Ø The State Cabinet approved the draft Capital
Regional Development Authority (CRDA) Bill
with four changes. The Bill will be tabled in the Assembly on December 19. The
Cabinet approved transfer of assets and liabilities of Vijayawada-Guntur-Tenali-Mangalagiri
Urban Development Authority to the CRDA. The Chief Minister will be
chairman of the 14-member CRDA and the Municipal Administration Minister vice
chairman. The CRDA will have Rs. 1000 crore as development fund and Rs. 250
crore as working capital. A detailed master plan for the capital region will be
ready in six months.
Ø Officials of the “India-U.S. contact group” on civil nuclear cooperation met in Delhi this week to try and break
the logjam between both countries ahead of U.S. President Obama’s visit to
Delhi on January 24. While officials would not confirm the details, a media
statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs said the discussions were
“positive and forward-looking.” In an indication that they are trying to find a
way around U.S. concerns, the statement said the contact group would meet again
in “early January.” Significantly, the contact group included private
industry representatives, along with the officials at the negotiation, namely
U.S. companies Westinghouse and GE-Hitachi, and Nuclear Power Corporation of
India (NPCIL) on the Indian side. It is the objections by these U.S. companies
over India’s Nuclear Liability Act that have held up nuclear business being
transacted between the two countries, despite the government allocating land in
Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. Their objections are to their financial liability
stipulated in Sections 17(b) and 46 of the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage
Act (2010) that they say runs against the International Convention on
Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage. While Section 17 (b) says the
operator (NPCIL) has the right to recourse against suppliers in case of a
nuclear accident, clause 46 says suppliers can be sued under other Indian laws
as well.
Ø India’s first indigenous nuclear submarine, INS Arihant (S2),
which made its first foray into the sea for mandatory trials ahead of induction
into the Navy, may in effect be a limited utility submarine, if not just a
technology demonstrator. The ballistic missile nuclear submarine (SSBN), said to
add the third dimension of the nuclear triad by giving India the vital
survivable second-strike capability, falls short of ensuring credible minimum
deterrence, sources said. Worse, the capacity of the reactor suggests
that Arihant will hardly be available for operational patrol
even for one-fifth of its lifespan, having to spend great amounts of time on
transit to patrol areas. The effective fuel inventory of the submarine
reactor is insufficient for longer duration deployment of the vessel far away
from Indian shores, as it will necessitate frequent fuel changes that are
time-consuming. Fuel change in a submarine reactor, he said is a protracted
and cumbersome process requiring the hull of the submarine to be cut open. The
nuclear attack submarine (SSN) that India operates on a 10-year lease from
Russia, INS Chakra (S1), for instance, is said to have reactor with
a longer effective core life, granting it more time on patrol. The Arihant project — the first of the three
SSBNs built by India under its ATV [Advanced Technology Vessel] programme under
the supervision the Prime Minister’s Office and involving agencies and
establishments such as the DRDO, the Department of Atomic Energy, the Submarine
Design Group of the Directorate of Naval Design, besides companies such as
L&T — had been under wraps for decades until its high-voltage launch in
2009. The 83-MW uranium reactor, developed by the Bhabha Atomic Research
Centre (BARC) with generous support from Russia, went critical in August last
year. The submarine should have entered service in 2012, as originally planned.
As the sea-acceptance trials that have just begun are slated to take at least
nine months if everything goes as planned and without hiccups, Arihant will at best be inducted in 2016.
This is our first home-made submarine reactor, so the Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority
was cautious in its approach and didn’t want to give the go-ahead for sea
trials without a thorough check. The submarine arm of the Navy had
previously expressed its reservations over the long “turnaround time” and
frequent “fuel change cycles” of the Arihant class of submarines. Official sources
told that the
sea-acceptance trials would last at least nine months, if not more. “As the
submarine with its onboard crew has to remain submerged for about 90 days at a
stretch during deployments, there will be a lot of environment checks carried
out during the sea trials.” Meanwhile, work on the second Arihant -class submarine, INS Aridhaman (S3),
is already behind schedule and nowhere near launch. Arihant is said to have been built at a cost
of $2.9 billion. “But that is not the unit cost of the submarine. The material
cost apart, it includes the money spent on setting up facilities such as the
submarine reactor complex in Kalpakkam, the Defence Machinery and Design
Establishment in Hyderabad and the Ship Building Centre in Vizag. However, to
amortise the amount, India should be building a series of nuclear submarines.
Ø The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), chaired
by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, met here on Wednesday and approved deals
estimated at about Rs. 4,400 crore but deferred a decision on an Avro aircraft
replacement for the Indian Air Force. The biggest allocation of Rs.
2,324 crore was for issuing a fresh Request for Proposal (RFP) for bigger
survey vessels for the Navy. This was necessitated because of the failure in
procuring a naval utility helicopter small enough to fit on the earlier ships.
The Advanced Light Helicopter is larger and the ships have to be redesigned. The
RFP will be issued to both public and private sector shipyards. Two deals for
the Army have been approved. First is a Rs. 402 crore for life extension
of the airbags on the Army’s P-7 platforms which are used to cushion paradrop of heavy
battle loads onto the battlefield. This will extend life from 8 to 15 years and
will be executed by the Aerial Delivery Research & Development
Establishment (ADRDE) lab in Agra. The second is the upgrade of Army’s ‘Samyukta’ electronic warfare system by Bharat Electronic
Limited (BEL) for Rs. 1,682 crore. The DAC allocated Rs. 36 crore for
engines of Coast Guard vessels.
Ø The United States announced a “historic” thaw
in relations with Cuba, saying it would work to re-establish diplomatic ties
with Havana and ease long-standing trade and travel sanctions. The announcement
comes amid a series of new confidence-building measures between the long-time
foes, including the release of American Alan Gross and the freeing of three
Cubans jailed in the U.S. Washington will re-establish an embassy in
Havana “in the coming months,” a senior administration official said after a
prisoner exchange between the two countries. Mr. Obama was due to make a
policy announcement at the White House shortly after noon (1700 GMT). Cuban
President Raul Castro was set to make a speech at the same time.
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