State bows to a bully
ON Thursday — hereafter it will be remembered as the Black Thursday — the mighty Indian state bowed meekly before a bully and secured temporary “peace without honour”, as a perceptive analyst has lamented.

His master's darshan
IN the days when All India Radio was the primary source of information and entertainment it had earned the not undeserved sobriquet of "his master's voice".

Beyond glossy welcome
WE are in the midst of India Tourism Week, and there is a bold attempt to present the country as The Destination.

INDIAN DEFENCE
by Praful Bakshi
INDIA’s dependence on foreign suppliers and technology for crucial sectors like defence, even after 50 years of Independence, is not only disheartening but alarming.

Relevance of plan panel
by Vinod Mehta
LORD Meghanand Desai who was in India recently, advocated the abolition of the Planning Commission, arguing that such a commission has no role in a market economy. Is it so?

Indian tourism needs a boost
Tavleen Singh
WHILE the rest of you have been hanging your heads in shame at the despicable, sickening antics of the Shiv Sena I have been in Thailand putting body and soul together in a place called Chiva Som.

Germany refuses submarines to India
THE German Government has refused to supply two more SSK Class submarines to India adversely affecting Indian Navy’s plans to have a fleet of six such subs.

75 Years Ago

Taxi-driver prosecuted
THE Fourth Presidency Magistrate today delivered his judgement in the case in which Dalip Singh, a driver, was charged with rash driving, thereby causing the death of two European tradesmen, Messrs Bertram Landsman and Antony.

State bows to a bully

ON Thursday — hereafter it will be remembered as the Black Thursday — the mighty Indian state bowed meekly before a bully and secured temporary “peace without honour”, as a perceptive analyst has lamented. It was done in style and with due ceremony. Union Home Minister Advani, the number two man in the Cabinet and the BJP hierarchy, airdashed to Mumbai to personally clinch the deal. Shiv Sena “don” Bal Thackeray chose a hotel lobby to give audience, not wanting the pro-Pakistan peace-seekers to pollute his patriotic palace. The state Chief Minister and a high-flying Union Minister, who is the go-between-in-chief between the two parties, were in dutiful attendance, making appropriate gestures to please the chieftain. The surrender terms are sickening and will forever weigh down the concept of good governance. The Union Government has admitted that it shares the bully’s concern, though the reference is actually to the violence in Kashmir but in the present context it covers the Sena’s campaign of violence and vandalism as well. And it has allowed the inclusion in the joint statement lavish praise for the “patriotic and brave youth” who jumped into the anti-cricket and anti-Pakistan agitation. Mr Advani and his apologists may interpret the brief statement read out at the end of an hour-long parley in any way they like; but one man read it right. Chief Minister Manohar Joshi said he would release the 14 Sainiks arrested in connection with the smashing of the Cricket Board office in Mumbai. “There is no case now,” he asserted. Indeed there is no case now; the surrender treaty wipes their crime clean.

The government’s public relations men are trying to dress up the sequence as an honourable act, done in the best interests of the country’s image. But published reports make it a cunningly stitched plot. First the Prime Minister and then the Home Minister thundered dire warnings. Then they threatened action and declared that the tour would go on and they would brook no hindrance. The Prime Minister even indulged in uncharacteristic sarcasm to publicly pull up the Sena supremo. Mr Advani, on his part, told the state government that the Centre would act if the state could not. During all this time the government was in touch with the Sena in a desperate bid to mollify Mr Thackeray. It wanted to hold the talks under the cover of darkness on Wednesday night, but the chieftain refused, wanting his formal anointing as the chief peace-provider in daylight. Nor would he talk to anyone other than Mr Advani himself, the aspirant to the mantle of Sardar Patel. With this the official approval for rightwing extremism stands confirmed. The BJP finds it distasteful to condemn outright attacks on Christians; now anti-cricket vandals get an indirect pat on the back. Several times in the past the party had come up with disingenuous arguments to support violence against artistes, dramatists, film-makers and writers. Now that the party is in office, this has given an impression that India is an unfair country, slipping into some form of officially induced anarchy. Never has the country been so badly and amateurishly governed as now. Mr Thackeray’s victory is the country’s loss.

