Women climb higher in US army ranks

Women climb higher in US army ranks

·         10^th Mountain Div gets its first lady Brigadier

·         Army Rangers get their first women officers

By  Sangeeta Saxena

New Delhi.  US has come a long way  since the American Revolutionary War, women served the U.S. Army in traditional roles as nurses, seamstresses and cooks for troops in camp. Army Col. Diana Holland, the 10th Mountain Division’s deputy commander for support, was promoted to brigadier general and became the first woman to serve as deputy commanding general in any US Army light infantry division.

 Holland is scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan this fall as the division’s deputy commanding general for support, in support of Operation Resolute Support. Holland previously deployed with the 3rd Infantry Division to Iraq in 2004 and led the 92nd Engineer Battalion and the 130th Engineer Brigade during deployments in Afghanistan.

 Holland was among 895 second lieutenants who graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., in 1990. It was the 10th class to graduate women and the first to have a female cadet serve as first captain, the highest leadership position in the Corp of Cadets. Approximately 2,000 of the 7,000 lieutenants who received their commission that year went on to reach the rank of colonel, and only 40 have been selected to become brigadier generals.

Lauding  the noncommissioned officers with whom she has worked throughout her career she  said, “As a leader in the Army, we are charged with inspiring our soldiers but I often found myself inspired by them.” Previously, 18 of the Army's 308 generals were women. Now Holland has joined their ranks.

In another first Captain Kristen Griest and First Lieutenant Shaye Haver became first women to wear the tabs of  US army rangers. An Apache helicopter pilot from Copperas Cove, Texas, Haver said she plans to return to her unit. Griest, a military police officer from Orange, Connecticut, said she’s interested in special forces operations should they open their teams up to women. She said that she had wanted to become a ranger for years, and both she and Haver said that they wanted the best training the army could provide.

To trace history General Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Florence Blanchfield to be a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, making her the first woman in U.S. history to hold a permanent military rank. A member of the Army Nurse Corps since 1917, Blanchfield secured her commission following the passage of the Army-Navy Nurse Act of 1947 by Congress. Blanchfield had served as superintendent of the Army Nurse Corps during World War II and was instrumental in securing passage of the Army-Navy Nurse Act, which was advocated by Representative Frances Payne Bolton.

And it has not been a bed of roses as many would like to believe, for these women. During the War in Iraq, three Army women become prisoners of war in the first days of the invasion and total casualties to date in the two Gulf Wars is 98. And they are great soldiers who don't make excuses about their gender. 42 women in different ranks of the Army became casualties in Afghanistan.

During the Revolutionary War, women follow their husbands to war out of necessity. Many serve in military camps as laundresses, cooks, and nurses but only with permission from the commanding officers and only if they proved they were helpful. Deborah Sampson served for over a year in General Washington’s army disguised as a man. After being wounded, her gender was discovered and she was honorably discharged. Later, she received a military pension from the Continental Congress.

In the last two years of World War I, women are allowed to join the military. 33,000 women served as nurses and support staff officially in the military and more than 400 nurses died in the line of duty. During World War II, more than 400,000 women served at home and abroad as mechanics, ambulance drives, pilots, administrators, nurses, and in other non-combat roles. Eighty-eight women are captured and held as POWs (prisoners of war). In 1948 Congress passed the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act granting women permanent status in the military subject to military authority and regulations and entitled to veterans benefits.

During the Korean War, over 50,000 women served out of whom 500 serve in combat zones as nurses. In the Vietnam War, over 7,000 women served, mostly as nurses in all five divisions of the military, Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard in Vietnam and all were volunteers. In 1973 the military draft (only for males) ended and an all-volunteer military was formed creating opportunities for women. In 1976 the first females were admitted to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to be trained in military science.

The US Army Women’s Museum is on the Fort Lee Army Post uses uniform displays, pictures, recordings, dioramas, static displays, and material and equipment to tell the story of women who have served in wars and military operations from the American Revolution through the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As the name suggests, the museum is all about women’s role in the history of the Army.

