The outgoing Obama Administration has hit out at China for blocking India's entry into the elite NSG by describing the communist giant an "outlier".
A National Security Guard team has collected samples from the site of the blast in Pune that took 11 lives.
Two National Security Guards personnel, including an officer, were on Friday were killed and six other commandos injured during operations against terrorists in Mumbai, the first casualties suffered by the elite force during the siege.
About 200 additional commandos of the elite National Security Guards were sent on Thursday as reinforcements to deal with the situation arising out of the terror attacks in the metropolis.
The Mangalore police have picked up eight persons in connection with the alleged murder of an National Security Guard commando who used to be part of L K Advanis security cordon.
Hectic negotiations on India getting NSG waiver are going down to the wire with last-minute changes being pushed by sceptic countries to incorporate their concerns in the draft to hammer out a consensus.After four rounds of discussions that spilled over late into Friday night, Austria, which was among a couple of countries holding out, gave enough indications that 'more work still' needs to be done that will enable India cross a major hurdle in operationalising the N-deal.
Three days after the terrorists took over the Trident and the Oberoi, the former has finally been handed back to the management. The latter is still in the control of the NSG.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Friday said that the country will have more National Security Guard hubs in the future to tackle the threat of terrorism. The home minister read out a statement to media persons, following his visit to the anti-terrorist hub established by the army in Bengaluru.
Chief Minister Raman Singh will get 'Z plus' protection with NSG commandos throwing a security cordon around him in Chhattisgarh which witnessed heightened Naxal threat after the killing of top Congress leaders.
Terming the waiver granted to India by the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers group as a 'huge step' in the relationship between the United States and India, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has complimented the role played by the Indian government in Vienna.In comments made to the traveling press in Algiers on Saturday, Rice said India showed a lot of leadership skills in Vienna, where everybody took everyone else's concerns seriously and found the ways to bridge it.
"US is still working on the revised draft and India is still demanding 'clean and unconditional' waiver. While there is still a distance to go, the proposal to give India a clean exemption from global nuclear trade standards is in deep trouble," Daryl Kimball, the Executive Director of the Arms Control Association, has said."It is vital that these and other states stand their ground," Kimball maintained.
Ahead of next week's crucial meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, a top Swiss lawmaker has said his government will 'most likely' support a waiver for India at the 45-nation grouping."The Indo-US nuclear deal is important for India's energy security and I think the Swiss government will most likely support the waiver for New Delhi at the NSG meet," Speaker of the Upper House of Swiss Parliament Christoffel Brandil told PTI.
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Washington, DC-based Arms Control Association believes India's expectation of a 'clean exemption' at the Nuclear Suppliers Group meeting scheduled for August 21 is "a fantasy".
Buoyed by the International Atomic Energy Agency's approval of the India-specific safeguards pact, the US on Sunday vowed to push through expeditiously the Nuclear Suppliers Group process but said New Delhi would have to answer a lot of questions to secure a waiver from the 45-nation bloc when it meets later this month.
The Centre will provide a close proximity cover of elite "Black Cat" commandos from the National Security Guard (NSG) to Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad in the wake of threat perception from Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
"What is required is to convince the NSG of the non-proliferation benefits of the deal," Stratford, director at the Office of Nuclear Energy Affairs in the US State Department, said.
The US position is that cooperation on the construction of two new reactors, Chasma III and IV, would be inconsistent with the commitments China made at the time of its adherence to Nuclear Suppliers Group guidelines in 2004.
National Security Guard Director General N P S Aulakh on how the NSG has changed after 26/11.
Lt Colonel E K Niranjan was undertaking a mopping up and render safe procedure on the encounter spot when a blast occurred and splinters and sharpnels hit the officer fatally.
"We have made the red lines clear ... We might have to backout if the NSG countries do not agree," M R Srinivasan, member of the Atomic Energy Commission, told PTI.
The government said on Tuesday that it would strive to establish a National Security Guard hub or an equivalent commando force in every state in due course to strengthen the national security apparatus. Home Minister P Chidambaram told the Lok Sabha during Question Hour that the government was trying to have these units soon, though it was a long-term plan in view of the constraints of manpower and training.
Notwithstanding the resolution of G-8 countries on curbing transfer of enrichment and reprocessing technology, India on Thursday asserted that it was proceeding with bilateral civil nuclear deals with various countries on the basis of 'clean waiver' granted by the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
The efforts of the Bush administration to get Congress pass legislation that will allow the United States to sell nuclear technology to India and accept it as a full-time partner in the international nuclear community.
India is all set to become member of Missile Technology Control Regime, a key anti-proliferation grouping, as it cleared final hurdles in getting membership of the bloc that will help it access high-end missile technology.
While beefing up security in all communally sensitive towns, the Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday sounded a 'red alert' across the state in the wake of the 17th anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition in Ayodhya.
He said while Indian participation in the Sakhalin-1 project demonstrated the joint capabilities and mutuality of interests, India was fully prepared with its technical and financial resources to expand its presence in the Russian energy sector.
As soon as Lok Sabha assembled, Bahujan Samaj Party members trooped into the well protesting the Home Ministry proposal and shouted slogans. They alleged that such moves were part of 'a conspiracy' to get the leaders killed.
The Indo-US civil nuclear deal may face questions from China in the Nuclear Suppliers Group, former American deputy secretary of state Strobe Talbott said in New Delhi.
Non-proliferation specialists and non-government organisations have asked the foreign ministers of the Nuclear Suppliers Group to reject the US proposal to exempt India from long-standing global nuclear trade standards.
The National Security Guard, India's most potent commando force, has finetuned its operational readiness and official procedures following the 26/11 terror attacks on Mumbai, says RS Chauhan
The elite National Security Guard was under pressure to use gas to neutralise the heavily armed Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorists during the Mumbai terror attacks last year, but the idea was shot down for fear of repeat of another Russian theatre disaster.
NSG commandos and ordinary folk visited the International Police Expo 2023 and India Homeland Security Expo at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi.
The 'heroes of Mumbai' will be a major attraction at the Republic Day parade this year, with the National Security Guard sending a contingent to join other uniformed services to march on the Rajpath for the first time in its history.
'Procedural procrastination' was Chinese strategy to delay India waiver, NSG diplomats say
After a day-long meeting on Thursday, delegates to the 45-member nuclear cartel expressed optimism over a consensus to end the country's three-decade long nuclear isolation by Friday. "We are close to a consensus. There may be a statement for the Press on Friday," a western diplomat, who refused to be identified either by name or country, said after the delegates considered a revised US draft waiver at the conclusion of 2nd session of the opening day of the two-day meeeting.
The 'black cats' will reflect a dashing sheen to the parade as they will be dressed in their trademark black coloured overalls, balaclava headgear and special assault rifles MP-5 along with the iconic commando dagger.
In the two-day summit, the SCO will kick off the process of India's accession to the grouping as a full-fledged member along with Pakistan.
The National Security Guard on Saturday rejected allegations of financial irregularities made by a former commando, saying all gift cheques the force received for the 26/11 Mumbai operation have been accounted for and in case of personal ones, they were returned.
They have asked the chief minister to incur expenses for the treatment of Surjan Singh Bhandari, who was injured during the Akshardham attack, when he is taken to Delhi.
