Archive for December, 2007
Monday, December 31st, 2007
Lieutenant General Bharat Singh Sisodia, has taken over to day as Director General Ordnance Services at the Army HQ. He was commissioned in the Army Ordnance Corps on December 20, 1970. The General Officer has had an illustrious career spanning nearly four decades. Besides various other courses he has also attended the Long Defence Management Course at College of Defence Management, Secunderabad and the National Defence Course at National Defence College, Delhi. He has been the Colonel, Military Secretary at Army Headquarters. As a Brigadier, he commanded Central Ordnance Depot, Delhi Cantt and has also been the Brigadier Administration at Army War College, Mhow. For his outstanding contribution he was awarded the “Vishisht Seva Medal” while serving at Army War College, Mhow. As a Major General he has also held the prestigious appointments of Additional Director General Ordnance Services (Technical Stores) and Major General Army Ordnance Corps at Headquarters Western Command before he took over the appointment of Commandant, College of Materials Management, Jabalpur.
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Monday, December 31st, 2007
The Battalion was holding the Cease Fire Line (now LoC) on Chhawa West in the general area Ramulidhara in the 25 Infantry Division Sector of J&K. From our piquets, at night, we could see the glow of the lights of the Mangla Dam on the Jhelum in POK. Around the period October 1964 to May 1965, the Division Area Of Responsibility (AOR) was very live. Taking pot shots at each other was very commonplace. Ambushes were frequent, and it was only a fortnight earlier that a Road Opening Party (ROP) of 4/3 G R had been ambushed by the wily Baluchis right inside our area. The leading scout had been hit, but he fired back emptying his SLR magazine into the fleeing enemy before collapsing owing to loss of blood. After last light, it was a sight to see enemy tracer from heavy automatics lining and criss-crossing the valley. The AOR was a veritable a cauldron of daily spats between the Pakis (9 Balauch) and us. Raids were the order of the day and the general policy was that the raiding of an Indian post had to be replied by a counter raid in POK within 24 hours as a reprisal. The Penga Raid was conceived out of this policy.
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Monday, December 31st, 2007
What next..? The PLA contingent marching past the Indian President on Republic Day , come 26 Jan..??
Indo-Chinese relations have come a long way indeed, they can be said to be in step & so to say hand-in-hand, almost ! Why, when I got commission in Feb 1964, we were all keyed up & geared up to fight the Chinese breathing fire and brimstone on our Northern Borders. The Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) had routed the Indian 7 Infantry Brigade in the Kameng Division of the erstwhile North East Frontier Agency’s ( now Arunachal Pradesh) on the Namka Chu in a world record timing of 30 minutes flat! Many were taken prisoners of war (PsOW) enmasse, but many continued their defiance even in the ignoble captivity. The most awkward for the Chinese guards, was, one 2/Lt BD Dogra of 1/9 Gorkha Rifles. He was given a Maha Vir Chakra (MVC) for his dogged stance on 20 Oct 1962, on the Dhola Post on the ‘river of silence’, the Namka Chu, which was dominated by the Heavy Chinese fortifications on the Thagla Ridge, the bone of contention between China & India . Dogra was the last to be repatriated from Lhasa, as he was in the solitary confinement & needed hospitalization before he could be in some shape to be handed over to the Indian Red Cross. He was my Cadet Sergeant Major ( CSM) of the 20 th NDA Course C Squadron. He used to talk very tough even then, a regular havidar major. He picked up his Lt Cols rank & command, in the Para Commandos, where his troops used to swear by him! He did not rise any more, as he got tough even with the brass on the chain of reporting!
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Monday, December 31st, 2007
The President of India is visiting the Missile Complex of DRDO at ASL, Hyderabad on 1st Jan’08 between 1030-1200 Hrs. This day happens to be the New Year day as well as the beginning of the Golden Jubilee Year of DRDO. Moreover the Year 2007 has been a year of successes for DRDO. The President has shown keen interest in all our activities and will be addressing the scientists and staff of DRDO on this happy occasion. During the 50 years since its inception in 1958, DRDO has made valuable R&D contributions to strengthen India’s National Defense by providing state-of-the art technologies. DRDO has not only ensured self-reliance in strategic defense weapons and delivery systems which no country is willing to part with, but also has provided the country with an array of tactical battlefield systems like Light Combat Aircraft (Tejas), Main Battle Tank (Arjun), family of missiles such as Agni, Prithvi, Akash, Nag and BrahMos with capability of delivery of different payloads to varying ranges. The recent successful launch of Agni III and Interceptor missile technologies developed by DRDO has taken our country to an elite club of developed nations having similar capability.