BRO  all set to fill the yawning gap at Sino-Indian border

By Sangeeta Saxena

New Delhi. As Border Roads Organisation turned fifty five this year, there is something new and promising which catches the eye. It has stopped sailing  with it’s feet on two boats- Ministry of defence and  Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. The BRO which has been functioning under the administrative control of Ministry of Defence (MoD), gets it’s budget reflected in the Demands for Grants under from Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) until year 2014-15. Accordingly, from the financial year 2015-16, the budget of BRO has also been shifted from MoRTH to MoD.

Vide Gazette Notification dated 9th January, 2015, all matters relating to Border Roads Development Board and Border RoadsOrganisation have been placed under Ministry of Defence in Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961. In another development instruction has been issued for E-procurement in BRO for ensuring transparency.

A civil engineering institution responsible to provide civil (construction) engineering cover to the Armed Forces of India, during war and peace,BRO is the brain child of India’s first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. It has till date constructed 28,342 km of formation cutting, 32,885 km of surfacing, 12,200 metres of permanent bridges and has undertake Rs 2039 crore (USD 436 Million) worth of permanent works. Over 75 percent of BRO’s road construction projects are in High Altitude Areas (HAAs). It is presently building 2,764 km of a total of 5,061 km road length in India’s northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh alone.

Government has identified 73 roads for development along the International Border with China. Of these 73 Indo-China BorderRoads (ICBRs), 61 roads of total length 3410 km have been entrusted to Border Roads Organisation (BRO). Certain norms have been relaxed for projects concerning national defence and security or involving other strategic considerations. Out of 61 ICBRs with BRO, 19 roads of length 625 Km has already been completed. The connectivity (formation work completed) has been achieved on 24 roads and the work is under progress on 16 roads, while works on 2 roads is yet to commence. Out of the remaining 42 ICBRs, the target set for completion for 40 ICBRs is 2018 and for 2 roads the completion is expected to go beyond 2018.

Measures have  been taken to improve the work in BRO as Prime Minister Narendra  Modi’s second pet project after Make in India is Make for India. The financial powers of ground executive have been enhanced for speedy sanction and execution of works. In order to introduce the latest art of technology being used by various developed countries the officers of BRO are being sent on training in various foreign countries. Inspection of works on roads is being carried out regularly by executives at Project, Task Force level and by Regional inspection teams to ensure the quality of works. In case of delay in completion of works Chief Engineer Projects are counselled to show greater diligence in the achievement of laid down targets.

An important reason why India is lagging far behind China with regard to roads and rail near the LAC is their very different perceptions of border infrastructure. Besides the very difficult terrain and hostile weather conditions in which roads in the Himalayas have to be built , problem is also due to the unrealistic deadlines set by the government. Challenges like land acquisition and environmental clearances delay the projects . Also forest and wildlife clearance, hard rock stretches, limited working season, difficulties in availability of construction material due to natural disaster such as flash floods earthquake , avalanches and snow create hindrances for BRO. The GREF (Ground Reserve Engineering Force)as it is also called, ensures restoration of damaged bridges in addition to road infrastructure .

The yawning gap in the quantity and quality of India and China’s infrastructure near the LAC has multiple and far reaching implications. This is why a rejuvenated , self sufficient , motivated and diligent Border Roads Organisation is the need of the hour.

CRPF defends the nation at HotSprings in 1959

An event that changed the course of Indian history

CRPF’s Operation Hot Springs

By Sangeeta Saxena

The CRPF men who gave the supreme sacrifice at Hotsprings

New Delhi. Very few Indians know that it was the Police personnel who were responsible for manning the 2,500 mile long border of India with Tibet until the autumn of 1959. On October of that year, at a height of 15,300 feet above sea level, in temperatures much below zero at Hot Springs in Ladakh,10 policemen were killed in an unequal combat with heavily armed Chinese troops.  

