Russia enjoys a very unique place in India's foreign relations with their strategic partnership covering the entire spectrum of the bilateral cooperation, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Moscow.
'With Pakistan's 'first use doctrine' threatening the use of nuclear weapons early in a war with India, the S-400 will shield vulnerable targets like Delhi and Mumbai, complicating Pakistan's targeting calculations.'
Reviving their protests against the commissioning of Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant, activists of People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy on Monday said they would go ahead with their indefinite fast from Tuesday.
Modi said Kudankulum 1, an Indo-Russian project, was an important addition to the continuing efforts to scale up production of clean energy in India.
Leaders of various parties and outfits, including Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Vaiko, were on Friday arrested in Tirunelveli when they attempted to proceed to Idinthakarai, the epicentre of protests against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, to express their solidarity with the locals demanding the scrapping of the Indo-Russian project.
Defence Minister A K Antony will co-chair the commission meeting with Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov to hold talks on a wide-ranging agenda of military technical cooperation, covering key spheres, including timely delivery of contracted military systems, in the light of the reported settlement of the cost-escalation issue and supply of defence systems.
The prime minister would hold summit level talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Fourth seeds Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina's doubles campaign at the Mercury Insurance Open came to an end following a right-hand injury to the Russian. Up against Elena Bovina of Russia and Jie Zheng of China, the Indo-Russian pair was trailing 2-5 in the opening set when they decided to opt out of the contest.
Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden lost to Russian pair of Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov.
Carrying different views on the controversial Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project, a delegation of Tamil Nadu Government and activists opposed to the plant will discuss the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Friday.
At Idinthakarai -- the epicenter of protests against the nuclear plant -- Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar encounters a hostile crowd that is angry with the heavy police presence outside their village.
India's nuclear regulator the Atomic Energy Regulator Board is carrying out a thorough review of the first unit of the much-delayed Kudankulam atomic power plant as directed by the Supreme Court last month. "We are reviewing the safety aspects of Unit 1 at Kudankulam as directed by the Supreme Court," an AERB official said
The delay in the refitting of aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov and a range of bilateral issues came up for discussion when Defence Minister A K Antony on Thursday met Russian vice premier Sergei Ivanov in Moscow.
Clearing the decks for early commissioning of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, the Madras high court on Friday held that its two units did not suffer from any infirmity for want of approvals and rejected safety fears as 'unfounded'.
The Madras high court on Friday gave its nod to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project, clearing the decks for the fuel loading and commissioning of unit 1 of the controversy-hit Indo-Russian project.
A wide spectrum of drills including surface and anti-aircraft drills, helicopter operations, maneuvers and cross-deck flying was carried out for the second consecutive day as part of the 11th edition of the biennial Indo-Russian exercise Indra Navy.
Mahesh Bhupathi joined three more compatriots in the mixed doubles second round of the Australian Open after scoring a straight-set win with partner Nadia Petrova in Melbourne.
Asserting that the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant belonged to the "highest safety category" of plants currently in operation in the world, the Centre on Tuesday sought dismissal of petitions in the Madras high court against the Rs 14,000 crore Indo-Russian project.
Blaming the Centre's "inaction" for the stalemate over the Koodankulam nuclear power plant issue, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Tuesday said her government was firm on suspension of the work on the controversial project till people's concerns were addressed.
The assessment of government in New Delhi is that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha will, eventually, support the Indo-Russian joint venture Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project.
The Centre's announcement of setting up of an expert group to allay fears over Koodankulam nuclear plant has not been received favourably by anti-nuclear activists who have resumed their protests against the project.
Controversy-embroiled Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project will once again miss the target as the time frame of commissioning of the first unit has now been revised to the new year.
Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar visits Idinthakarai, the site of hunger strikes opposing the controversial Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant at Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu, and tells us how the high-voltage agitation met a rather tame end.
Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina suffered a crushing 2-6, 1-6 defeat against top seeds Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond to end runners-up at the WTA Dubai Open.
Jaishankar also spoke about how he expected a change in Russia's direction towards the rest of the world and it may likely want multiple options in Asia.
Anti-corruption activist and member of disbanded Team Anna, Arvind Kejriwal, said his team fully backed the agitation against Kudankulam Nuclear Power plant.
In the summit as well as in the inaugural '2+2' defence and foreign ministerial talks, the two sides are also expected to focus on the situation in Afghanistan and the rising threat of terrorism including from groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.
Mirza teamed up with Russian Anna Chakvetadze to beat Kristina Brandi of Puerto Rico and Nana Miyagi of Japan.
"The company is roping in academics to develop the requisite technology before going in for designing and developing missiles which can travel at Mach 5 to 7 (five to seven times the speed of sound). It will be BrahMos II version next to the present variants of Mach 2.8 to 3.5," A Sivathanu Pillai MD & CEO of the company told PTI.
A smaller variant of the 290-km range BrahMos supersonic cruise missile is being developed for the Indian Air Force. A new version of the missile is to be fitted on the frontline aircraft of the air force including Su-30MKI, Mirage 2000 and the future inductions such as the 126 multi-role combat aircraft, BrahMos officials said on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh left Moscow for home on Saturday after concluding a three-day visit during which he attended the 12th annual Indo-Russian summit and witnessed the inking of five agreements, including one for technical assistance in joint production of 42 more frontline Sukhoi-MKI 30 jets. Dr Singh, who held talks with President Dmitry Medvedev, cleared the uncertainty over the Kudankulam nuclear power project on Friday.
Leander Paes's campaign at the Australian Open came to an end when he and Elena Vesnina of Russia were knocked out of the mixed doubles in Melbourne, on Tuesday. Paes-Vesnina went down 3-6, 2-6 to the Australian duo of Jarmila Gajdosova and Matthew Ebden in a second round match.
Mahesh Bhupathi and Nadia Petrova of Russia entered the mixed doubles quarter-finals at the Australian Open, rallying from a set down to register a 3-6, 6-2, 10-5 victory over Katarina Srebotnik of Slovakia and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia in Melbourne on Tuesday.
He noted that in last 60 years, India and Russia have acquired great experience in mutually beneficial cooperation at various levels.
Indian defence services are poised to induct well over 1,000 rotary wing aircraft in the coming decade, the majority of them developed and built in the country.
The condition of five persons including S P Udhayakumar, who are fasting for the last eight days as part the Koodankulam agitation, worsened on Tuesday with doctors advising shifting them to a hospital, officials said.
India has said the stalled agreement for four more Russian nuclear reactors in Koodankulam in Tamil Nadu was not a setback.
Australian Open winners Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek saw off stiff resistance from Juan Monaco and Kei Nishikori to advance to the quarter-finals of the ATP Indian Wells Masters. The seventh-seeded Indo-Czech pair beat their unseeded opponents 7-6(5), 6-4 in a second round match.