4 APRIL 2016

Ø  An Inspector of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the counter-terror investigation agency formed after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, was shot dead by unidentified motorcycle-borne assailants in front of his wife and children in Bijnore, Uttar Pradesh, in the early hours of Sunday. Mohammed Tanzil Ahmed, 45, died on the spot, while his wife Farzana, who was injured, was taken to a hospital in Noida, where she is in a critical condition. His daughter (14) and son (12) escaped unharmed. Ahmed, an officer of the rank of Deputy Superintendent, who was on deputation from the Border Security Force, had been posted to the NIA as Inspector, when the agency was created in 2009. Because of his proficiency in Urdu, Ahmed was the key liaison officer during the visit last week of the Joint Investigation Team from Pakistan to probe the Pathankot attack. Ahmed joined the BSF in 1991 as a Sub-Inspector and was posted along the western and eastern borders. “He was returning from his niece’s wedding in nearby Sahaspur village when he was killed barely 300 metres from his ancestral house at Bijnore. The road near his house is potholed, which made him slow down his Wagon R. The two assailants pulled up near his car and shot at him 24 times. It was a planned attack. Two bullets hit his wife. There was no attempt to harm the children,” Daljeet Singh Chaudhary, ADG, Law and Order, Uttar Pradesh, told The Hindu on the phone. An NIA official said: “It could well be possible that he was targeted because of his anti-terror work. It looks like he was targeted and killed and nothing can be ruled out.”

Ø  jet, set, go: Indian Air Force members with a C-17 (Globemaster III), before proceeding to take part in Exercise ‘Red Flag’ to be held at Alaska, at Air Force Station Jamnagar on Sunday. Red Flag is an aerial combat training exercise.

Ø  The expansion of seaports and minor ports could pave the way for the arrival of invasive species in coastal areas. Scientists fear that ballast water carried by ships is providing a vehicle to bring in exotic species. A recent survey by the Department of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries, University of Kerala, had recorded the presence of as many as 10 invasive species in the biodiversity-rich intertidal habitats of the Kerala coast. They include one seaweed, one species of bryozoan, one species of mollusc and seven species of ascidian. According to a paper presented by R. Ravinesh and A. Biju Kumar of the department at an international conference on aquatic exotics, the distribution of invasive species reported from the Kerala coast is likely to have been assisted by shipping. The paper says that the expansion of ports in Kerala has opened ways for the introduction of alien species in marine and coastal areas.

Ø  The world’s major nations seeking to develop nuclear power, with one notable exception, gathered in Washington last week for the Barack Obama administration-led Nuclear Security Summit (NSS), a platform to discuss strategies to block terror groups such as the Islamic State from obtaining radioactive material and setting off a “dirty bomb”, or worse. The absentee from the high table was Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, which houses the largest number of nuclear weapons — some 7,300 warheads, compared to the U.S.’s 6,970 and India’s 120. Russia’s absence, apparently owing to Mr. Putin’s diplomatic stand-off with Mr. Obama over the crisis in Syria and Iraq, to an extent doomed the fourth and final NSS to piecemeal rather than dramatic goals. Nevertheless, the Summit saw the 50-odd participant-nations celebrate the creation of a strong legacy in detecting, intercepting and securing vulnerable and illicitly trafficked nuclear materials, including pre-emptively safeguarding stockpiles of highly enriched uranium (HEU). Mr. Obama has doggedly pursued the vision of a de-nuclearised world that he outlined in his 2009 Prague speech. Following this vision, at least 2,965 kg of civilian HEU, the equivalent of 100 or more bombs, has been moved to safeguarded sites in the six years since the NSS began. Even if this only constitutes 2 to 3 per cent of total supplies, with nearly 98 per cent remaining in opaque military stockpiles, it is a good start. India’s achievements in the realm of improving nuclear security have been considerable during this time, including in establishing a rigorous legislative framework for developing nuclear resources and a Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership, the contribution of $2 million towards the Nuclear Security Fund, and participation in UN and IAEA joint mechanisms to strengthen nuclear security. However, along with Russia, China and Pakistan, India has been frustrating the West as a hold-out that refuses to sign a 2014 Nuclear Security Implementation initiative. The pact was joined by more than two-thirds of the participating states and is arguably the most significant instrument to build a robust nuclear security system based on national commitments to the application of international principles and guidelines, including peer reviews. In closed-door meetings, New Delhi may also have been questioned on disquieting signals suggesting that its nuclear materials may be less than secure. A March 2016 Harvard University study cautioned that after inspecting nuclear reactors, American officials had ranked Indian nuclear security measures as “weaker than those of Pakistan and Russia”. Worldwide, the alarms for nuclear terrorism are likely to be blinking red: a case in point is the discovery by the Belgian police that IS conducted surveillance of the home of an officer at a Belgian nuclear site that held large stocks of HEU. India cannot be complacent over securing vulnerable nuclear material, and the first step has to be a willingness to speak openly about the risks of terrorism and sabotage posed by its clandestine nuclear weapons development sites, and not just on its safeguarded civilian nuclear energy programme.