His master's darshan

IN the days when All India Radio was the primary source of information and entertainment it had earned the not undeserved sobriquet of "his master's voice". The proliferation of television networks has, of course, reduced Akashvani to a government-controlled non-entity because official propaganda is now conducted through Doordarshan channels. It is unfortunate, but not surprising, that successive governments have ensured that Doordarshan does not go beyond giving an overdose of "his master's darshan" to captive audiences across the country in spite of promises of full autonomy for the government-run electronic media. The only serious attempt to set up an autonomous Prasar Bharati Corporation was made by Mr Jaipal Reddy when he was Information and Broadcasting Minister in the ill-starred United Front government. Instead of carrying forward the reforms process Mrs Sushma Swaraj as a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government ensured that autonomy for Doordarshan and Akashvani remain mere promises. The fact that the Prasar Bharati Ordinance (1990) was re-promulgated before it expired on January 10 suggests that even Mr Pramod Mahajan is in no hurry to grant the promised freedom to act without government interference to Doordarshan and Akashvani. Though Mr S. S. Gill was removed from the post of Chief Executive Officer of Prasar Bharati on August 30 last year, no attempt has thus far been made by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to fill the vacancy in spite of queries from Vice-President Krishan Kant who is Chairman of the selection committee.

Latest reports suggest that the Centre is having second thoughts on the existing provisions of the Prasar Bharati Act in their present form but lacks the political courage to introduce fresh legislation for redrawing the parameters of autonomy for the electronic media. The other day Mr Rajendra Yadav, a member of the Prasar Bharati Board, threatened to take up with the government the issue of Doordarshan newsroom's "return to sycophancy. They have again brought back political control to DD. There is no such thing as autonomy any more". Of course, Mr Yadav's concern over the "return to sycophancy" may find wide support among those who believe that Doordarshan and Akashvani can never improve their professional image without complete autonomy. However, it is doubtful whether public criticism of the duplicity of the BJP-led coalition on the issue of autonomy is going to make Mr Pramod Mahajan loosen his control over what he calls a "Rs 55,000 crore asset". The voluble Information and Broadcasting Minister should realise that the policy of promising autonomy without giving it may ultimately kill the goose which lays the golden egg. As it is, a large section of television viewers rarely watch Doordarshan programmes because of their poor quality. With the spread of satellite channels, most advertisers too are switching over to private networks for promoting their products. The only way to prevent Doordarshan from disappearing from Indian homes is to allow it the freedom to function without having to take orders from politicians and bureaucrats.

Beyond glossy welcome

WE are in the midst of India Tourism Week, and there is a bold attempt to present the country as The Destination. But beyond the picture postcard showcasing, there is the usual who-cares attitude. The problem is that the projecting of the country has never gone beyond the glossies. Most officials think that a tourist will rush to India merely on seeing an attractive advertisement. Little does he realise that the word of mouth publicity by those who have already undergone the ordeal puts paid to all their efforts. And this is not about poverty, squalor and dust alone. After all, an international tourist encounters these in other countries as well (although we do take the lead; just visit the neighbourhood of the Taj in Agra or Krishna janmasthan in Mathura). One has to guard against thieves even in Italy. It has more to do with the unhelpful attitude of the people who should actually be ambassadors of goodwill for the country. The ordeal starts right there at the airport when customs officials, which are not all known for honest dealings, pounce on the visitor. The second line of offence is manned by the policemen, who are rude, if they are not downright offensive. Then one has to cope with endless strikes, agitations, missed flights and go slows. Realisation has yet to dawn that a tourist is on a tight schedule and cannot afford to fritter away his valuable time. As if all that is not enough, touts pounce on the unwary visitors like hyenas. Some time back, when a foreign tourist landed at Delhi to go to the Kumbh fair at Hardwar, he was greeted by a taxi wallah who convinced him that due to an agitation, the venue of the fair has been shifted from Hardwar to Gulmarg. The poor fellow was taken to the hill station in Kashmir and was dumped there! Mind you, this is not an isolated case. On paper, there is tourist police but it can never be found at the right time at the right spot. That is why most tourists return home with the impression that they are a nuisance rather than valued guests. Small wonder there are few who dare a second trip. And pointing out these shortcomings is considered to be an unpatriotic deed.

