NASA, Boeing to develop most powerful rocket for Mars

NASA and Boeing have inked a $2.8 billion deal to develop a giant rocket which is set to be the largest and most powerful ever built, paving the way for manned missions to Mars.

Boeing has finalised a contract with NASA to develop the core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS), the most powerful rocket ever built.

In addition, Boeing has been tasked to study the SLS Exploration Upper Stage, which will further expand mission range and payload capabilities.

The agreement comes as NASA and the Boeing team complete the Critical Design Review (CDR) on the core stage — the last major review before full production begins.

“Our teams have dedicated themselves to ensuring that the SLS — the largest ever — will be built safely, affordably and on time,” Virginia Barnes, Boeing SLS vice president and programme manager said in a statement.

“We are passionate about NASA’s mission to explore deep space. It’s a very personal mission, as well as a national mandate,” said Ms. Barnes.

During the CDR, which began last month, experts examined and confirmed the final design of the rocket’s cryogenic stages that will hold liquefied hydrogen and oxygen.

This milestone marks NASA’s first CDR on a deep-space human exploration launch vehicle since 1961, when the Saturn V rocket underwent a similar design review as the U.S. sought to land an astronaut on the Moon.

Scheduled for its initial test flight in 2017, the SLS is designed to be flexible and evolvable to meet a variety of crew and cargo mission needs.

The initial flight-test configuration will provide a 77-tonne capacity, and the final evolved two-stage configuration will provide a lift capability of more than 143 tonnes.

Centring the Northeast

The Northeast needs a skilful person who can take the region out of its insurgency grip, mobilise leaders of substance and work out a decentralised multi-level development strategy

A vibrant Northeast? This is not Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s catch-all phrase for the seven northeastern States, though the region does figure in his list of priorities for economic rejuvenation, and strategic and infrastructural development.

I am not sure if General V.K. Singh’s choice as MoS (independent charge) for the development of the Northeast is right, even though he is knowledgeable about the region. He has the reputation of being straight-forward and a doer, but only in the realm of defence so far. The Northeast today needs a skilful politico-economic person who can take the region out of its insurgency grip, mobilise leaders of substance and work out a decentralised multi-level development strategy aimed at fostering the region’s growth.

The Look East Policy

The land-locked region continues to be stuck in politico-bureaucratic status quo, even after Prime Minister Narasimha Rao placed it under special focus as part of the Look East Policy in 1991. This has since become an integral part of India’s foreign policy rhetoric, which has already travelled from phase one to phase two under various Prime Ministers without addressing basic infrastructure and all-inclusive growth.

Each Prime Minister has reiterated the country’s commitment to take the Look East Policy forward, but this has been done somewhat half-heartedly in view of strategic and logistical problems emanating from sporadic bursts of violence by terrorist and insurgent groups operating on both sides of the border. Today, the situation on the insurgency front is somewhat easier, especially along the Myanmar and Bangladesh borders. Still, “caution” has to be the mantra.

The northeastern States account for about 8 per cent of the country’s geographical area. They share less than 2 per cent of their borders with other Indian States and share 98 per cent with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and the Tibetan region (of China). The challenge is to convert this location disadvantage into an opportunity. This can be done by opening up the seven-State gateway to more than millions of ASEAN consumers for trade, commerce and education. The Northeast requires proactive, bold policies. People are alienated because of lopsided economic growth stemming from a Delhi-centric approach to issues. The leaders in Delhi ought to understand the changing lives of the tribals who have adopted modern values, fashions and modes of living, and frame policies accordingly.

The Northeast can be rejuvenated by making the region a focal point for growth. Removing the Restricted Area Permit and Inner Line Permit would help to integrate the region with the rest of India. However, amid numerous misgivings about the existing institutional mechanism, what is reassuring is the concern among central and regional authorities and intellectuals about the future of the region and the alienation of its people.

This concern was expressed in an international conference organised by Chandigarh’s Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development in Shillong on June 6-7 in collaboration with the North-Eastern Hill University. The Shillong conclave had a number of prominent persons and experts drawn from different disciplines and nationalities to deliberate on India’s Northeast and southeast Asia. This initiative had the support of the External Affairs Ministry since it has stakes in opening up the region to Southeast Asia. While there was an overwhelming view in favour of preserving the distinct identity of northeastern people, there was also regret that the bureaucracy “has been indifferent to understanding tribal communities” since its stress “is on mainstreaming of culture.” A healthy economy, innovative tourism-oriented packaging of rich tribal heritage, and projecting modern facets of society are the keys to solving this problem. The success of Nagaland’s Hornbill Festival is one example of how the region can add to India’s cultural richness.