In early September a patrol party of Indian soldiers was captured east of Chushul by the Chinese and released in the beginning of October. It was a time when the nearest Army Garrison was at Leh. The only units available for the Indian Government to use to project force quickly were the IBTF(Indian Border Task Force) and the CRPF(Central Reserve Police Force) units in the area. As a repercussion the two forces, got orders from the Deputy Director of the Ministry of Home Affairs on 22" September to establish new posts right at the Chinese occupation line in Ladakh. For all intents and purposes the jurisdiction of the operation was given to the IBTF units under DSP Karam Singh and a force of forty CRPF personnel deputed to the IBTF under DSP S.P. Tyagi. The first outpost was supposed to be at a place called Hot Springs.

Memorial for the brave at Hotsprings 

On October 20, 1959, three reconnaissance parties were launched from Hot Springs in North Eastern Ladakh in preparation for further movement of an Indian expedition which was on its way to Lanak La. While members of two parties returned to Hot Springs by the afternoon of that day, the third one comprising of two Police Constables and a Porter did not return. Karam Singh sent out a larger team of ten policemen to go out and look for the three lost men who returned at 2300 hours that same night without success. But interestingly they had discovered hoof -prints on the ground which was proof of Chinese soldiers in the area.

At 0700 hours the next morning, on the fateful day of October 21, 1959, Karam Singh and Tyagi led a team of around twenty policemen armed with bolt action rifles in search of the missing policemen on ponies. The rest of the force was ordered to follow behind on foot. They reached the point of the hoof –prints, dismounted and awaited the arrival of the main force. On the arrival of the main party it was decided that Tyagi would stay behind and command this larger force while Karam Singh and his small group of twenty would follow the tracks and see if they led to the Chinese intruders in that sector. Because of the hill feature along the bank of the Chang Chenmo River where the hoof –prints continued, the two parties lost contact. At about midday, Chinese Army personnel who had the advantage of height by camping on a hillock, opened fire and threw grenades at Karam Singh’s party.

In the massacre ten CRPF men laid their lives  and nine were wounded. The main force under Tyagi was forced to retreat and their attempts to recover the bodies of the dead CRPF men later in the night went in vain since many of the forty men under his command had also been wounded to some degree or another and the Chinese still dominated the hill above the riverbank which they continued to hold even on the 22^ndOctober when Tyagi was finally ordered to retrieve his remaining force back to Tsogstsalu. Four of the more seriously injured policemen under Tyagi were airlifted to Srinagar on November first to be placed in a Military Hospital there.

For Karam Singh and the other prisoners the tragedy had just begun. Five of them were made to carry the dead body of the Chinese soldier who had been killed. They were all put together in a pit six feet deep, seven feet wide and fifteen feet long, normally used for storing vegetables. It was covered with a tarpaulin which left several openings through which the ice-cold breezes penetrated. We had to spend the night on the frozen ground without any covering. No water for drinking was provided nor were they permitted to ease themselves during the night and the following day. For the first three or four days they were given only dry bread to eat. Frostbite had started to set in due to the extrme cold.

DSP Karam Singh 

On the 24th Karam Singh was shown the corpses of the Indian policemen killed during the gunfire and asked to identify them. Then for the next twelve days he was tortured along with the others to make him admit that the Indians had opened fire and precipitated the skirmish, which he didn’t. The interrogation continued on the 27^th and 28^th . On 29^th along with Karam Singh and his fellow prisoners,  Chinese also returned the three Indian policemen for whom Karam Singh’s search party had started the hunt. The body of Constable Makhan Lal was never returned and remained unacknowledged by the Chinese. The last time he was seen was where the Chinese had forced Karam Singh and his men to leave his wounded body on the bank of the Chang Chenmo River under the protection of Chinese soldiers. He was most likely neglected and died of his wounds but there are no confirmations of this ruthless act on the part of the Chinese.