The government has not only been unable to control the exploitation of the tourists, it has itself tried to kill the golden goose through its warped policies. Take, for instance, the air fares. The Delhi-Chennai-Delhi ticket costs nearly Rs 15,000. For about Rs 3,000 more one can go and return from London. Things are no better in the hotel industry. Naturally, there are many who feel cheated. Mind you, the position of the budget traveller is even worse. And as far as the domestic tourist is concerned, he has come to be treated as a non-entity. The few who dare to take their family for an outing brace themselves for the situation where the word travel (safar) is not only phonetically similar to the English word “suffer” but also has almost the same meaning. Unless a holistic plan is drawn to set right the numerous problems, the tourism weeks will continue to be a meaningless ritual.

INDIAN DEFENCE
Indigenise or perish
by Praful Bakshi

INDIA’s dependence on foreign suppliers and technology for crucial sectors like defence, even after 50 years of Independence, is not only disheartening but alarming. Besides putting the national exchequer under severe strain, this dollar guzzling non-profit state of affairs poses a serious threat to our national security, and should alarm every right-thinking citizen. Why this predicament at this late stage?

The recent reluctance of Israel, pressurised by the USA to not carry out the much awaited and highly sensitive upgradation of the IAF’s IL 76 heavy transport aircraft to AWAC (Airborne warning and control) configuration, and the equally important MIG fighter fleet modernisation are only two such cases in a huge list of such examples of denials to India.

It is now well known that the sanctions announced by the Americans are being carried out in spite of the goodwill being generated in India’s favour, but the majority of defence upgradation and spare parts cases of the three Services have been held up by the Russians, due to either their inability to manufacture and supply the same to us or due to their marked reluctance in allowing us to go for the same to some other Western supplier. This holds true also in case of our going in for some new equipment available with some other country.

The major cause of this predicament has been lack of a proper defence doctrine right from 1947 onwards and a totally ad hoc way of functioning by the decision making non professional and ill-informed bureaucratic bodies. Even a hurried paper on the doctrine prepared by the MoD, after 1995 Rand Corp report on the dismal planning and running of the defence of India cannot get us out of this morass until we indulge in deep introspection and treat it as an emergency national issue.

AWAC’s and air-to-air refuellers have been on the Indian Air Force’s list of requirements for a number of years along with the fighter aircraft upgradation programme. In fact, in the next two or three years over 150 MIG 21 aircraft would be grounded, thus requiring urgent action in this field to fill in this serious void in the national security scene. Now let us look at the MIG 21 issue more closely. When India purchased this aircraft in 1963, the only other country in this region to have gone for this aircraft was China. Even Pakistan went for aircraft of purely NATO or western origin, and took further 25 years to go in for the MIG 21s. China in the meanwhile equipped with proper defence doctrine, went not only for complete indigenisation of its aircraft industry, but also went in for reverse engineering of the imported equipment wherever possible. As a result China was never plagued with the problem of the ageing aircraft like India. In fact, China started building modified and newer version of these and other aircraft, which it not only supplied to Pakistan but helped its Kamra and other aviation projects to build these aircraft at home. India, on the other hand only stuck to licence building of these machines and continued depending on the erstwhile Soviet Union for most of the crucial spare parts and even engines. Now with most of these aircraft on the edge of their flying career India is desperately requiring upgradation and modification of these, like China and Pakistan’s programme for upgrading the MIG 21 to Super 7 and manufacturing of the FC 1. However, after long and jerky deliberations, the Indian defence bureaucracy finally decided to upgrade and modify the MIG 21 BIS Fleet, and a number of foreign aircraft industries came forward for the task. But the Russians decided to undertake the same, and even after three years nothing much has come of it due to a host of problems, including the financial one.