The Northeast has higher standards of living and literacy, but it also has an unbalanced economy and suffers from a terrible industrial sickness. Except Meghalaya, all the States in the region face a power shortage, despite the fact that the Northeast has a huge reserve of hydroelectric potential (30,000 to 40,000 MW). Power apart, the region needs special efforts for the development of world-class infrastructural network of roads and railways, for strengthening the telecom sector, healthcare services, and tapping into the agricultural industry and the region’s rich biodiversity. It can also emerge as a hub for higher education for the entire Southeast Asian belt.

There has also been concern over the involvement of non-regional entrepreneurs. We need to examine ways and means of creating a unified common market of nearly 40 million people which will provide a big boost to the economy of the region. We also have to ensure a massive investment flow for infrastructural development on both sides of the border in order to improve connectivity for trade and commerce. This will help the emergence of local entrepreneurs. As it is, the Delhi-Hanoi rail link, trilateral highway project between India, Myanmar and Thailand, and some other initiatives have got bogged down by red tapism and a lack of political will.

I would like to draw from the study of a northeast magazine that spoke of regional entrepreneurship. It said: “India needs entrepreneurs for two reasons — to capitalise on new opportunities and to create wealth and new jobs.” Compared to the rest of India, the level of start-ups in the Northeast “is much lower” because of “major bottlenecks and barriers to entrepreneurship like know-how, finance, administrative burden and cultural and social factors.” A few professionals, who tried to start initiatives on their own, did not get support, but this is changing.

Bridging the gulf

At the human level, there exists a big gulf between people from the hills and people from the plains. This has resulted in creating a trust deficit. Recent ugly incidents in Delhi have only reaffirmed the distance that separates the Northeast from mainstream India. Promoting understanding at the human level apart, it is also essential to bridge the chasm in the areas of communication, information and culture. We have to provide people from the Northeast opportunities as well as honour, dignity and equality. The North-East Region Vision 2020 document states: “It is in Northeast India that Southeast Asia begins and as such, it is for the Northeast to play the arrow-head role in the further evolution of this policy. This requires a redefining of the ‘Look East Policy’ to resolve outstanding issues of trade, transit and investment with countries neighbouring the region. It also involves promoting Indian investment infrastructure in partner countries, especially Myanmar, particularly in respect of ports such as Sittwe and international highways to connect the Northeast Region with ASEAN.”

In the long run, the Northeast, as an expert put it, can become a partner in “a wider Brahmaputra-Yangtze-Mekong quadrant.” Let us hope for the best. Over to Prime Minister Modi.

Empowerment without well-being

Caste-based political parties failed to secure a victory as they continued to use the politics of difference as an end rather than as a means to graduate to the politics of redistribution

First generation leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and eminent modernist Indian sociologists expected that the institution of caste will dissolve under the spell of modernity. However, social realities proved to be far more complex and caste continued to reinvent itself, changing its form but not content and influencing much of socio-economic life. This debate has taken a new turn with the recent decisive electoral victory of the Bhartiya Janata Party under the leadership of Narendra Modi.

Caste-based political parties in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, who had galvanised the Dalits and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) towards a democratic revolution, experienced their worst electoral defeat. Election surveys conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies inform that the BJP not only drew massive support from its traditional constituency — upper castes and trading communities — but also attracted a critical number of Dalits and OBCs. One in four Dalits voted for the BJP. The Muslim vote did not make any impact because either their votes got divided between ‘secular’ parties or the addition of their votes to the non-BJP parties was not sufficient in a first-past-the-post system. The shift of a section of Dalits and OBCs towards the BJP was small, but very critical for the party to emerge victorious. It is also significant because ideologically the BJP believes in carving out an organic unity between different Hindu social groups and preserving social hierarchy between different castes. Why did this section of Dalits and OBCs vote for an ideologically incompatible political formation at the expense of parties that had laboured hard for their political empowerment?

Caste-based parties in U.P. and Bihar represent Dalits, OBCs and Muslims. Dalits and OBCs share an antagonistic relationship, but we are clubbing them to highlight a few analytical points that we believe explain the current electoral failure of caste-based political parties.

Political powerlessness

Caste-based parties acquired their political and electoral strength by opposing the ‘politics of equal recognition.’ Politics of equal recognition promised equal rights and equality between citizens. It was rejected by Dalits and OBCs in favour of the ‘politics of difference.’ The politics of equal recognition was seen as being ‘difference blind’ and attesting one hegemonic culture whereas the politics of difference recognised the particularities of each social group and the non-assimilation of group identity. The politics of difference practised by political parties drawing their support from the Dalits and OBCs gave them huge political dividends for almost two decades. However, the politics of difference, argues Nancy Fraser, is not sufficient and has to be complimented by the ‘politics of redistribution’, that is, policy initiatives for redistributing income, reorganising the division of labour, subjecting investment to democratic decision-making and transforming other basic economic structures. This is where caste-based political parties failed and they continued to use the politics of difference as an end rather than as a means to graduate to the politics of redistribution. Dalits and OBCs are caught between political assertion and belief in the domain of culture and electoral politics, and a sense of disappointment that their socio-political empowerment did not translate into economic well-being. This disappointment provided the BJP the space to craft a ‘politics around disillusionment’, which feeds on the collective estrangement of social groups from their original political choices due to their prevailing economic conditions. It is shaped by two inter-related elements: political rudderlessness and political powerlessness.

