28 JUNE 2016

Ø  Documents submitted to the Court of Inquiry into the deadly blast at the Central Ammunition Depot (CAD) in Pulgaon suggest that defective anti-tank mines, packed with poor quality explosives, could have been the cause of the disaster. The documents, accessed by The Hindu, reveal that manufacturing defects in the anti-tank 1A ND mines made by the Ordnance Factory Chanda, were repeatedly brought to the notice of various stakeholders, including the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and the Ministry of Defence. Army sources said no evidence has emerged yet that sabotage or a short circuit caused the fire, which claimed the lives of 19 military and civilian personnel on May 31. A major flaw in the mines, designed by the Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE) in 2004, is said to have been the quality of TNT (trinitrotoluene) used in them. TNT has the property of exudation (leaking), the amount of exudation directly linked with the purity of TNT. Ironically, this issue was flagged way back in February 2010, after which the anti-tank 1A ND mines were segregated; a ban was also imposed on their use. However, the mines were not destroyed or replaced but remained in the depot despite several internal communications among the various stakeholders. Over 23,000 such mines were stacked in the CAD in Pulgaon; across the Army ammunition depots, there are over 1 lakh allegedly defective mines waiting to be repaired or destroyed. The documents reveal different organisations within the defence establishment speaking in different voices. For instance, the High Energy Materials Research Laboratory (HERML), the final authority to approve designs for explosives, has claimed it was not consulted in the case of the ARDE-designed anti-tank mines. HERML authorities, who visited Pulgaon after the blast, have noted that the TNT used in the mines had a melting point of 79.6 degrees centigrade, which is not even military grade. Ideally, special grade TNT, with a melting point of 80.6 degrees centigrade, should have been used in the mines. As for the ARDE, it had, during a meeting in April 2015, ruled out any design flaw in the mines and said the defect was “due to change in process of the manufacture by the ordnance factory.” However, the Controllerate of Quality Assurance (CQA), under the Ministry of Defence, had drawn attention to the danger of exudation more than once. On February 16, 2011, the CQA, while studying the issue of TNT leakage attributed it to poor quality of the explosive. In February 2013, CQA Khadki cautioned that stocking of these mines in “ammunition echelons is adversely affecting the explosive safety and operational preparedness.” The weight of the anti-tank mines along with the fuse was another issue. The weight ranged from 6.5 kg to 7.9 kg, much too broad a spectrum, for a military-grade explosive. Such a huge difference in the volume could cause voids in the plastic casing, increasing the chances of TNT leakage.

Ø  In a boost to its non-proliferation credentials, India on Monday joined the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) at a ceremony in South Block, attended by Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and diplomats from the Netherlands, France and Luxembourg missions.

Ø  Forty years after Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar tied the knot in the same hall at Amba Vilas Palace, Mysuru’s young ‘king’ Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar wed Trishika Kumari of Rajasthan’s Dungarpur royal family. Yaduveer, 24, was adopted by Pramoda Devi Wadiyar last year to continue the royal lineage and the wedding forms part of a 600-year old tradition.

Ø  In a bid to attract airlines to its regional connectivity scheme, the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation will come out with less rigorous rules and compliance standards for smaller aircraft, including 80-seater and 19-seater aircraft, said an official.

Ø  Following directions from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the NITI Aayog is working on a strategy to put in place a tracking system for monitoring health parameters of target beneficiaries under the National Nutrition Mission on a real-time basis. The tracking system is likely to be Aadhaar-linked, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant told reporters after a meeting on Monday with States and Chairman, Tata Trusts, Ratan Tata, on the Mission. NITI Aayog Member Bibek Debroy said the challenge was and the target should be to identify individual households or individuals for the purpose of monitoring the outcomes. At present, nutrition data was available on a sample basis rather than by censuses.

Ø  Pakistan’s intensive diplomatic lobbying, including letters written by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to his 17 counterparts, prevented India from gaining entry into the NSG, the country’s top diplomat claimed on Monday. Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said hectic diplomatic efforts were made to inform the world leaders about Pakistan’s position on the NSG entry. “Prime Minister Sharif personally wrote letters to 17 Prime Ministers on the matter,” Mr. Aziz told journalists here. The NSG meeting last week failed to achieve consensus over the entry of India as some countriesobjected that being the non-NPT signatory, India was not eligible for the membership. Pakistan has been trumpeting it as success but at the same time it is seldom mentioned here what happened to its own application for the membership. Pakistan tried to sell the idea that a criteria-based non-discriminatory approach was needed to admit new members. India and Pakistan are the two non-NPT states aspiring for the membership of the 48-member grouping. Mr. Aziz said security agencies were in the process of compiling more evidence against arrested alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav. He said proceedings against Mr. Jadhav would begin soon. India had acknowledged that Mr. Jadhav had served with the Navy but denied that he had any links with the government.

Ø  The Centre brought the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) one step closer to reality on Monday by notifying the changes made to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act. The government has decided to bring the provisions of amended RBI Act regarding constitution of MPC into force on June 27, 2016 so that statutory basis of MPC is made effective. The rules governing the procedure for selection of members of Monetary Policy Committee and terms and conditions of their appointment and factors constituting failure to meet inflation target under the MPC framework have also been notified on June 27, 2016. Amendments to RBI Act for Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) and connected rules notified. One step closer to its formation and operationalization. The six-member Committee — tasked with bringing “value and transparency to monetary policy decisions” — will comprise three members from RBI, including the Governor, who will be the ex-officio chairperson, a Deputy Governor and one officer of the central bank. The other three members will be appointed by the Centre on the recommendations of a search-cum-selection committee to be headed by the Cabinet Secretary. These three members of MPC will be experts in the field of economics or banking or finance or monetary policy and will be appointed for a period of four years and shall not be eligible for re-appointment. The Committee is to meet four times a year and make public its decisions following each meeting.

Ø  The Centre has narrowed its list of candidates for selecting the next Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to four, a senior official told Reuters, as it set in motion the process of naming a new Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). The moves seek to ensure policy continuity and reassure domestic and global investors after RBI Chief Raghuram Rajan shocked markets 10 days ago by announcing he would not seek reappointment in September. Mr. Rajan, 53, had been accorded rock-star status by markets for defusing a currency crisis, lowering inflation and winning parliament’s approval to set up the MPC which will set interest rates. Yet, the former IMF Chief Economist had come under attack from right wingers in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party, with friends and colleagues saying this contributed to his decision to make an early exit. The government plans to revive 50 airports in three years. This would require an addition of 50-100 small aircraft to the total fleet size of 440 aircraft serving Indian skies currently, according to estimates.