How Russians have got such an hold over the vast defence setup of India has to be properly understood from its genesis 35 years ago. Having been denied the Starfighter for its air force by the USA, India went in for the MIG 21s from Russia in 1963 followed by the SU 7s in 1968. On the transport side the IAF was already flying the IL14s and the AN 12s. Till the introduction of MIG 23s in 1981, the IAF had bought different versions of MIG 21s, but was only licence-producing the same as mentioned earlier. Thereafter, India went in for the MIG 27s in 1986, MIG 29s in 1987 and the SU 30s in 1997. Keeping abreast of its original policy of having weapons from diverse sources, India bought British Jaguars in 1978 and French Mirage 2000s in 1985. Of the above HAL licence-produced the MIG 27s, and the Jaguars, with all the major parts being imported, including the engines. The Indian Air Force also went all out being equipped on the transport and helicopter side by AN 32s, IL, 76s, MI 8s, MI 17s, MI 25s MI 26s, a host of ground radar and surface-to-surface missiles.

The story was the same on the army and the navy front. From early sixties the tanks like T 55s, PT76s, T72s, majority of the artillery field guns and air defence guns and associated radars were from the Soviet Union. Ninety per cent of the naval submarines, frigates, missile boats and naval aviation aircraft and helicopters too were of the Soviet origin.

In all the above mentioned cases nowhere did India make any attempt to get into some sort of local manufacture arrangement of reverse engineering to indigenise the product so that we could subsequently earn foreign exchange through export of these systems as is being done by China or even Pakistan. If India showed any interest in some other country to upgrade or modify its systems it neatly got its arms twisted by the Soviets. A typical example of the same is the now famous and crucial case of the Advanced Jet Trainer, which is pending due to indecision on the part of the Government for over a decade primarily due to the Russian influence as they want their own MIG AT to be selected as against the much proven British Hawk and French Alpha Jet. Incidentally, the MIG AT is only in the prototype stage and has yet to train a single trainee pilot. Even then the officials are being made to consider the MIG AT every time they visit Russia.

However, of late the Russians have realised after the breakup of the erstwhile Soviet Union, that their truncated defence industrial setup cannot cater to the massive demands of the countries like India, which are totally dependent on it. Hence it now allows India to go in for deals where the third country is dealing with it too or where it is completely helpless to supply anything as in the case of 10 SU 30 MK 1 for India, where Russia has allowed French and Israeli companies to fit Inertial Navigation system and Long Range Air to Ground Missile Weapons system on to the aircraft. That is how Israel has come about upgrading the Russian made Indian IL 76.

The Israelis have undertaken massive upgradation of the weapons the world over as the use of upgraded and modernised weapons is the only answer, keeping in view the fact that a modernised system is as good and efficient as any new system now coming out and many times cheaper than the new one. Somehow this crucial aspect has been ignored by India our total defence industrial setup has been denied this golden opportunity.

India is not only in a position to put its massive industrial setup and R&D to work in this direction and become a springboard in this region to help out the other developing countries in the field of defence, but if suitable incentive is provided to the private industries in the field of defence corporate sector, then not only would we be able to become self-sufficient in this aspect, but would be able to earn the much needed foreign exchange. This suggestion has been very strongly supported since 1990s by the three service chiefs, the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), and the Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs). Encouragingly, now the MoD has taken some positive steps towards this, and asked the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) to establish six task forces to identify specific partnership areas with at least seven DRDO (Defence Research Development Organi-sation ) Labs involved in developing dual use technologies, biotechnologies and software products. This will enable India to evolve long-term procedures for cooperation between private industry and the DRDO to counter sanctions against India, and also the denial of the dual use technology by the Western powers. Speaking on the subject the Defence Minister Mr George Fernandes said. “We have to find adequate response to the challenges posed by the sanctions”. Stating that privatisation would not only lead to upgrading obsolete machinery in DRDO establishments, but also help market Indian products and push up exports that totalled Rs. 2.50 billion last year. “ There is a new sense of urgency and determination in the MoD and the private sector” he said. Supporting the Defence Minister, the DRDO chief Abdul Kalam stated that private sectors involvement in defence design and production would increase from 10% to 30% and guide India towards it’s target of 70% self reliance in military hardware by the year 2005.,

All this calls for a complete overhaul in our thinking and planning at the national level on security matters. The recently introduced defence export department will not be able to function unless the private sector is helped wholeheartedly, and invites the top thinking minds into this. But before all this let us make sure that our country has a well defined defence policy and security doctrine, the decisions are being taken correctly in a transparent manner at the right level by the right people to pave a path in the right direction. Had this been done in the early fifties India would not have been jeopardising its security interest at the hands of other countries.