The bodies of the ten brave CRPF men were returned by the Chinese at the Sino-Indian border on November 13, 1959. At 8:00 AM on November 14, 1959, the bodies of the CRPF men were cremated with full police honors at Hot Springs. Karam Singh received a national hero's welcome. He was awarded the President's Police Medal by Prime Minister Nehru himself. The day of this gallant sacrifice is now commemorated as Martyrs Day by the Police all over India. Every year on this day, representatives of all the Police Forces in India gather at the Martyrs Memorial at Hot Springs to pay tribute to the Martyrdom of these brave hearts.

New Delhi got the news of the surrender of Karam Singh and his group of survivors under devastating Chinese fire on October 22, a day after the tragedy. On October 23 the Ministry of External Affairs submitted a note of protest to the Chinese Ambassador in Delhi. However, on the inside, Prime Minister Nehru and the Army Commanders had immediately come to realize that the region could not be left to the IB and police alone and army definitely needed to step in. Two days later from October 25 the Indian outposts in the region began receiving reinforcements and medical. On October 27 the Chinese Foreign Ministry informed India and the world that it was prepared to release the captured Indian policemen "at any time". On November 15, 1959, the Indian Army took over direct command of the frontier with China. It was one of the most crucial events leading up to the 1962 war.

Will it be a level playfield in Modi’s India for both Indian and foreign defence industries?

By Sangeeta Saxena

New Delhi. When  Arun Jaitely India’s new defence Minister who also holds the dual charge of Finance Minister in Narendra Modi’s government, stated, India’s military, one of the world’s largest arms importers, aims to speed up defence procurement in the interests of national security, just days after announcing a tentative 100 percent FDI in defence, the Indian indigenous industry is skeptic whether these decisions will turn out to be a boon or a bane. The Nation has very clearly voted for development and  policy regimes that facilitate building a strong defence Industry in India are the need of the hour. But will 100 % FDI over the board help the indigenous defence industry? And this means both public and private defence sectors.

While the public sector firms are still trying their best to protect their turf, the biggest push to get more private players involved came when the Planning Commission called for Indian companies to be prime contractors for all major contracts. For private sector companies, which currently account for just 20% of India’s defense spending, this hand holding seems to have come at just the right time. The new procedures have a “buy and make Indian” provision — which means only local companies, including joint ventures with overseas companies, can enter bids for contracts.

India’s military expenditure accounts for 80% of South Asia’s total military expenditure and its defence industrial base is currently the second-largest industry after its railways. India has promulgated a new Defence Procurement Procedure 2013 with effect from June 1, 2013. While the policy is aimed at laying a strong emphasis on promoting indigenisation and creating a level playing field for the Indian Industry the government has sent a clear signal to major stakeholders in its defence industry to go for defence imports only as the very last route.

The new guidelines make it clear that while seeking the approval for Accord of Necessity (AoN) in a particular category, say, Buy (Global), it will now be necessary to give justification for not considering the other higher preference categories. This is expected to give a stronger impetus to indigenization and inevitably reduced imports from abroad. Foreign vendors can derive solace from the fact that under the new policy, the validity period of an AoN has been reduced from two years to one year. This will bring down the processing time of individual cases significantly.

Another point of interest is that the new Indian policy aims at speeding up the procurement cases. Service chiefs, heads of important defence bodies like Indian Coast Guards and other key functionaries have been given more freedom and their fiscal powers have been raised from the existing Rs 50 crore (US$8.85 million) to Rs 150 crore (US$26 million).

Stipulations related to the indigenous content have been clarified and made more stringent. Indigenous content requirements will now extend all the way to the lowest tier of the sub-vendor. Hence, import content in the products supplied by the sub-vendors will not qualify towards indigenous content.

