Ø The Union
government has decided to cancel all ongoing tenders for defence equipment won
by Italy’s Finmeccanica as a precursor to blacklisting of the firm, which is
being investigated for bribery in the AgustaWestland VVIP helicopter deal.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar told PTI that the process for blacklisting
Finmeccanica and its subsidiaries was already under way, and the Law Ministry
had been sent a note. “Wherever there is capital procurement of Finmeccanica
and their subsidiaries, all Requests for Proposal [RFP] will be closed. I am
very clear,” he said. He clarified that only fresh capital acquisition was
being cancelled and the firm would continue to conduct annual maintenance and
supply spare parts for defence supplies already acquired. The government has
already withdrawn the RFP for heavyweight torpedoes for Socrpene submarines,
which was won by Finmeccanica subsidiary WASS during the UPA regime. The
government is now working out the alternatives, the Minister said.
Ø India’s
diplomatic downturn with Africa intensified on Sunday as the Ministry of
External Affairs sent mixed signals on responding to the series of attacks on
African nationals. Though the Delhi police arrested five men for the
series of attacks on African nationals on Thursday night, the African Students
Association in India announced on Sunday that it would take out a ‘March for
Justice’ rally in the national capital on Tuesday protesting against the
attacks and demanding justice.
Ø The BJP
on Sunday announced candidates for 12 Rajya Sabha seats where it is in a
winning position, throwing up some surprises and leaving at least four seats in
suspense before the May 31 deadline for nomination. Union Parliamentary
Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu has been nominated from Rajasthan. His
deputy Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi will seek election from Jharkhand. Commerce Minister
Nirmala Sitharaman will get a full six-year term from Karnataka. Union Power
Minister Piyush Goyal has been nominated from Maharashtra. Union Rural
Development Minister Birendra Singh has been re-nominated from Haryana. The
term of Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, who represents Haryana, will also end
in August (like Mr. Birendra Singh’s), but he has not been included in the list
released on Sunday for the June 11 elections. Anil Madhav Dave has been
re-nominated from Madhya Pradesh. He has been heading important parliamentary
committees (including a select committee on amendments to the Prevention of
Corruption Act). BJP general secretary and Uttar Pradesh in-charge Om Mathur
has been fielded in Rajasthan.
Ø The trial
of Spanish train Talgo, the lighter and faster vehicle whose speed goes up to
115 km per hour, was conducted between Bareilly and Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh,
as part of the Railways’ strategy to increase the speed of trains. Besides
reducing travel time, Talgo’s lighter trains consume 30 per cent less energy.
The nine-coach train consists of two Executive Class cars, four Chair Cars, a
cafeteria, a power car and a tail-end coach for staff and equipment.
Ø French
Scorpenes will replace Russian Kilo class vessels as the mainstay of the Navy’s
conventional submarine fleet in a few years. Mazgaon Dock Ltd., Mumbai,
commissioned a second submarine assembly workshop on Saturday. Six Scorpenes
are under construction in the first one. Having once abandoned the
German HDW submarine line in the past, government sources said they were
determined not to lose the technical expertise and skilled manpower gained from
construction of the six Scorpenes. In view of that, the number of additional
Scorpenes could go beyond nine. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, who
inaugurated the facility, said that overall level of indigenisation in the next
line of submarines “must be substantially higher” compared with the Scorpenes
which have around 35 per cent indigenous content. The new assembly
workshop built at a cost of Rs. 153 crore is a
pre-engineered building structure to handle construction of five submarines
simultaneously, MDL officials said. It can be used to construct additional
Scorpenes or the new line of submarines under Project-75I as and when it is
selected. The first of the Scorpenes, Kalvari, is currently undergoing sea
trials and is scheduled to be commissioned in October and the remaining are
expected to be rolled out at nine-month intervals. This means that the present
line is occupied till 2020, officials said and the new assembly line will speed
up construction of additional submarines to meet timelines. Incidentally the
Scorpenes will roll out without their major weapon, heavy weight torpedoes,
which are caught up due to allegations of corruption in other defence deals.
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