India is closely monitoring Sri Lanka's decision to offer foreign investors control of an airport near the China-controlled Hambantota port, as it could present a rare opening for Indian firms seeking strategic footholds in the Indian Ocean.
The first project that is being negotiated is for the procurement of three Scorpene submarines, which will be jointly constructed by state-run Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL) and French defence major Naval Group.
India's privatisation push, once projected as a cornerstone of economic reform, has suffered another setback, with the Centre set to call off the IDBI Bank stake sale, highlighting the political and structural constraints shaping the country's disinvestment policy, experts say.
In their talks, Modi and Merz are likely to deliberate on trade and investment ties as New Delhi is looking at deepening economic engagement with Europe against the backdrop of Washington's 50 percent tariff on Indian goods, people familiar with the matter said.
INS Vindhyagiri (F-42), the sixth and the last of the Nilgiri class of frigates which was damaged in an accident last year, has been decommissioned.
'The Raksha Mantri's day at sea'/
India's largest warship builders -- Mazagon Dock Ltd, Mumbai; and Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers, Kolkata - have prevailed over the Indian Navy's objections. MDL and GRSE will divide between them the entire order for seven improved stealth frigates, code-named Project 17A.The Navy was insisting that the first two frigates of Project 17A be built abroad, so that MDL and GRSE could learn how to build ships using new modular methods that are preferred by European shipyard
The Indian Navy's firepower is going to be significantly boosted with the addition of four heavy warships. The navy's design chief, Rear Admiral MK Badhwar, has confirmed for the first time, to Business Standard, that the Defence Acquisition Council --the top procurement body in the Ministry of Defence --has cleared Project 15-B, the construction of four 6800-tonne destroyers by Mazagon Dock Ltd, Mumbai.
This is the first time that the two indigenously built warships have been launched concurrently.
An official said that there were stringent norms at MDL on data security.
Christened 'Vela', the submarine was launched on May 6, 2019, and has completed all major harbour and sea trials including weapon and sensor trials despite COVID-19-induced restrictions, the Navy said.
Unlike conventional subs that must surface every 48 to 72 hours, these subs can stay submerged for up to 14 days.
The development marks a major milestone in Indian Navy's submarine programme as the vessel is expected to bolster India's maritime prowess
HAL, BEL and MDL feature on Sipri's list of the 100 largest arms producers in the world.
The stocks are largely from sectors such as chemicals, finance and cement, which struggled earlier but the worse seems to be behind them.
Built at the Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd in Mumbai, the ship's construction also marks the end of the Project 15A to build Kolkata-class guided missile destroyers.
The leaked documents include details of submarine's underwater sensors, above-water sensors, combat management system, torpedo launch system and specifications, communications system and navigation systems.
Investors seem to have fully savoured the Burger King India IPO, with the share sale getting subscribed a massive 156.65 times on the last day of the offer on Friday.
Though the government says public and private shipyards compete on equal terms, public shipyards feast at the high table with the defence ministry, with only scraps being tossed to private shipbuilders.
The government has withdrawn the tender for purchase of 98 torpedos for Scorpene submarines which a subsidiary of chopper scam tainted Italian defence conglomerate Finmeccanica had won during the UNited Progressive Alliance regime.
INS Khanderi, the second Scorpene-class submarine that can attack with torpedoes as well as tube-launched anti-ship missiles whilst underwater or on surface, was launched at the Mazgaon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd in Mumbai in January 2017.
Like in the previous case, the newspaper has blacked out all details which it felt would compromise India's security interests.
The warships will be armed with BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles which can reach targets 295 km away.
The warship is packed with a plethora of sophisticated sensors, modern radar and weapons systems such as surface-to-surface missiles and surface-to-air missiles, according to the Indian Navy.
The rally in the equity markets in the second half of 2023 has led to a sharp surge in the cutoff for stocks to qualify as largecaps and midcaps. On the latest list put out by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi), the smallest largecap stock now has a market capitalisation (m-cap) of Rs 67,000 crore, 35 per cent higher than in July 2023. In the case of midcaps, the cutoff has surged 26 per cent to Rs 22,000 crore.
"There is a high-level committee which is inquiring into the Scorpene leak on our side," Admiral Lanba said.
Air India sale will give a boost to India's privatisation drive, the Economic Survey said on Monday, as it suggested redefining the public sector role in business enterprises to encourage private participation in all sectors. The government earlier this month handed over ownership rights in national carrier Air India to Tata Group for Rs 18,000 crore. The amount includes the takeover of the debt burden of Rs 15,300 crore and another Rs 2,700 crore in cash.
INS Sindhukirti's refit took so long that many defence experts believed the vessel would never return to operational service.
The Navy commander also said that as many as 39 naval ships and submarines are currently being constructed in various Indian shipyards that are expected to significantly boost India's maritime prowess.
Govt wants domestic production so as to save foreign currency.
INS Vishakapatnam's ground attack and anti-ship capabilities are achieved through a bank of BrahMos cruise missiles that can be fired at targets up to 295 km away.
The Indian Navy is constrained by its lowest budgetary allocation since 2011-2012, reveals Ajai Shukla.
'The F-21's capabilities far exceed all other torpedoes currently in service.'
Still, there remains a worrying shortfall of frigates, which are the navy's workhorses. 'We need to have at least 24 frigates,' says a senior admiral. 'Currently we are 10 short.'
Ajit Mishra, vice president, research, Religare Broking, answers your stockmarket queries.
There were 35 defects that still remained to be resolved. Of these, 29 could not have been resolved during the monsoon since they required testing in absolutely calm seas. Nor is the Khanderi being commissioned with a full complement of its primary weapon, the torpedo.
The aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, formerly the Admiral Gorshkov, expected to join the Indian Navy later this year, is already late by five years and its price has risen three-fold, from $947 million (about Rs 5,735 crore) in 2004 to $2.3 billion (Rs 13,928.8 crore) today.
The most remarkable feature of these warships is that, tonne-for-tonne, they are not only one of the world's most heavily armed but also one of the cheapest.
The authoritative Congressional Research Service, which provides data and analysis to the US Congress, finds that India no longer features in the world's three biggest arms importers.
The Scorpene submarine does not have enough firepower; it will share 64 obsolescent SUT torpedoes till the Indian Navy is supplied with 100 heavyweight torpedoes -- a process that could take more than two years to complete
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