The basic equipment must have minimum 30 percent indigenous content at all stages including the one offered at the trial stage. It has further been stipulated that an indigenisation plan will be provided by the vendor. These stipulations will ensure more meaningful efforts towards indigenisation. While a penalty has been stipulated for not achieving the required indigenous content at a given stage, a scope to make up the deficiency at later stages has been provided.

Likewise, in the Buy and Make (Indian) cases, there is no stipulation regarding the minimum indigenous content in the Buy component and the Indian vendor is given the elbow room to achieve the prescribed indigenous content in the overall delivery. This enables the Indian vendor the time to absorb Transfer of Technology (ToT), set up manufacturing facility while concurrently meeting the service requirements.

But this summer sees a new government and one which has it’s strong views on indigenization and FDI. Expecting a further change in the DPP post budget will not be thinking aloud. India has been the world’s largest arms importer every year since 2010, as its defence industry struggles to keep up with its international ambitions. The volume of major weapons imports more than doubled between 2004-08 and 2009-13 and India’s share of the volume of international arms imports increased from 7% to 14%, according to the latest report released by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

So does this mean the governments in the past never found the indigenous industry capable enough and hence bought either off the shelf or contracted from foreign OEMs? When it comes to requirements of the Indian Airforce the indigenous aircraft manufacturer HAL found it hard to chew and hence the pace has been very slow. Had the manufacturing opened up to the private industry big Indian names which have been creditably producing for army, navy and homeland security requirements could have come ahead with a plan for aircraft manufacturing too. If small European countries could have their indigenous production, would India have lacked the will power, investment and technical knowhow in it’s own industry?

“This government is committed to national security and we feel the red tape involved in purchase of defence equipments must be cut down . Balancing the resource constraint and making available all the resources that are required for national security is going to be the approach of the government,”  Jaitley said on the sidelines of a ceremony to commission two coastguard ships. Which very categorically means that the bureaucracy and babus have had their field days and it’s time now for hassle free purchase of defence equipment. A reason of happiness for both private players and foreign OEMs.

100% FDI might be a welcome step as far as the foreign OEMs are concerned but the Indian indigenous industry is looking at it skeptically. Even the big ones feel it will be giving too much on the platter to the global big wigs. So why not follow the age old dictum of slow and steady wins the race? This could be  a win-win situation for both the parties.

Punishment, Solution or Political Face Saving

South Korea disbands Coast Guard 

By Sangeeta Saxena

New Delhi. When the 6,825-ton ferry Sewol, carrying an estimated 476 people, sank off South Korea’s southwest coast on April 16, leaving more than 300 people dead or missing, the world had not anticipated that the axe would fall on the country’s maritime guarding force Coast Guard.

The government has come under fire over for it’s passive and uncoordinated response to the disaster. Allegedly, none of the Coast Guard's officers were found to have entered the sinking vessel in the early hours of the disaster, and an emotionally charged South Korean  President announced the disbanding of the force. "The coast guard's rescue operations were virtually a failure," Park said in a nationally televised speech. She is pushing for a legislation that would transfer the coast guard's responsibilities to the national police agency and a new government body she plans to establish. According to President Park Geun-hye , "investigation and information roles will be transferred to the [Korean] police while the rescue and salvage operation and ocean security roles will be transferred to the Department for National Safety which will be newly established".

It’s true that the coast guard needs to be reformed, but disbanding it because it has botched up rescue operations isn’t a very  matured response. Haeyang-gyeongchal-cheong, literally Maritime Police Agency is responsible for maritime safety and control off the coast of South Korea. The KCG is an external branch of Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries at peacetime. Recently, with continuous border crossings by Chinese watercraft, the Korean Coast Guard has deployed a significant number of heavy vessels to the Yellow Sea. The KCG has its headquarters in Songdodong, Incheon, and has hundreds of smaller operating stations along the coastline of the Korean Peninsula.

