1 APRIL 2016

Ø  Maoists could have got information about the movement of the seven CRPF jawans, who were killed in an explosion in Dantewada on Wednesday, CRPF Director-General K. Durga Prasad said. He also said Maoists could have dug a secret tunnel to plant over 50 kg of explosives under the concrete road.

Ø  The government has decided not to join a U.S. maintained global terror database in the face of objections from the intelligence agencies. Unhindered access to the Americans to the database of terror suspects in India, which includes their biometric details, was opposed by both the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB), a senior official in the security establishment said. The proposal has been stuck since it was initially proposed by the U.S. in 2012. A model text of the proposal — the Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD-6) — was to be discussed at a bilateral homeland security meet to be held in June this year. The HSPD-6 is an agreement for exchange of terrorist screening information between the Terrorist Screening Centre (TCS) of the U.S. and a selected Indian security agency. The TCS has the database of 11,000 terror suspects.

Ø  Even as the recently declassified documents relating to the disappearance of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose do not take us any closer to finding out whether he indeed survived the August 18, 1945 air crash, they throw up many unverified documents that claim he outlived the crash. These often being either anecdotes or representations without a name and date — all they may do is to keep alive, by a slender thread, the belief that Netaji survived the crash.

Ø  Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in the U.S. capital to attend the two-day Nuclear Security Summit (NSS), an initiative of President Barack Obama to coordinate international efforts to prevent terror organisations from acquiring nuclear weapons or material. The summit will have leaders from more than 50 countries and four international organisations — the European Union, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Interpol, and the U.N. India will circulate its national progress report on nuclear security measures at the summit and Prime Minister Modi will make an intervention during the plenary on April 1. The summit begins with a banquet hosted by Mr Obama on Thursday. Since the first NSS in 2010, international measures have reduced the risk of nuclear theft and made the illicit transportation of nuclear material difficult. Around 3800 kg of vulnerable fissile material has been secured and 329 sea and airports around the world now scan cargo for radioactivity. But the spectre of terrorism has only grown bigger in the meantime as the Islamic State has more resolve and resources to seek a nuclear weapon than Al-Qaeda ever had. While it will be open for the next U.S. President to convene more summits in the coming years, this year’s summit will conclude with the formation of five action plans on existing international platforms that will continue with the nuclear security efforts. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the INTERPOL, the U.N., the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction, and the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism will coordinate the global cooperation on nuclear security. After this year’s summit, the network of sherpas, or the expert officials from different countries, who have been helping their leaders prepare for these summits, will continue to coordinate with each other as a Nuclear Security Contact Group. Some experts have pointed out that the fragmentation of efforts going forward may undo the gains made by these summits. But the hope is that the annual ministerial meetings of the IAEA that started last year, will make nuclear security part of its top agenda.The second IAEA ministerial meeting is in December 2016.