Ø The Defence Acquisition Council has approved the ‘Maitri’ project for
the co-development of a Short Range Surface-to-Air Missile (SR-SAM) by the
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) with MBDA of France, Navy
officers said. The DRDO has been directed by the government to engage Original
Equipment Manufacturer for joint development. The project has been in the works
since 2007 to meet the requirements of the Army and the Air Force. The DRDO had
signed a Memorandum of Understanding with MBDA in 2013, but there has hardly
been any progress because the DRDO’s Akash missile system has similar
functions. The Army and the Air Force have expressed satisfaction with the
capabilities of Akash, but the Navy has made it clear that Akash is not
suitable for installation on warships. This is likely to be discussed further
during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to France next week. Defence
Acquisition Council gave approval for the upgrade of 10 Kamov-28 anti-submarine
helicopters of the Navy at a cost of €297 million. The helicopters are at the
end of their service life.
Ø Freedom fighter and founder of Banaras Hindu University, Madan Mohan
Malviya, was on Monday posthumously conferred the Bharat Ratna, the country’s
highest civilian award, by President Pranab Mukherjee at a ceremony in
Rashtrapati Bhavan. Named for the honour 68 years after his death, it was the
members of Malviya’s family, including granddaughters Hem Sharma and Saraswati
Sharma and grandsons Premdhar Malviya and Girdhar Malviya, who received the
award at a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vice-President
Hamid Ansari, among others. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Home
Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, too, were in
attendance along with other senior Cabinet ministers. Known for his espousal of
Hindu nationalism, Malviya, an educationist, was behind the establishment of
the Banaras Hindu University and was the initial founders of the right-wing
organisation, Hindu Mahasabha. Prominent Padma Bhushan awardees included noted
lawyer Harish Salve, journalists Swapan Dasgupta and Rajat Sharma and
98-year-old Saichiro Misumi — a proponent of Indo-Japanese friendship who had
supported Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose during his visit to Japan in June 1943.
Ø The draft report submitted by the Integrated Regulatory Review Service
(IRRS) of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after reviewing legal
and regulatory framework related to the safety of nuclear power plants and
projects within India has recommended regulatory independence to Atomic Energy
Regulatory Board (AERB) by law. The previous United Progressive Alliance
(UPA) government had introduced a bill in Lok Sabha to grant regulatory
independence to the AERB following the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan.
However, following the general election and constitution of new Lok Sabha, the
bill was lapsed and needs to be introduced again. Among other
recommendations, the report has asked the central government to promulgate a
national policy and strategy for safety and radioactive waste management
strategy. In India, we recycle the spent fuel and process the plutonium
and other material and reuse them. The remaining radioactive waste, mainly the
actinides, are vitrified and stored at safe storage. We are now working on
further segregating these minor actinides, mainly responsible for the long
shelf life of the radioactive waste, so that the remaining waste will become
benign in three hundred years, making storage easy. India had formally
extended the request to IAEA in January 2014 to undertake the IRRS mission. A
team of 18 experts was headed by Ramzi Jammal, Executive Vice-President and
Chief Regulatory Operations Officers at the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.
It included members from Bulgaria, UK, USA, Finland, Netherlands, Israel etc.
The draft report of the IRRS mission was handed over to the government on March
27, 2015.
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