The Coast Guard Authority was formed on 23 December 1953 in Busan, at the same time a Maritime Police Unit was also established as part of the National Police Agency. In October 1962, new bases were established in Incheon, Yeosu, Pohang, and Kunsan. In February 1963, the aviation unit of the KCG closed, though it reopened in the 80's. Since 1980 the KCG began expanding its fleet largely, and in August 1991 the Police Unit was renamed the Korea National Maritime Police Agency. In 2007 the Korea National Maritime Police Agency was integrated into the Coast Guard.

 In the early 21st century, the fleet expanded to include various vessels of over 3,000 tons, and as of January 2002, the 'Korean Coast Guard Special Operation Unit' was officially formed. In the May 2008, the "Search & Rescue Maintenance Unit" was newly constructed, and as of late 2008, various sub-agencies changed infrastructural composition. The Korean Coast Guard plans to field more vessels over 5000 tons by 2015, and expand its asymmetric warfare force significantly by encouraging participation from other branches of the police.

The Korean Coast Guard operates 4 classes of heavy vessels (over 1000 tons), 3 classes of medium vessels (over 250 tons), and 3 classes of light vessels (speedboats over 30 tons). The KCG also uses several types of 'special purpose watercraft', such as firefighting vessels, barges, high speed scout boats, light patrols, and amphibious hovercraft. The KCG aviation unit fields 6 fixed-wing aircraft and 16 rotary-wing aircraft.

Rescuing isn’t the only job it has in hand. Korea Coast Guard ensures to protect sea from maritime crime and keep maritime security and peace. It has always been in the forefront for surveillance of marine pollution and prevention of hazardous spills in order to keep waters clean and to preserve abundant marine resources. It has always responded quickly against international maritime crimes including enforcement of Alien Migrant Interdiction by seizing current tendency of international crime. It performs to build a clean maritime environment through prevention activities thoroughly against hazardous spills or discharge and perfect pollution control. And traditionally the force has executed all these tasks well.

The onus of the disaster has been put on the Coast guard whereas the responsibility was to be shouldered by Maritime Police Agency and Korean Navy along with them. The Defense Ministry had appointed Adm. Hwang Ki-chul, the chief of naval operations, to lead the rescue support team, including the 14,000-ton amphibious landing ship Dokdo, three military aircraft and hundreds of naval and army commandos.  Park also apologised for the government's handling of the sinking,  and accepted the final responsibility for not properly dealing with this incident . So does that mean the President should resign for this failure?

Meanwhile Korean Coast Guard is coming out of the shock from this blame game. “All members of the coast guard will humbly accept the intention of the president and the people and continue to push forward with the search until the last remaining victim is found,” Kim Suk Kyoon, Commissioner General of the Coast Guard, said in an e-mailed government release.

It seems a case of wrong diagnosis and prescription by the South Korean President. If she doesn’t give a quick re-think to her decision , the nation and the region will bear the brunt of this rash decision, keeping in mind the dire need of having an active  Coast guard with North Korea and China perpetually flexing their muscles in the waters surrounding South Korea.

Changing homeland security landscape in India

By Sangeeta Saxena

New Delhi. Homeland Security is increasingly perceived as being critical to the overall security of the country. Indian security market is growing at 35% against 7% globally. India's share in global expenditure in the sector is also expected to rise to 6% by 2020 from 3.6% now. And this is a positive trend.

Substantiating limited capability of police and paramilitary forces with new equipment, creation of new and dedicated forces and units to counter emerging situations, proactive approach to critical infrastructure, asset protection and disaster management are certain demand factors driving the homeland security market. But is the government able to keep pace with these requirements?

 India is expected to spend INR 4,500 crore on domestic security before 2016 . In this context, the Ministry of Home Affairs has proposed to create a Multi-Agency Centre (MAC) that will work at both the center and State level to compile and disperse intelligence to the police and paramilitary forces. Government has  set up a National Counterterrorism Centre (NCTC) which would be the nodal point for handling all aspects related to terrorism In India. There is approximately INR 324 crore allocated for this endeavor. A further amount of INR 10.50 crore has been released to establish seven counter insurgency and anti-terrorism schools.

