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Japan mulls granting right to franchise to permanent foreign residents

To gain the trust of Seoul and Beijing, the DPJ government plans to present a bill in the Diet for granting the right of franchise to foreign nationals registered as permanent residents, a majority of whom are South Korean and Chinese.

Shamshad A. Khan
January 21, 2010
IDSA Comments

Balochistan is no Bangladesh

Unless Baloch nationalists get their act together in pursuit of ‘achievable nationhood’, it will be only a matter of time before this latest upsurge in Balochistan will be brutally crushed.

Sushant Sareen
January 19, 2010
IDSA Comments

Sino-Bhutan Boundary Negotiations: Complexities of the ‘Package Deal’

Bhutan and China have decided on a joint field survey to enable harmonising the reference points and names of the disputed areas.

Medha Bisht
January 19, 2010
IDSA Comments

The Cautious Handling of Secularism in Bangladesh

The landslide victory of Awami League in Bangladesh elections created hope of revival of the 1972 constitution of which secularism was an important element. The government of Shaikh Hasina is trying to deal with this issue in a cautious manner.

Anand Kumar
January 19, 2010
IDSA Comments

Address at the National Seminar on Defence Acquisition

Acquisition efficiencies represent the most vital element in India's quest for optimal defence capability build up in the desired time and cost horizons. The focused attention bestowed by MOD and Services Headquarters in recent years on this critical theme is a clear assertion of the country's resolve to acquire full spectrum military strength over the next 15-20 years.

Paper Evaluation of Technical Offers

……if Paper Evaluation were achieving its aim of ensuring that only those equipments that meet the technical parameters were invited for field evaluation and if that conclusion was to be true then such equipments should by and large clear field evaluation. However, experience does not suggest that. ……. modify …… existing procedure of Paper Evaluation to achieve the desired results much faster in the context of our acquisition philosophy of SUNDER – SASTA – AUR TIKAU alluded to earlier.

Firming Up the “Buy”, “Buy & Make” and “Make” Decision and Relevance of the Pre-Feasibility Study

The Government has professed it's inclination to promote indigenous production of defence products over and over again but unfortunately something seems to be holding the ministry back in taking on the issue wholeheartedly. In order to go full steam on the bandwagon of indigenization……..Scrap the present elaborate categorisation process completely and replace it by a simpler process….

United States of America: Chemical Weapons Profile

Chemical weapons make premeditated use of the toxic properties of chemical substances to inflict death or harm to human beings and are known as weapons of mass destruction along with… Continue reading United States of America: Chemical Weapons Profile

The Challenges of Contract/Project Implementation

To prevent diffusion of responsibility, dedicated teams should be in place for the entire duration of a project, especially for non-R&D projects. The team should be mandated to stick to sanctioned time and cost but sufficiently empowered to make minor alterations in the scope. The team may be asked to sign a performance and integrity related MoU and assured of necessary support. This should include assured funding support because old projects may sometimes gasp for funding as new priorities take over with change of key decision makers.

Special Address at the National Seminar on Defence Acquisition

The present defence procurement and management structures in the Ministry of Defence were set up in 2001 in terms of the recommendations of the Group of Ministers on reforming national security system constituted in the wake of the Kargil conflict. The GOM recommended setting up of an acquisition wing with the task of expediting the acquisition of capital equipment required for the modernisation programmes of the three Services.