Relevance of plan panel
by Vinod Mehta

LORD Meghanand Desai who was in India recently, advocated the abolition of the Planning Commission, arguing that such a commission has no role in a market economy. Is it so?

This may be true for the highly developed countries where market institutions are well entrenched but this would not be true for developing countries like India which have still a long way to go in establishing market institutions on a strong footing. What is needed is that the Government should withdraw from commercial economic activity and concentrate on social and infrastructure sectors; in that sense the role of the Planning Commission needs to be redefined.

We need to learn from the experience of Russia. With the breakdown of the Soviet Union and the introduction of market economy, the Soviet Planning body called Gosplan was abolished with the result that it deprived itself of the experience of trained economists in guiding their transition to market economy. True, the Indian conditions are entirely different. Still we have generated a vast pool of expertise in economic management and economic monitoring that can be put to effective use in developing a full-fledged market economy, which is in tune with social concerns.

It is in this context that the approach to the Planning Commission will have to be changed. In fact, it will have to be a combination of both indicative and physical planning and development of appropriate fiscal policies to realise the development goals. At the same time the country will have to assign a new role to the Planning Commission. One can say that the new role of the Planning Commission will be to monitor the economic health of the country at the macro level every quarter and suggest corrective actions to the Government.

It is really surprising that in the Ninth Plan (which has recently been approved by the Cabinet) we are still talking about provision of safe drinking water, elementary education and health. These problems should have been solved in the first four or five plans. The fact that these problems are still persisting 50 years after Independence implies that our planning system has failed to deliver the goods.

It is in this context that we may have physical planning for these sectors with the proviso that these would be sorted out in a given time-frame and indicative planning for other sectors of the economy like industry, service and partly agriculture.

Looking back at the Eighth Five Year Plan, one can say that its real performance has been very close to its targets. The annual growth rate was slightly higher than the projected growth rate and so have been the rate of savings. During the Eighth Plan the annual rate of growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was set at 5.6 per cent but it actually achieved a growth rate of 5.9 per cent; the target for the domestic rate of savings was 21.6 per cent but the actual rate achieved is 23.7 per cent. Similarly investment was to grow at the rate of 23.2 per cent but it grew at the rate of 25 per cent per annum.

The most important question which the Government must face to ensure 6.5 per cent growth rate is whether it has the political will to cut down the fiscal deficit and develop an appropriate pricing policy for its various social services like medical, postal, education, transport including power. This is not to say that the prices of the services be raised; the problem can be handled by increasing efficiency and reducing costs in these sectors so that the element of subsidy can be substantially reduced or done away with.

Similarly, to increase the rate of domestic savings the Government will have to develop appropriate tools and give special incentives to the household sector to save as much as they can. Given the current rate of inflation, incomes structures as well as the tax savings incentives it would be difficult to realise the domestic savings rate of 26.2 per cent. Again unless the large number of public sector units which are currently showing losses are able to earn substantial profits and raise internal resources for modernisation and reinvestment in their own units there will be very little increase in the growth rate to domestic savings during the Ninth Plan. — INFA

Indian tourism needs a boost
Tavleen Singh

WHILE the rest of you have been hanging your heads in shame at the despicable, sickening antics of the Shiv Sena I have been in Thailand putting body and soul together in a place called Chiva Som. Unlike its almost namesake it has to do not with violence and dirty politics but with health and beauty, both physical and spiritual. Chiva Som means Haven of Life and all you need to do is spend a week there, as I did, to discover that it could not have been better named. It is a dedicated health resort and even if it did not offer the best by way of health treatments and spa facilities you could probably get healed by simply spending your days wandering through its gardens filled with orchids and flowering trees and breathing the fresh sea air that comes in off the Gulf of Siam on whose shores Chiva Som sprawls over seven acres.

