23 OCTOBER 2015: Japan offers bullet train technology with near zero interest rates

Ø  An ambitious project of the government to install high-resolution surveillance cameras along the China border has run into rough weather. A pilot project undertaken in 2013 to monitor the movement along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) has failed to give the desired results and the government is now rethinking its strategy. China has a robust surveillance system on its side. In the wake of the 21-day face-off with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China at Depsang Valley in the Ladakh region in 2013, the government had given the go-ahead to install surveillance cameras along the unmanned pockets on the China border. It was decided that the cameras would be put up at 50 locations in Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Sikkim and Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. The cameras were to relay live-feed in a 20-25 km range to help the security personnel deployed there to plan patrolling in vulnerable areas more effectively. The camera was installed at the Thakung post of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) near Pangong Lake, at an altitude of 14,500 feet. The pilot project was taken up at Thakung post, which is a high-altitude terrain. The weather is not favourable there as high-velocity winds and frost tend to blur the images. We had planned to link it to the Delhi headquarters, but it has not been possible to link it even with the battalion headquarters in Leh. The official said they were looking at better technology now. “While the Chinese have put up a well-knit surveillance network on their side, we don’t have any such arrangements on our side. This project was essential to build up our own intelligence network,” The Indian Army, which is the second line of defence along the China border, does its own surveillance with the help of unmanned aerial vehicles but this also has its limitations. This system would have given us time to analyse the recordings. We decided to test the product of a particular service provider, but now we plan to open the floodgates to multiple vendors. India has always maintained that incidents of transgressions occur due to difference in perception regarding the border. After the NDA government came to power, the frequency of patrolling along the China border has increased.

Ø  The United States says it “encourages” India and Pakistan to engage in a “direct dialogue,” but steers clear of Pakistan’s demand that it intervene to reboot bilateral relations. This is a reiteration of the U.S. position that while it will encourage both countries to talk, it has no direct role to play. Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is on a three-day visit of the U.S, raised with Secretary of State John Kerry and members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee India’s reluctance to engage with Pakistan. He told his U.S. interlocutors about his four-point agenda for improving ties with India that he announced at the United Nations last month. India has rejected the proposal, saying that ending terrorism originating from Pakistan is essential before talks can begin. Mr. Kerry said normalisation of India-Pakistan relations was vital for the entire region. Incidentally, Afghanistan occupies a major part of discussions between the U.S and Pakistan during Mr. Sharif’s visit.

Ø  apan has offered to finance India’s first bullet train, estimated to cost $15 billion, at an interest rate of less than 1 per cent, officials said, stealing a march on China, which is bidding for other projects on the world’s fourth-largest network. Tokyo was picked to assess the feasibility of building the 505-km corridor linking Mumbai and Ahmedabad, the commercial capital of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home State, and concluded it would be technically and financially viable. The project to build and supply the route will be put out to tender, but offering finance makes Japan the clear frontrunner. Last month, China won the contract to assess the feasibility of a high-speed train between Delhi and Mumbai, a 1,200-km route estimated to cost twice as much. No loan has yet been offered. Japan’s decision to give virtually free finance for Modi’s pet programme is part of its broader push back against China’s involvement in infrastructure development in South Asia over the past several years. The two projects are part of a ‘Diamond Quadrilateral’ of high-speed trains over 10,000 km of track that India wants to set up connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. Japan has offered to meet 80 per cent of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad project cost, on condition that India buys 30 per cent of equipment including the coaches and locomotives from Japanese firms, officials said. Japan’s International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which led the feasibility survey, said the journey time between Mumbai and Ahmedabad would be cut to two hours from seven. The route will require 11 new tunnels including one undersea near Mumbai. Tokyo’s push in India comes just weeks after it lost out to China on the contract to build Indonesia’s first fast-train link. Beijing offered $5 billion in loans without asking for guarantees, an Indonesian official said, ending a month-long battle to build the line linking Jakarta with the textile hub of Bandung.