Political rudderlessness implies a deficit of political vision and acumen in caste-based political parties for ushering in fundamental change. Caste-based political parties eked out opportunistic political alliances to acquire political power and compromised on the emancipatory potential embedded in their original political vision. This not only disillusioned Dalits and OBCs but also led them to experience a certain kind of political powerlessness.

Political powerlessness develops when social groups seem to know the appropriate action for achieving their political goals, but are ineffective in practice. The failure of caste-based politics and political parties to usher in what Fraser calls ‘transformative recognition [politics of difference] and redistribution’ translated into a critical section of Dalits and OBCs shifting their political allegiance to an ideologically contradictory political formation upholding social hierarchy — the BJP — in a classic case of political powerlessness.

Reinventing vision

What does this entail for the future of caste-based parties? Caste-based parties have still not lost their core support. They need to reinvent their vision and demonstrate a road map for implementing a transformative politics of recognition/difference and redistribution. The former is already in play. However, what is lacking is a genuine politics of redistribution. One framework for operationalising the politics of redistribution is to politically support the principle of economic citizenship — a thesis put forth by Barbara Harriss-White and her colleagues in the context of India’s market society in which the informal sector contributes 60 and 93 per cent of the GDP and employment respectively. A majority of Dalits and OBCs toil in this sector as casual workers or are self-employed, earning a bare minimum and are denied any social security benefits. Thus, beyond the state, markets are the major providers of employment and livelihood opportunities. However, markets while rewarding cannot guarantee employment or ensure distributive justice. Instead, markets can generate oppressive wage conditions, displace labour, discriminate and adversely include ‘less privileged’ social groups.

The state alone can set the parameters for economic participation, including taking responsibility for the limits of its own control and for the conditions under which political citizens are economically active. Unless the Indian state sets a framework of rights where each able citizen is able to participate in the market and earn, the politics around disillusionment will continue to persist, albeit taking newer forms and content.

The politics of redistribution is not only crucial for caste-based parties but also for the BJP, if it has to consolidate the impressive electoral gains that it has made in the current election.

(Aseem Prakash is associate professor and Suraj Gogoi is research associate at the

PM inaugurates Uri-II hydroelectric project

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday inaugurated the 240-Megawatt Uri-II Hydro Electric Project (HEP) located near the Line of Control (LoC) in Baramulla district of Kashmir.

The Prime Minister dedicated the power project to the nation in presence of Jammu and Kashmir Governor N.N. Vohra, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and top officials of National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC).

This is the second power project on the Jhelum river in Uri area and is located downstream of 480-MW Uri-I HEP, which is already operational.

The Uri-II HEP has a concrete gravity dam which is 52-metre high and 157-metre long with four spillways of nine metres each.

The 4.23 km head race tunnel carries water from the dam to the powerhouse, which has four units of 60 MW each designed to generate 1,124 million units of electricity in a year.

The work on the power project was completed in time despite a massive earthquake striking the area on October 8, 2005 — two weeks after Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) started work on it.

“Overcoming challenges has always been a speciality of our engineers. We triumphed over every obstacle posed by difficult geographical conditions and freezing temperatures,” Chief Operating Officer of HCC Ambuj Jain said.

Plastic waste costs $13 billion worth of damages a year to marine ecosystems

Every year plastic waste costs marine ecosystems $13 billion in damages, says a report released recently by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The estimated 10-20 million tonnes of plastic waste that finds its way into oceans, smothers coral reefs, routinely entangles marine wildlife, and more insidiously, degrades into ‘microplastics’ that transfer toxins into the food chain.

Microplastics (or plastic particles of 5mm diameter or less) are ingested by creatures ranging from sea birds to mussels, said marine biologist and UNEP chief scientist Jacqueline McGlade at a press conference at the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) in Nairobi.

Microplastics form “plastispheres” that harbour thriving communities of dangerous microbes and also absorb and transfer heavy metals such as mercury across vast distances through the ocean.

The report titled ‘Valuing Plastic’ presents a “business case” for plastic-intensive companies, and recommends that companies monitor plastic use, disclose their results and increase resource efficiency and recycling.