Why am I writing about a spa — no matter how beautiful — in the week that the Shiv Sena has been breaking up the offices of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and ripping up pitches in its efforts to stop Pakistan playing here? For the simple reason that Chiva Som is an example of what politicians can do when they direct their energies in healthier ways. Chiva Som was conceived, you see, by Thailand’s former Deputy Prime Minister, Boonchu Rojanastein, and its Board of Governors includes a former Prime Minister and a Health Minister. It was at the initiative of the Thai Government that a consortium of businessmen came together to invest $ 26 million to build what is now considered one of the finest health resorts in the world. I am also writing about Chiva Som in the desperate hope that someone in Atal Behari Vajpayee’s government will wake up to how much potential India has to make vast amounts of foreign exchange simply by selling our ancient health and healing systems through a place like Chiva Som.

As it is, without any attempt a marketing or advertising, thousands of foreign visitors flock to Kerala every year in search of Ayurvedic cures and therapeutic massages. If the government would wake up to the fact that it will never be able to run hotels successfully it could make a wonderful, international health resort out of its Ashoka Hotel on Kovalam beach which as a hotel is among the worst in the world but which in terms of location is near perfect. It would take minimal investment to convert it into an Indian Chiva Som but for this to happen we need a Minister of Tourism who can think beyond organising such futile exercises as India Tourism Week and India Tourism Year.

Tourism is likely to be one of the biggest growth industries in the 21st centuries but, as usual, India is in serious danger of missing the bus yet again because we have so far not had a single Tourism Minister with the imagination or foresight to understand what could be. Let me give you some statistics to prove my point. I heard them in a lecture on “Travel and Tourism — the Opportunity for India” given by Geoffry Lipman, President of the World Travel & Tourism Council under the aegis of the Oberoi group in Delhi last week.

India has, according to official statistics, 2.4 million visitors a year, Thailand and Indonesia attract five times that many visitors and China, which only just opened its borders in the past decade, already gets 50 million visitors. We like comparing ourselves to China so please also keep in mind that while China has a four million hotel rooms we have only 60,000. The reason why we have not built more or, for that matter, why we have not made any serious effort so far to think of tourism as an engine of growth for the economy in general is because we continue to think of hotels and tourism as luxuries that a poor country like ours cannot afford to invest in.

So, India with some of the most fabulous monuments in the world, some of the most beautiful beaches and tourist locations comes a miserable 46th in terms of international visitors according to the World Tourism Organisation. “India was one of the pioneers of civil aviation” said Mr. Lipman “with Jeh Tata launching an airline which became one of the world commercial leaders almost half a century ago. And the Oberoi and Tata Hotels are renowned for their quality and service the world over. So there is no shortage of entrepreneurial spirit and achievement. No, what is missing more than anything else in a cohesive policy vision and a consistent implementing mechanism and process”.

What this means is that not only have we not understood the need for hotel rooms and the need for convenient flights but we have also not understood the need for other vital infrastructure such as roads, power and telecommunications. It goes without saying that investment in these areas is needed not just for tourists but also for ordinary Indians to improve their standard of living through the employment opportunities that automatically follow. As it is, without even trying, the travel and tourism industry contributed 5.6 per cent of GDP — Rs 1000 billion — last year as well as 5.8 per cent of employment or 17.4 million jobs, 6.4 per cent of capital investment or Rs 250 billion and 10.8 per cent of exports or Rs 231 billion.

These figures are likely to grow rapidly in the next ten years but to make a significant difference we desperately need a Minister of Tourism who recognises the need for a coherent, consistent policy and its implementation. And, contrary to what our socialist policy makers tell us, this will benefit not just rich people but mostly ordinary Indians.