Ø  Oil and gas exploration, especially in deepwater, is a risky business that requires highly sophisticated technology which, in turn, requires huge funding. Those hoping to strike riches without equipping themselves with the appropriate technology and adequate expertise will almost certainly come to grief, as the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) has. The state-owned company has spent over Rs. 17,000 crore of public money over the last five years in the Krishna-Godavari Basin with nothing to show for it in terms of either oil or gas output. A report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India (CAG) points out — and quite rightly — that the project was badly planned, thereby leading to both cost and time overruns. In 2005, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had proudly declared that the block had reserves of a massive 20 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas, even more than that of neighbouring Reliance Industries (which was estimated at 14 tcf). The buzz around the Gujarat ‘find’ was heightened with Mr. Modi naming the block Deendayal after Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya. We know now that both the GSPC’s and Reliance’s reserves were overestimates, and that too by a long chalk. From an estimated output of 80 million standard cubic metres of gas a day at its peak, Reliance’s production is now in the low single digits. As for GSPC, the upstream regulator, the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), marked down the reserves to a piffling 1.8 tcf after scrutinising field data. Even the biggest and best oil companies make miscalculations while exploring frontier basins; such failures go with the territory — they occur despite the deployment of the latest technologies, often because oil and gas reservoirs are formed in complex depositional environments. The GSPC’s big mistake was not overestimation, but the somewhat unrealistic assumption that it could develop the highly complex deepwater field on its own. At a time when even ONGC with decades of experience was circumspect about how to go about developing its block in the KG Basin, GSPC with no comparable track record plunged headlong. The kind explanation for this approach is that it was a bad miscalculation. The unsparing one is that it was sheer hubris. Given the difficult nature of the high-temperature and high-pressure KG Basin field, GSPC should have roped in a technology partner, as Reliance did with BP. The company could have even considered collaborating with other PSUs such as ONGC or Oil India. GSPC is probably also guilty of not correcting the course after seeing that Reliance ran into technical problems in the same deepwater field despite accessing cutting-edge technology and global expertise. The urge to strike out independently despite a clear lack of technical expertise in a business fraught with risks has proved costly indeed for the company — and for the taxpayer.

Ø  The assertion of India and Saudi Arabia on Sunday to boost counter-terrorism cooperation was made after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s wide-ranging talks with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and delegation-level parleys between the two sides following which five agreements were signed including one on cooperation in the exchange of intelligence related to money laundering and terror financing. A joint statement issued after the talks called on states to cut off any kind of support and financing to terrorists operating and perpetrating terrorism from their territories against other states and bring perpetrators of acts of terrorism to justice. The strong views by Saudi Arabia, an ally of Pakistan and one of the most influential countries in the Gulf region, is seen as an unprecedented political endorsement of New Delhi’s concerns over terrorism, extremism and radicalisation. That apart, four other bilateral agreements were signed focused on financial intelligence, handicrafts, labour cooperation and technical cooperation between the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and the Saudi Standards, Meteorology and Quality Organisation. Apart from the agreements, the bilateral Joint Statement issued at the end of the visit highlighted that both sides are willing to coordinate efforts on countering international terror networks. While Saudi Arabia briefed India about the grand coalition that it has formed with three dozen predominantly Sunni-majority countries, both sides also agreed to work jointly at the level of the United Nations to deal with terror sponsors.

Ø  The US-India Defence Technology and Partnership Act, which was introduced in the U.S. Congress a couple of weeks ago, would “institutionalise” the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) framework between the two countries and the Indian-specific cell in the Pentagon, a senior U.S. Defence official said. The resolution was introduced by Congressman George Holding, Co-Chair of the House Caucus intended to amend the U.S. Arms Export Control Action to formalise India’s status for the purpose of Congressional notifications as a major partner of equal status as America’s treaty allies and closest partners. The U.S.-India Business Council played a major role in pushing the resolution forward.

Ø  After marking International Yoga Day and a Sanskrit conference at the UNESCO, India is all set to sponsor a conference on ancient Indian contribution to mathematics in Paris beginning Monday. Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani will lead the Indian delegation at the “International Conference of Zero”, and gift a bronze bust of Aryabhata to the UNESCO headquarters.

Ø  Israel’s agriculture minister Uri Ariel is scheduled to be the chief guest at the inaugural event of the India Water Week beginning on Monday, the Embassy of Israel confirmed. Mr Ariel is likely to travel to Haryana and Mumbai to increase awareness of Israel’s cutting edge water conservation and agriculture technology.