Several reforms have been initiated in the recent past to strengthen and consolidate the existing Homeland Security infrastructure in the country. However, imparting further momentum to the needed reforms will require intensification of the Government’s on-going active management and fine tuning of policy, regulations, process and fiscal environment to help ensure strong domestic growth and the achievement of self-sufficiency.

Though no comprehensive study has been done to determine the size of the Indian homeland security market, estimates expect the market to be between $20 and 50 billion (USD) over the next decade and about $10 billion in the next three years. Over half of the market growth is expected to come from a demand in new equipment – especially for electronic surveillance, mine detection and early warning systems. In addition, an estimated 10-20 percent of growth is expected to be spent on the strengthening of internal security network.

Until recently, procurement of hardware for internal security was not seen as independent from that for the armed forces. As a consequence, police and paramilitary forces’ requirements were met by either cast-offs from the armed forces or were treated as an afterthought. But over the last five years, the CPOs or paramilitary forces have seen their budget allocations rise, as a greater de-linking has taken place between the Home and Defence Ministries, given the rising incidence of terror and the growing threat from left-wing extremism. Policing in general, and counter-terrorism operations in particular have, remained low in technology for decades.

Another  imperative is to equip both the police  and paramilitary personnel with a complete set of survival and defence gear – also for urban warfare – with a focus on lightweight equipment like torches, minor explosives, helmets, and water bottles, riot protection gear, goggles to guard against explosives and bullet-proof vests.

The government currently plans to better integrate Civil Defence in the overall Disaster Management Framework by providing better training to volunteers, and upgrading existing physical infrastructure, transport facilities and equipment. There is also a requirement for early warning systems against floods and avalanches, especially in border regions. The Framework also calls for an integrated approach to local and coastal security, especially for a peninsular nation like India. Post 26/11 the focus seems to have shifted to this approach and is a positive step ahead.

Another impediment which needs to be looked into is the huge mismatch between ambition and acquisition for the internal security forces. Protective Gears, simulation aids, tentage,  clothing, communication equipment, transport fleet and surveillance equipment  need to be state-of-the –art, which unfortunately are not.

The wish list of the paramilitary and police forces is long and the bosses in North Block need to take congnigence of it. India has not been able to competitively manufacture the required equipment and has been forced to procure most of them from non-Indian vendors. Though attempts are being made to assemble equipment in India, core components are still required from foreign suppliers. The Defence Public Sector units, DRDO and the indigenous  private sector industry needs to sit up and take stalk of this existing requirement.

India’s homeland security market is expected to be worth 9 billion US$ by 2018, according to a recent assessment. India is rapidly overhauling its security apparatus, creating a gaping appetite for homeland security expertise and technology. This has brought American and European companies and diplomats to try and get a share of the huge contracts expected in the coming years. India needs almost all “tools” of homeland security and this brings many companies to offer their systems. Currently, Israel companies are making efforts to join forces with local companies in India to improve their chances to win contracts.

Strengthening  the policy framework in order to fully realize India’s vision for Homeland Security by encouraging greater public private participation, allowing access to and adoption of latest technologies and leveraging the growing defence sector specific competencies created within the country, is the need of the hour. With mass transport systems seemingly more vulnerable to terrorism than other sectors, bomb detection sensors and surveillance equipment are high on the priority list for state police forces. IP Surveillance is quickly gaining significant ground over conventional CCTV cameras, due to better performance and more competitive costs.

In sum, the Indian internal security market offers a variety of opportunities. But there are bureaucratic obstacles related to policy and procurement that continue to stand in the way. As the government continues to develop and refine its homeland security strategy, the hope is that these obstacles begin to come down, and that India will stand up a first-rate internal security architecture.

