Food inflation at a 4-month low

Food inflation dropped to 16.22% for the week ended March 13, the lowest in four months, but the Reserve Bank of India could still raise rates for the second time in as many months in April to curb the impact of high food and fuel prices from spilling over to non-food items. Food inflation had last slipped to below 16% in the week ending November 15, 2009, when it had dropped to 15.58%, according to the provisional figures. It declined as the pace of rise in prices of potatoes slowed and other vegetables such as onions became cheaper. It came down 0.08 percentage points from the previous week’s level but is unlikely to prevent the headline inflation hitting the double-digit mark in March, up from 9.89% in February. During the week, petrol prices rose 16.82% while diesel turned costlier by 14.99% year-on-year, as the government restored customs on crude and raised excise duty on petrol and diesel.

Somewhere in Srinagar....

Srinagar’s tulip garden, Asia’s largest, was thrown open to the public.

Terror truth

David Coleman Headley has identified 5-6 Pakistan Army officers among the leaders of Karachi Project , which is aimed at organising attacks on India through fugitive Indian jihadis being sheltered in Karachi by ISI-Lashkar. Sources said that besides serving Majors Samir Ali and Iqbal of the Pakistan Army, Headley has told his FBI handlers about the role of one Colonel Shah and at least two other officers of the Pakistan Army in the Karachi Project. This disclosure demolishes Pakistan’s claim that terror against India being directed from its soil was limited to non-state actors. This came on a day home ministry sources disclosed that an NIA team preparing to leave for the US to question Headley will be accompanied by a magistrate. The magistrate will be sent when the US grants permission for direct access to Headley to record his statement under CrPC 164, which is admissible in an Indian court of law, sources said. The statement would be crucial when a chargesheet is filed against Headley.

Rupee surges to an 18-month high

The Indian rupee on Friday surged by 26 paise to touch an 18-month high against the US currency on persistent selling by banks and exporters amid sustained capital inflow into the domestic equity markets. In early trade, the rupee resumed lower at 45.52/53 per dollar, against its Thursdays closing level of 45.49/50 on some demand for dollars from banks following overnight rise in New York. However, it recovered sharply towards the fag end of the day to close at 45.23/24 per dollar, the highest in over 18 months, due to heavy selling of dollars.

Of Delhi & Mumbai....

Of all the big cities of the world, the rise of Delhi and Mumbai is the most dramatic growth story. By 2025, the two urban agglomerations will have 54 million residents between them. While Delhi did not even feature in the top 30 cities of the world in 1950, it is now the world’s second largest. Between 2000 and 2005, Delhi leapfrogged over Mumbai to become India’s largest urban agglomeration. Mumbai, which was the 17th largest city in 1950 will go from the world’s 4th to 3rd largest, overtaking Sao Paulo, over the next five years. The ‘UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Divisions 2009 Revision of World Urbanization Prospects’ shows that just as the 75 years between 1950 and 2025 are a story of the growth of cities in the developing world, particularly in India, they are also the story of the decline of Western cities. New York-Newark, the world’s biggest urban agglomeration in 1950, is now only the sixth largest and will drop to seventh by 2025. While the United States had eight of the world’s 30 largest cities in 1950, it now has three, Chicago and Los Angeles being the other two. The trend is even more pronounced in western Europe. London, the world’s third biggest city in 1950 now does not feature in the top 30 list. Paris is the only western European city still in the list, a far cry from 1950 when nine cities of the UK and western Europe were among the top 30. Tokyo, meanwhile, has consistently maintained its top positions.

Dhanush and Prithvi II test fired successfully

It was a red-letter day for the country on Saturday. Adding another feather in its cap, India for the first time successfully test-fired nuke-capable Dhanush and Prithvi-II missiles from two separate locations off the Orissa coast in the dawn hours. Earlier trials on the two missiles were either conducted during forenoon or afternoon. Defence sources said, while the ship-launched Dhanush missile was test-launched at 5.30 am from INS Subhadra positioned about 50 nautical miles from Puri coast, the surface-to-surface Prithvi-II was flight tested a few minutes later from the launching complex III of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur-on-sea. Both the indigenously developed missiles were tested in Salvo mode by the armed forces as part of the regular training exercise. The trajectories of both the missiles were monitored by a widespread tracking network consisting of radars, telemetry and electro-optical systems spread over land and sea. Both were text book launches and met all the mission objectives. All the mission sequencing events occurred as expected. “Advanced navigation and guidance systems were flight tested in this exercise,’’ said a defence official. Both the missiles are under production after successfully completion of developmental trials and have been inducted into the Armed Forces. The tests were carried out by Armed Forces while the DRDO scientists only oversaw the operations, the official said. Dhanush, the indigenously developed naval version of the Prithvi short-range ballistic missile (SRBM), has a striking range upto 350 km and can carry single warhead, conventional or nuclear up to 500 kg. Developed by the DRDO, the missile is about 8.53 metres in length and 0.9 metre in diameter besides its launch weight is about 4.4 tonnes. This single stage missile uses liquid propellant. It can be used as an anti-ship weapon as well as for destroying land targets depending on the range. The Prithvi-II is however the first missile developed under Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme. It has the capability to carry 500 Kg of warhead. It has a length of nine meters with one metre diameter and launch weight about 4.6 tonne and is thrusted by liquid propulsion twin engine.