To quote Mr Lipman, “Tourism is a great friend of cultural preservation, monument restoration and wildlife protection. Increasingly it will become a beacon for sustainable development as it adopts an Agenda 21 approach to its growth. The spread of rural tourism will be a much needed help to agricultural decline and give a vital boost to local arts and craft.”

But, is there anyone up there listening? Think only what could happen in Maharashtra with his wonderful coastline, with Mumbai as its capital city, with Ajanta and Ellora and with all the other things it has to offer. How can anything happen, though, when the government is headed by a remote control who spends his time spreading hatred and violence. For my part give me Chiva Som over the Shiv Sena any old time.

Germany refuses submarines to India

THE German Government has refused to supply two more SSK Class submarines to India adversely affecting Indian Navy’s plans to have a fleet of six such subs.

The German decision has come following Bonn’s disapproval of nuclear tests conducted by India last May.

India had bought two SSK Class submarines from HDW of Germany and built two more submarines under licence at the Mazagon Docks in Mumbai. HDW was to supply kits for two submarines via France but it has been conveyed to the Ministry of Defence that such transfer of technology and equipment would not be made to India. France is strictly toeing the American line of sanctions and denial of military-related technology to India.

Indian Navy is considering other alternatives to equip its fleet with more submarines of this class.

India had bought eight Foxtrot Class submarines from the then Soviet Union but they had to undergo major refits after some time. It was against this background that India signed an agreement with an HDW firm in 1981 for import of two subs and indigenous production of another two. The German deal ran into rough weather over the issue of kickbacks by HDW to certain Indian agents and the sale of similar type of submarines to South Africa (then an Apartheid regime). The resultant controversy led to the killing of the finest Transfer of Technology (ToT) agreement with Germany.

In 1986, the Mazagon Docks started building two SSK Class submarines indigenously and had set up the most modern hull building facility in the world. The submarine building technology acquired from Germany also enabled naval architects to understand the norms for all types of warship building.

India is one of the 14 countries in the world which have submarines. With the stoppage of the German assistance Indian submarine technology has become the most uneconomical. The Mazagon Dock which had become the most modern in the world in 1986 is in a bad shape now by 16 years of disuse.

When the Foxtrot Class submarine technology became obsolete, it was decided to acquire the SSK Class submarines and build them in numbers indigenously. Though India acquired the Kilo Class submarines from Russia later on, the SSK Class was found to be most suited for the Indian Navy.

Naval experts feel that acquisition of three Agousta Class submarines by Islamabad from France and induction of P 3C Orion American maritime aircraft has given the Pakistan Navy considerable reach and power.

From the drawingboard to commissioning a warship requires 10 years. To bridge this gap India is now trying to acquire from Russia technology to build a new class of submarines in a much shorter timeframe. During the recent visit of Russian Prime Minister Primakov, a formal contract had been finalised for building of a new class of submarines under licence to match the most modern in the world. The Russians have conveyed that they were willing to transfer technology even better than the SSK Class submarines and have undertaken to refit and refurbish the eight Kilo Class submarines it had supplied to Indian Navy earlier.

While deciding to go in for latest Russian submarine technology, the naval experts also have kept in view that China has more than 100 submarines in its naval fleet out of which 20 are nuclear-powered submarines, that have built-in capability to launch long-range ballistic missiles. — ADNI

75 YEARS AGO

Taxi-driver prosecuted

THE Fourth Presidency Magistrate today delivered his judgement in the case in which Dalip Singh, a driver, was charged with rash driving, thereby causing the death of two European tradesmen, Messrs Bertram Landsman and Antony.

The prosecution case was that on 15th December last year a party of Europeans engaged two taxi cabs to take them to the Botanical Gardens. When the accused’s car came near the General Hospital, it became erratic, swerved to the right and then to the left, and then it was overturned with the result that two passengers received serious injuries from the effects of which they died, and a lady and two other men received slight injuries.

The Magistrate held that the accident was not due to any rash or negligent act on the part of the accused, but that he was driving the car at a faster speed than was allowed by motor rules.

The accused was fined Rs 50, or in default to undergo two weeks rigorous imprisonment.