War cries and threats from North Korea keep the world guessing

War cries and threats from North Korea keep the world guessing

By Sangeeta Saxena

New Delhi. A paranoid rhetoric and idiosyncratic nature of North Korea’s diplomacy
has made the world take cognizance of it’s threats of a nuclear attack. There is a visible spurt in diplomatic activities of world leaders, trying to find ways to prevent North Korea from launching an attack on South Korea. An enemy it loves to love and hate at the same time.

North Korea's policy continues to exert significant influence on the security situation in the Korean Peninsula, North-East Asia, and Asia-Pacific Region (APR) as a whole.
Seoul, Washington and Tokyo, it’s historic enemies have been waiting to see the country’s rapid and inevitable collapse as a result of economic sanctions, international isolation and internal instability but in vain.

But a sudden change in what is an age old foreign policy, old friend China seems to be  rethinking on its policy toward  North Korea. And this has made the troubled world look up. President Xi Jinping stated that no country should be allowed to throw a region and even the whole world into chaos for selfish gain.  He didn't name North Korea in as many words but it was clear who he was referring to. Earlier, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi had told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that Beijing would not allow troublemaking on China's doorstep. So is a long time ally changing sides? A hypothesis that China is loosing patience with Pyongyang is good news for the rest of the world.


Interestingly Russia who was also a great friend of North Korea has a calculating and pragmatic approach. In just the last five years, Russia-North Korea relations have reached an unprecedented level. And it’s silence during the current crisis created by North Korea speaks volumes. Officially Moscow condemned North Korea's missile launch in December 12, 2012, but continued to oppose tougher action against Pyongyang.Will this soft stand be a hindrance in getting stability in the Korean peninsula?

US which has been mustering support from the world to make a formidable front against North Korea, fears a war between the two Koreas but doesn’t expect an attack on US bases. Pentagon’s assessment is that North Korea has not yet mastered the technology needed to accurately fire a nuclear-armed missile at the US mainland or any of its bases in the Pacific. The Obama administration's official policy of strategic patience towards North Korea showed a little impatience when the new defence secretary Chuck Hagel ordered the B-2, the Stealth bomber, over the Korean peninsula for the first time. Invisible to radar and with a nuclear capacity America decided to throw the weight of it’s defence superiority over Korea which has been flexing it’s muscles for the last two months.

On February 12, North Korea confirmed that it had conducted its third nuclear test. It was the test of a small plutonium bomb at an underground facility and the resulting tremors were detected relatively quickly by neighboring countries. On March 7, United Nations voted to impose harsh additional sanctions and China signed on to the resolution to the displeasure of  North Korea. North Korea announced on March 11 that it had "scrapped" the 1953 armistice ending the Korean War. On April 2, North Korea said that it would restart its Yongbyon nuclear facilities. On April 4, the government moved a missile to its east coast, concerning Japan. The next day, North Korea warned foreign embassies that they may need to evacuate soon, saying that they will be "unable to guarantee" their safety after April 10. This chronology of events has made the world brainstorm on how to check the errant child.

"Our retaliatory action will start without any notice from now," Pyongyang said in a statement published Tuesday by its official news agency, KCNA.
North Korea said it was responding to what it called insults from the "puppet authorities" in the South, claiming that there had been a rally against North Korea in Seoul.
It called the rally a "monstrous criminal act."

Pyongyang is repeating it’s old show the world has seen many times before, but this time it's played in high decibles. North Korea's Kim Jong Un, the world's youngest head of state at thirty,  is in a Confucian society where age is respected. Is this his way of telling his country that he can keep an upper hand in the polity of the region and the world? Of course, the circumstances that led Kim Jong-un to power at such a young age are a great challenge both for him and the country. The significance of help from his father’s old guard should not be underestimated, particularly in the early years of his rule. Even under world pressure it will be difficult for him to back down from his threats without losing face. He will need to act in order to maintain his domestic standing and hence will take limited action and launch small offensives. So will it be a case of barking dogs seldom bite?