CHRONOLOGY OF PRITHVI-II MISSILE TEST

JAN 27, 1996: India conducts the first test flight of the Prithvi-II ballistic missile from the ITR at Chandipur-on-sea

MAR 2004: India test-fires an “improved’’ version of its Prithvi-II surface-to-surface ballistic missile with an extended-range of 250 km and “much higher accuracy,” according to a defence ministry official

NOV 19, 2006: Indian Army tests Prithvi-II missile from LC-III of the ITR

MAY 23, 2008: First Limited Stock Production (LSP) series test of Prithvi-II conducted from LC-III of the ITR OCT 12, 2009: Armed forces for the first time successfully test two nuclear capable Prithvi-II missiles in quick succession in salvo mode from two mobile launchers stationed in the ITR

CHRONOLOGY OF DHANUSH MISSILE TEST

APR 11, 2000: India conducts first test of the medium-range Dhanush missile, a naval version of the Prithvi from INS Subhadra, a Sukanya class patrol craft in Bay of Bengal. The missile was tested for 250 km range

NOVEMBER 2004: India test-fires the 350 km-range Dhanush missile, marking the induction of the system into the Navy. Dhanush is the naval version of the Prithvi-II

MAR 30, 2007: Navy personnel test Dhanush missile from a warship in Bay of Bengal to gauge the performance accuracy

DEC 13, 2009: Sixth test of the Dhanush missile conducted from INS Subhadra anchored in the sea

India gets Russian N-sub for 10 yrs

India will soon have a nuclear-powered attack submarine prowling deep under the seas. Away from the spotlight on nuclear power reactors, aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov and MiG-29Ks, India and Russia quietly firmed up the 10-year lease of the K-152 Nerpa submarine during Russian PM Vladimir Putin’s visit here last week. With the final lease and training agreements now in place, India is dispatching a 50-member submarine crew, including 8-10 officers, to Russia to train on the Akula-II class nuclear submarine. The lease flows from a secretive agreement inked between New Delhi and Moscow in January 2004, with India funding part of Nerpa’s construction at Komsomolsk-on-Amur shipyard in Russia with an initial $650 million. Nerpa was to be inducted in Indian Navy as INS Chakra by mid-2008 but technical glitches delayed the process. Then, just as it began its sea trials in November 2008, 20 sailors were killed on it due to a toxic gas leak. After repairs, Nerpa is fully-operational now. India had also leased a ‘Charlie-I’ class Russian nuclear submarine from 1988 to 1991. That submarine, too, had been named INS Chakra but the expertise gained was steadily lost since India did not operate any other nuclear submarine thereafter. The over 12,000-tonne Nerpa in itself will, of course, not fulfil India’s long-cherished aim to have a credible nuclear weapon triad — the ability to fire nukes from land, air and sea. While Nerpa is nuclear-propelled, it will not come armed with its long-range nuclear-tipped missiles due to international treaties like the Missile Technology Control Regime. But it will contribute in other ways. For one, it will train Indian sailors in the fine art of operating nuclear submarines. This will be useful when India’s own nuclear submarine, the over 6,000-tonne INS Arihant, becomes operational by 2011-2012. Two, Nerpa will be used to provide protection to INS Arihant, which will be the launch platform for nukes after it becomes operational. Armed as it will be with torpedoes and and 300-km Klub-S cruise missiles, Nerpa will be a silent, lethal hunter of enemy submarines and warships. Three, Nerpa will help India in its objective to have three SSBNs (nuclear-powered submarines with longrange missiles) and six SSNs (nuclear-powered attack submarines) in the long-term. Unlike conventional diesel-electric submarines which have to frequently surface to replenish oxygen to recharge their batteries, a nuclear-propelled submarine can operate underwater for virtually unlimited periods of time. Consequently, a SSBN or a ‘boomer’ is considered the most difficult-to-detectand-target platform for launching nuclear strikes.