Thanks for your kind words and yes, this forum definitely exists to promote Indian national interests and values members who represent India's interests! Admins most definitely do all they can to ensure that discussions remain on track and important issues get the attention they deserve. As Rahul mentioned, report the posts that are offensive so Admins can check and take action. If members respond to "baits", it forces admins to respond equivocally.kshirin wrote:Thank you, I really like your posts also. I cannot understand how genuinely patriotic members of the Forum can be called "philes" of any other country. And the member slyly continued to insinuate that I am. I used to think this Forum existed to promote Indian national interest. But I shall stay for a while, if only to remain in touch with you and members like Phillip etc. Admin should ensure that genuine people who care for the country are not ridiculed, and discussions on important national issues are encouraged.
Partly political. Arms purchases fulfill political objectives, but also have to meet operational requirements.Karthik S wrote:If this was political, we could have gone for additional chinooks or Apaches or C 130j.
The same capability exists in Spyder deployed and Akash NG under worksKaran M wrote:Partly political. Arms purchases fulfill political objectives, but also have to meet operational requirements.Karthik S wrote:If this was political, we could have gone for additional chinooks or Apaches or C 130j.
NASAMS-2:
1. Exists (not paper talk), and has been deployed in city protection role
2. Uses X Band radar (good for detecting low RCS targets, all-weather wise)
3. ARH Missiles - fire & forget capability
4. Can handle saturation attacks (talks of handling upto 72 targets at a time)
Again, you are missing the point.Austin wrote:The same capability exists in Spyder deployed and Akash NG under worksKaran M wrote:
Partly political. Arms purchases fulfill political objectives, but also have to meet operational requirements.
NASAMS-2:
1. Exists (not paper talk), and has been deployed in city protection role
2. Uses X Band radar (good for detecting low RCS targets, all-weather wise)
3. ARH Missiles - fire & forget capability
4. Can handle saturation attacks (talks of handling upto 72 targets at a time)
Not to mention the current mass deployment of Akash and Barak-8
If a payout was required to be done we should have purchased additional C-17 and C-130 both badly needed
AMRAAMS purchase directly makes no sense, because the Khan won't agree.srin wrote:If payout was required, we could have purchased AMRAAMs themselves to arm our fighters. Why the SAMs indeed ?
On one side there is talk about 7 Akash Squadron stuck due to Pricing issue on the other side we are Splurging just $1 billion for NASAMS-2 ?Karan M wrote:Also, I am not sure what mass deployment of Akash and Barak is being spoken of.
Our current orders are a drop in the bucket, so to speak.
The IAF had 30 Pechora squadrons, with 2 batteries each, translating to 60 firing units.
They currently have 8 Akash squadrons and (supposedly), 9 Barak-8 squadrons on order.
The follow on order of 7 Akash squadrons is stuck because of a funding challenge and also, IAF objections to cost proposed by BEL.
The IAF is also upgrading Pechora firing units, around 8 squadrons worth. Clearly, the rest are too obsolete and all but used up.
Not sure which systems will replace these - likely Akash NG, otherwise IAF would not have agreed to its development.
The Akash NG is still in development. So is the QRSAM.
Around 4 squadrons of SpyDer are also on order but these replace the obsolete OSA-AKMs in IAF service.
Plans to make the SpyDer in India went nowhere because Rafael refused to provide TOT for seekers or critical tech to India, clearly concerned it would give a fillip to India's domestic missile development.
The rest of the OSA-AKMs will have to be replaced with QRSAM.
Point I am making is the NASAMS-2 will still fill a useful role, of course, provided our concerns about its integration into our IACCS are met fully.
kshirin wrote:Kindly remove my ID from Bharat Rakshak. I thought this was a forum for genuine patriots. Clearly there is no room for me here. Thanks a lot.
Regards US moving India to STA C 1 which also seems to be Country Group A:5, link to the notification in the US Federal Register. It is effective August 3, 2018:Suraj wrote:US eases export controls for high-tech product sales to IndiaList of STA-1 and STA-2 countries:In a major boost to India, the US on Monday eased export controls for high-technology product sales to it by designating it as a Strategic Trade Authorization-1 (STA-1) country.
BIS STA dataIndia moves from the 2nd list to first one now.36 STA (c)(1) Countries
Argentina AR Germany DE Norway NO
Australia AU Greece GR Poland PL
Austria AT Hungary HU Portugal PT
Belgium BE Iceland IS Romania RO
Bulgaria BG Ireland IE Slovakia SK
Canada CA Italy IT Slovenia SI
Croatia HR Japan JP South Korea KR
Czech Republic CZ Latvia LV Spain ES
Denmark DE Lithuania LT Sweden SE
Estonia EE Luxembourg LU Switzerland CH
Finland FI Netherlands NL Turkey TR
France FR New Zealand NZ United Kingdom GB
8 STA (c)(2) Countries
Albania AL
Hong Kong HK
India IN
Israel IL
Malta MT
Singapore SG
South Africa ZA
Taiwan TW
Many of the Indians in the above are just using existing stereotypes to claim victim hood in hoping to get asylum in US. Some of them may be actual victims, but I think many of them are not. I get it why many people in India would chose to stay in a developed Western country if given a choice, but why are Sikhs so hell bent on getting out of India, even if it means entering another country illegally? Is the situation that bad in Punjab?The surge of Central Americans crossing into the U.S. claiming asylum is no secret around the world. Just a snapshot of those caught entering on any given day is stunning – Nigeria, Romania, Nepal – in addition to the hundreds of Mexicans, Guatemalans and Hondurans.
