IDSA Comments

On February 28, 2007, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram presented the Union Budget for the fiscal Year 2007-08 (April 1, 2007 - March 31, 2008). Out of a total budgeted expenditure of Rs. 6,80,521 crore, Rs. 96,000 crore was earmarked for national Defence, which includes allocations to the three Services - Army, Navy and Air Force - Defence Ordnance Factories, and the Defence Research and Development Organisation. This is besides the allocation of Rs. 16, 695.83 crore for Defence Civil Estimates, including Rs. 14,649 crore for Defence Pensions.

• Laxman Kumar Behera |
• March 09, 2007 |
• IDSA Comments

With the passage of a year since the visit of President George W. Bush to India, it is the business communities of the two countries that have benefited the most from the momentum created by the upsurge in Indo-US relations. While two-way trade and investment had been growing at a steady clip, the announcement and subsequent passage of the Bill on Co-operation in Civil Nuclear Energy, intended to remove the last vestiges of the adversarial relations between the two countries, have taken business relations to a new level.

• Cherian Samuel |
• March 08, 2007 |
• IDSA Comments

The recent meeting of the Indo-Russian Business Co-operation Council and the Trade and Investment Forum in New Delhi was significant, in that it took place after the recent summit-level talks between the two countries. This symbolises the fact that both countries assign considerable value to increasing bilateral trade and economic co-operation.

• Nivedita Das Kundu |
• March 07, 2007 |
• IDSA Comments

In response to the government-organised National Naxalite Co-ordination Committee meeting held in December 2006 at Bhubaneswar, Naxalites have enunciated their counter-strategy. The Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), which accounts for 98 per cent of left-wing extremist violence in India, decided to intensify the people's war by increasing its mass base across the country and strengthening its armed cadres. The decision, taken at a leadership conclave held somewhere in the forests along the Jharkand-Orissa border sometime in January or February 2007, was unanimous.

• Nihar R. Nayak |
• March 06, 2007 |
• IDSA Comments

The general impression is that Iran has gained tremendously from rising oil prices, fuelled by its vast oil wealth. In reality, however, given increased domestic consumption coupled with inefficient usage and subsidies, Iran is actually struggling to produce enough oil and gas for export. Without substantial upgrades Iran's oil production is expected to go through a gradual decline. Though Iran has abundant oil reserves, estimated at around 137 billion barrels, it has not even been able to generate its OPEC quota due to lack of technical expertise and skills.

• Rohit Pattnaik |
• February 23, 2007 |
• IDSA Comments

The Sixth Aero India Aerospace and Defence Exhibition held from February 07 to 11, 2007 was by all accounts a 'big' event. The biennial gathering was organized jointly by the Ministry of Defence's (MoD) Department of Defence Production and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). For the first time, Farnborough International Ltd., the organization that holds the Farnborough International Air Show, was involved. 503 defence companies from 33 countries were represented at the Yelahanka Air Force station in Bangalore, the venue of the show.

• S. Samuel C. Rajiv |
• February 22, 2007 |
• IDSA Comments

In January 2007, when the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei suggested to the Secretary of the Russian Security Council, Igor Ivanov, that the two countries should explore setting up an OGEC or an organization of gas exporting countries similar to OPEC, Ivanov dismissed it as a "general idea" and not a "proposal for discussion".

• Shebonti Ray Dadwal |
• February 21, 2007 |
• IDSA Comments

On February 5, 2007, President Bush presented his administration's budget for fiscal year 2008 (October 1, 2007 to September 30, 2008). Out of a total budgetary allocation of US $2.9 trillion for all sectors, $623 billion (21 per cent) was earmarked for defence purposes, including those for war efforts in various parts of the world. With the new budget, America's military budget has doubled since Bush took office in 2000 and is now higher in real terms than any other year in the last half-century.

• Laxman Kumar Behera |
• February 21, 2007 |
• IDSA Comments

Earlier speculations negating the possibility of one-on-one talks between the United States and North Korea after Pyongyang conducted a nuclear test have proven wrong. Irrespective of the merits or the disappointments attached to the process, the negotiations that started between US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye Gwan in Berlin on January 16-18, 2007 made it possible for them to find common ground at the six-part talks held in Beijing on February 13, 2007.

