For Stiff Resistance To Any US-EU Move On TRIPs Front
Economic Times, NEW DELHI, JAN 5: All attempts made
by the US and the EU to put in place regulations exceeding the
requirements of the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs)
Agreement for protecting data for registration of pharmaceuticals
have to be actively resisted by developing countries, feel experts.
In an international conference on intellectual property rights (IPRs)
and public health organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of
Commerce and Industry (Ficci), experts said that both the US and the
EU are going for provisions beyond the TRIPs agreement in their
bilateral and regional trade agreements.
Speaking on the occasion, James Love, co-chair of the Trans Atlantic
Consumer Dialogue (TACD) special group on intellectual property,
said that the TRIPs Agreement did not obligate members to confer
exclusive data rights on pharma companies. “Attempts by the US and
the EU to include exclusivity for test data in the TRIPs Agreement
was rejected when it was drafted,” said Dr Love.
He said that in the TRIPs Agreement, the provisions of data
protection of innovators was for unfair commercial use and not for
commercial exclusivity. Developing countries should fight to keep
data exclusivity out of the ambit of TRIPs, Dr Love added.
According to Dr Yehudah Livneh, director, Teva Pharmaceuticals Ltd,
Israel, the proof that the TRIPs does not provide for data
exclusivity lies in the fact that so far only one dispute has been
filed at the WTO related to exclusivity and that too was settled
without going to a panel.
Dr Livneh said that in the dispute filed by the US against
Argentina, although Argentina agreed that the US demand for data
exclusivity was valid, the old Argentine law is still in place. “The
US gained nothing out of the dispute,” he said.
Commerce special secretary SN Menon said that the US was going
beyond the TRIPs provisions in all new trade agreements be it the
Free Trade Agreement of the Americas or the recent bilaterals with
Jordan, Singapore and Chile.
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