But one of the fastest-growing groups of illegal immigrants come not from the barrios of South America or the slums of Africa, but mega-sized cities in India – 8,000 miles away from the tiny town of El Centro, California, where a handful of Indian nationals are illegally entering the U.S. every day, officials say.
"It's a common misconception that we just arrest Mexicans - that couldn't be further from the truth," said El Centro agent Justin Casterhone. "We arrest people from all over the world."
Unable to obtain H1b visas, which are given to highly skilled workers, because of a crackdown on the visas by the Trump administration, and because of a fear that Sikhs are coming under attack by fundamentalist groups in their country, Indians are heading to the U.S. -- illegally -- in droves.
In 2015, agents caught six immigrants from India trying to cross into the U.S. from Mexico. So far this fiscal year, the figure is already at more than 3,400.
The U.S.-Mexican border is divided into nine sectors. The smallest is El Centro, a tiny 70-mile stretch just west of the Arizona-California border. That area has become a conduit for those from India fleeing their country.
"Communication is very, very hard," said Casterhone, who like most border agents speaks fluent Spanish, but no Punjabi, the native language. "When trying to communicate, we are gonna have to get the interpreter to get the entire story."
Agents said they arrest roughly five to 10 Indian nationals a day, with most young men claiming asylum as victims of political or religious persecution. Women, who often belong to a lower class in India's stratified caste system, claim abuse or fear of retribution from families in a higher social class.
"When someone marries beneath their caste, or above their caste, the parents generally get really angry about it and can subject the couple to honor killing," said immigration attorney Judith Wood, who has represented and won a number of asylum claims on behalf of Indian nationals."
Unlike those coming from Central America, who generally flee poverty and seek protection from gangs, most Indians claim persecution based on politics, social group and religion.
“People who are untouchables, the lowest caste, are basically not allowed to participate fully in society," Wood said. "Among members of the Sikh religion, there's a high incidence of torture."
Most Central Americans pay an $8,000 smuggling fee to cross through Mexico to the U.S. For Indians, it is considerably more.
"Some of these organizations are charging Indian nationals up to $25,000 dollars to get smuggled into the U.S.," said El Centro Sector Chief Gloria Chavez. "These traffickers, they are winning on this. Law enforcement is not."
Chavez said Indians generally fly to Qatar then Ecuador, then travel on foot or by bus through the jungles of Colombia and Panama, through Central America and Mexico to El Centro. Most know to travel without any documents verifying their identity.
"Many use their lack of identification to claim to be one person in Mexico and another one in the United States," she said. "In Mexico, they claim to be an adult because unaccompanied minors under 18 are arrested. In the U.S., the opposite is true. Here, they claim to be juveniles so they must be released."
Asylum seekers without a criminal history in the U.S. are typically released. The Indian nationals usually head to the local Sikh Temple for a meal, change of clothes and a bus ticket. From there they will go live with relatives until an immigration judge can hear their case – typically a year or two later.
"They have the right to migrate wherever they want to go," Chavez said. "But there is a legal way and an illegal way. We want them to do it the legal way."
As for India—also a target of US steel tariffs—Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has quietly increased its purchases from Iran in recent months. India could still agree to reduce its purchases from its currently inflated base, and there are indications that a US-India deal is brewing that encompasses sanctions and defense cooperation. But India is unlikely to cut back Iranian imports sharply from historic levels.
they had faced same issue of overpopulation and depleting natural resources, plus periodic wars and famines.Possibly. But the Netherlands, England, South Korea and Taiwan have higher population densities than India.Singha wrote: we must have our Lebensraum one way or another .... 15% of humanity cannot remain crammed onto 5% of its landmass. the resource rich sparsely populated lands which the euros grabbed taking advantage of colonial era delta in technology are now the major ports of call for the newly energized brown armies
This possibly takes the discussion OT...but *IF* they get asylum in Khan, then legally they are allowed to work anywhere (I think...equivalent to GC/PR?). If not & if they stay there illegally, per my understanding, they are cut off from organized labor market. They have to get by doing jobs like taxi drivers, landscapers or daily laborers, possibly in construction industry working as Temp and being paid in cash under the table. Certainly their life style would be paycheck to paycheck...not the relatively comfy life style of avg. white collar jobs. Onlee thing is that they would benefit good infra but would be offset by spending in $ relative to their income. Very little savings I would assume. Probably multiple folks staying under one roof like a 2 BHK apt, which would be like a crowded dorm.Singha wrote:nice victimhood ecosystem they have got running there. with 25k a head these are not poor people but the pull of murica/canada is very strong for the lower middle class as a deep and immediate jump in lifestyle is there for taking - if they can sneak through.