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Posted in Defence Research and Development | No Comments »
Monday, December 31st, 2007
The Sri Lankan Tri-Forces Commanders yesterday expressed confidence that 2008 would be a decisive year in their effort of eliminating terrorism from Sri Lanka since they were already on course towards accomplishing this task by next year. This was reported by Sri Lankan Daily news.
Army Commander Lt. General Sarath Fonseka has already announced intention of shifting the current battles to a decisive phase in August next year, expressed confidence of achieving the mission by reducing the existing number of Tiger cadres to 2,000.
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Posted in Counter Terrorism, Military News - Asia | No Comments »
Monday, December 31st, 2007
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared today that Nepal is eligible to receive assistance from the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund, set up a year ago to help countries emerging from conflict consolidate their gains and avoid slipping back into war.
Mr. Ban has instructed his Special Representative and the UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) to ensure that financing from the Fund is targeted to priority peace process needs that have already been identified by the UN after consultations with the Government and all parties to the peace process, along with donors and other key stakeholders.
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Posted in Military News - Asia | No Comments »
Monday, December 31st, 2007
Borzouyeh Petrochemical Facility has exported 670,000 tons of aromatic products since March 21, 2007 fetching Iran $$530 million. Managing Director of Borzouyeh Petrochemical Company Hamid-Reza Rostami said that the exports included 400,000 tons of naptha, 70,000 tons of xylene, 22,000 tons of benzene, 5,000 tons of ortoxylene and 3,000 tons of paraxylene. The products were exported to Saudi Arabia and the European and southeast Asian states. He fore casted that by end of the year on March 20, 2008, one million tons of aromatics, worth dolors 800 million, would have been produced at Borzouyeh (Nuri) Petrochemical Facility.
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Sunday, December 30th, 2007
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki today denied that Iran’s share of the Caspian Sea resources has never been over 50 percent. He said “The figure is not logical, nor has there been any accord about it…Iran’s exploitation of the Caspian Sea has never been higher than 11.3 percent.” He also denied that Iran had had 50 percent of the Caspian share in the past.
The Caspian Sea littoral states include Iran, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. Kazakhstan’s share of the Caspian Sea is 24 percent, Russia Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan each has less than a 20 percent share.
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Sunday, December 30th, 2007
FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC) announced that the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station, located near Oak Harbor, Ohio, began a scheduled refueling early Sunday, December 30, 2007.
While off-line, 76 of the 177 fuel assemblies will be replaced and several improvement projects will be completed, including rewinding the turbine generator, reinforcing welds on plant equipment and several safety inspections. Overall, more than 1,800 work activities will be completed during the shutdown.
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Sunday, December 30th, 2007
In a joint IDF and ISA operation several weeks ago, a truck was caught at one of the crossing points in Judea and Samaria carrying approximately 6.5 tons of potassium nitrate. The potassium nitrate was disguised in sugar bags, and was intended for use by terrorists in the Gaza Strip. It was Communicated by the IDF Spokesman.
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Sunday, December 30th, 2007
In a news conference in Moscow on 27th December, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov said that Russia is poised to proceed with the construction of a 4,700-km oil pipeline that is to link the Irkutsk region in western Siberia with Russia’s Far East. He said that the pipeline, which will also pump the fuel to the Asia-Pacific countries, is slated to be put into operation late next year.
In the first stage of the ESPO project, is a 2,757 km sector that will be built with capacity of 220.5 million billion barrels of oill per year. The first leg is estimated at $10-11 billion. The pipe line will link Taishet, in East Siberia’s Irkutsk Region, to Skovorodino, in the Amur Region, in Russia’s Far East.
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