• Rajesh Kumar Mishra |
• February 19, 2007 |
• IDSA Comments

It may be a mere coincidence that the People's Daily, official mouth piece of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), decided to carry two pieces on China's ongoing space programme on its website on February 7, 2007.

• M. V. Rappai |
• February 19, 2007 |
• IDSA Comments

The disturbing reports about the presence of jihadi forces in India's northeast have added a new twist to the region's multiple insurgencies. Combined with the recent arrest in Delhi of three alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operatives hailing from Manipur once again indicates how vulnerable the northeast region is to the jihadi menace.

• M. Amarjeet Singh |
• February 19, 2007 |
• IDSA Comments

The recent uproar in Jammu and Kashmir over 'fake killings' has once again turned public attention towards the issue of human rights violations by law enforcement agencies. The State is witnessing wide scale protests and demonstrations with the support of all sections of society, and political parties are backing the call for an impartial inquiry and strict action against the concerned personnel.

• B. S. Sachar |
• February 13, 2007 |
• IDSA Comments

In addition to the earlier run two pilot cascades of 164 centrifuges, Iran has set up two more cascades of 164 centrifuges each despite repeated calls from the UN Security Council to halt enrichment related work. Addressing a mass rally on February 11, 2007 in Tehran to commemorate the 28th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, an unrelenting Iranian President boasted about continuing advancements in the country's nuclear programme and promised to announce a further surprising achievement by April 9, 2007.

• Rajesh Kumar Mishra |
• February 12, 2007 |
• IDSA Comments

With the successful test of its first anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon, China has once again highlighted its impressive achievements in space technology. At the same time, the test is refuelling debate around the world, particularly in the US, between proponents of regulating the use of outer space and those who insist on America's absolute free reign in this realm. But the niggling question with regard to the test is whether this test is a signal aimed at bringing the Americans to the negotiating table for a space-weapons treaty?

• Jagannath P. Panda |
• February 12, 2007 |
• IDSA Comments

It has been generally accepted that the Naxal issue is more than a law and order problem. With the socio-economic dimension being increasingly important along with the military one, a question that needs to be addressed by policymakers is, how to frame a coherent framework for merging both security and development policies.

• Medha Bisht |
• February 12, 2007 |
• IDSA Comments

In January 2007, the House of Representatives in Nepal, restored after the people's movement of April, 2006, unanimously adopted an interim Constitution and dissolved itself. This technically paved the way for Maoist insurgents to enter a new and reconstituted interim parliament. Clearly a political landmark of tremendous import, Nepal's political transition has been accompanied by the initiation of a nascent disarmament process.

• Sukanya Podder |
• February 03, 2007 |
• IDSA Comments

On 29 December 2006, China released its latest white paper on national defence. Though this document is widely perceived as opaque in budgetary facts and figures, it gives policy makers and analysts enough information to analyse China's regional and global security and political roles. Two crucial aspects of the paper -- defence modernisation plan and defence budget -- have significant bearing on India, considering the political and economic rivalry between the two neighbours.

• Laxman Kumar Behera |
• January 31, 2007 |
• IDSA Comments

Vladimir Putin's visit to India on January 25-26, 2007 provided fresh impetus to the strategic partnership between the two countries. The visit reinforced the interests of both states in maintaining their traditionally close and friendly relationship and in strengthening a multipolar world order.

• Nivedita Das Kundu |
• January 30, 2007 |
• IDSA Comments

Despite the Chhattisgarh government's two-pronged strategy of police operation combined with socio economic programmes against the Naxalites, there appears to be deterioration in the law and order situation in the state due to the escalation of Naxal violence. Frequent use of police forces against tribals in the name of anti-Naxal operations, forceful eviction due to mining and the establishment of industries by the state machinery have left the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh a virtual battle zone.

• Nihar R. Nayak |
• January 30, 2007 |
• IDSA Comments

As the dust slowly settles down over the battlefields of South Lebanon and North Israel, the major actors in this tragic drama are now debating ways and means to salvage the long stalled Arab-Israel peace process from the wreckage of war and violence in the region. Israel's 34-day military campaign against Lebanon ended in mid-August with no clear victory to either party.

• V. Krishnappa |
• January 25, 2007 |
• IDSA Comments