ISLAMABAD: The Trump administration has suspended more than a decade-long military training programme of Pakistani personnel at US institutions, a media report said today, days after Islamabad and Moscow signed an agreement to allow Pakistani troops to receive training at the Russian defence centres.
Pakistan and Russia signed an agreement on Tuesday in Rawalpindi, during which the two sides discussed bilateral defence relations and agreed that Pakistani troops will receive training at the Russian military training institutes.
Pakistan and the US ties nosedived in January after President Donald Trump accused Islamabad of giving nothing to Washington but "lies and deceit" and providing "safe haven" to terrorists. The US Congress also passed a bill to slash Pakistan's defence aid to $150 million, significantly below the historic level of more than $1 billion per year.
The US military institutions are struggling to fill the 66 slots they had kept aside for officers from Pakistan for the next academic year, as the Trump administration refused to provide funds for their training, the Dawn newspaper reported, quoting official sources.
The funds for the training of Pakistani officers came from the US government's International Military Education and Training Programme or IMET, but no funds were made available for Pakistan for the next academic year, it said.
The suspension of the training first became apparent when the US National Defence University or NDU in Washington, which has had reserved seats for Pakistani officers for more than a decade, told the outgoing Pakistani officers that the varsity has been asked to fill the positions for the next year with officers from other nations.
The NDU is one of several US military institutions that train officers from Pakistan.
The Trump administration had announced early this year that it was suspending security assistance to Pakistan over differences on Afghanistan but indicated that training programmes for military officers will continue.
The cancellation of slots kept aside for Pakistani officers, however, shows that the suspension now also applies to training programmes, the report said.
Pakistani officers have been receiving military training and education in the US since early 1960s, which were suspended in the 1990s but restored after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Previously, it was not just Pakistan that valued the training and education of its officers received in the US. US military institutions also proudly owned training officers who assumed senior positions after returning home, such as former Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and Lt Gen Naveed Mukhtar, the current director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence, the report said.
"This is an unfortunate and ultimately counterproductive decision. There are certainly ways to send a strong message to Pakistan, but this isn't the way to do it," Michael Kugelman, an expert of Pakistan affairs at the Washington think tank The Wilson Centre, was quoted as saying in the report.
"This move could squander what little goodwill and trust remains in the military-to-military relationship, and it reduces the likelihood that Pakistan will act in the ways that Washington would like it to act," Mr Kugelman said.
He said there was a long history of educational and training cooperation between the US and Pakistani militaries, and this cooperation had withstood the pressures and tensions of the relationship.
"The fact that these educational exchanges have suffered this blow now suggests that the relationship could be entering into a new phase where even the supposedly safe and protected dimensions of the relationship can become casualties of wider tensions and ill will," Kugelman said.
So far there is no response from Pakistani official to this move by the US.
Pakistan's defence ties with Russia have moved past the bitter Cold War hostilities in recent years and the chill in the relations between Pakistan and the US has further pushed the country towards Russia and China.
Pakistan has shown eagerness to build military-to-military level ties with Russia.
Earlier this year, the then foreign minister Khawaja Asif visited Moscow during which the two sides agreed to set up a commission to boost military cooperation.
Russia has over the past three years provided four Mi-35M combat and cargo helicopters to Pakistan and the militaries of the two countries also held joint drills codenamed "Friendship".
Ahead of the meeting last year with Modi at the White House, Trump allegedly studied a map of South Asia and mispronounced Nepal as "nipple" and referred to Bhutan as "button," Politico said, quoting two unnamed sources. The president seemed confused that the two countries - which border India - even existed, the report says.
"He didn't know what those were. He thought it was all part of India," a source told Politico. "He was like, 'What is this stuff in between and these other countries?'"
After Trump's staffers told the president that Modi would not be bringing his wife along to the meeting at the White House, Trump allegedly joked, "Ah, I think I can set him up with somebody," the report said, according to "two people briefed on the meeting."
So cancelling this incestuous orgy between the US War College and the leaders of global terror, was long overdue. It is incomprehensible why it was allowed to continue this long.We have the jehadis by the scruff of the neck. They will do as we tell them.
Asylum means they are being persecuted. If they travel back to home country, their asylum based visa will be in jeopardy. Technically they cannot even go to the Indian consulate. Either place they can be arrested and charged on visa fraud.Singha wrote:how do such people travel back to home country to meet parents and siblings? or they dont travel until they can get legal asylum or amnesty?
NONE. None of them are actual victims., but the sad thing is that they also do not know the kind of drivel the lawyers make up to get them asylum visa. All they understand is that they will get a visa based on some fee and tell a sob story in front of the judge if called. Everybody has a sob story on how they are persecuted. My entire school+college was a sob story and I was highly persecuted by my social studies teacher who happened to be an "upper caste Tam Brahm" and who made me slog for 7 years and made me carry huge work loads. Such a casteist school it was.Zynda wrote: Many of the Indians in the above are just using existing stereotypes to claim victim hood in hoping to get asylum in US. Some of them may be actual victims, but I think many of them are not.
No. Their kids are eligible though.Kashi wrote:Asylum-based citizens are eligible for OCI?