Plastic toys, athletic goods, and household durable goods sectors use the largest amount of plastic in their products while food companies, soft drinks and the pharmaceutical industry are the biggest users of plastic in their packaging.

A growing source of microplastics is the cosmetic and personal care industry that has introduced plastic particles of 5mm diameter or less in products such as toothpastes and showergels, says the report.

Asia faces the highest environmental costs from plastic pollution because of the higher pollution intensity levels of manufacturing and a lack of adequate waste management facilities.

“Companies must consider their plastic footprint just as they do their carbon footprint,” said Andrew Russell, director of Plastic Disclosure Project that was part of the research.

However, consumer goods companies have a poor track record of disclosing their plastic use, the report finds. Of 100 companies assessed, less than half reported any data relevant to plastic.

Zoonotic diseases ignored in developing world

Decades of neglect have allowed infectious diseases to devastate the lives of thousands of people in the developing world, a new study has revealed. Researchers say three diseases in particular — anthrax, brucellosis and bovine tuberculosis — have failed to receive the official recognition and funding needed to combat them effectively. All three impact greatly on human and animal health in developing nations, posing a major threat to safe and plentiful food supplies.

The disorders — known as zoonotic diseases — are spread between animals and humans, and are common in societies where poverty is widespread, and where people depend on animals for their livelihood. A researcher at the University of Edinburgh reviewed every meeting of the World Health Organization’s decision-making body since its formation in 1948, to conclude that zoonotic diseases were almost totally ignored.

Their findings reveal that the diseases have been neglected because they mostly arise in developing countries. Scientists say the diseases have been eliminated or brought under control in more developed countries, as simple and effective controls are available.

The resolutions from all 66 World Health Assembly meetings held between 1948 and 2013 were examined to determine how many contain a specific focus on any of the following neglected zoonotic diseases as defined by the WHO — anthrax, bovine tuberculosis, Taenia solium cycticercosis, cystic echinococcosis, leishmaniasis rabies, and human African trypanosomiasis (HAT or sleeping sickness). Twenty one resolutions adopted in all the 16 assemblies between 1948 and 2013 targeted one or more of these diseases, representing 4 per cent of the total resolutions on infectious diseases passed up to now. The 2013 adoption of Resolution WHA66.12 targeting all 17 neglected tropical diseases marked a change in approach by the WHA. Earlier resolutions targeted each disease individually.

Poor healthcare infrastructure in affected countries can often mean that thousands of sufferers are left un-diagnosed. This presents huge challenges to health professionals, policy makers and researchers in their efforts to combat the diseases

Findings from the study, funded by the European Commission, are published in the journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Professor Sue Welburn, Director of the University of Edinburgh’s Global Health Academy, who led the study, said: “It is extraordinary that in the 21st century we are failing to manage brucellosis and the other neglected zoonotic diseases that impact so severely on rural communities in developing economies when, for many of these diseases, the tools to manage them are well developed.’’

Chikungunya, dengue, Avian influenza, plague, SARS and acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) are some of the zoonotic diseases that have and continue to take a heavy toll of human life in India. Japanese encephalitis and AES kills hundreds of children in the eastern parts of the country every year and results in high morbidity. Reports of deaths due to Chikungunya, dengue and highly infectious Congo Haemorrhagic Fever are also not uncommon in the country, particularly during monsoon.

Salmonella, mycobacterium, E.coli and Brucellosis are some commonly found bacteria in India which cause highly infectious diseases like cholera and are often transmitted through unhygienic food and impure drinking water.

The big deal about the Army’s small arms

Even deciding on a multi-purpose tool, akin to a Swiss knife, for example, has been delayed despite trials in 2011 featuring European and American vendors.

Shortly after taking over as the Chief of Army Staff in May 2012, General Bikram Singh had emphatically declared that upgrading the small arms profile of his force was his foremost priority.

Two years later, as Gen. Singh prepares to retire in end July, neither the 5.56mm close quarter battle (CQB) carbines nor the multi-calibre assault rifles he promised are anywhere in sight for the Army’s 359 infantry units and over 100 Special Forces and counter-insurgency battalions, including the Rashtriya Rifles and Assam Rifles.

The Army’s prevailing operational reality is that it does not own a carbine as the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) ceased manufacture of all variants of the WWII 9mm carbines, including ammunition, around 2010.

And, two years later, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) finally endorsed the Army’s persistent complaints regarding the inefficiency of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)-designed INdian Small Arms System (INSAS) 5.56x39mm assault rifles. It agreed that they needed replacing.

The former Defence Minister, A.K. Antony, was forced into admitting in Parliament in late 2012 that the INSAS rifles had been overtaken by “technological development” — a euphemism for a poorly designed weapon system which the Army grudgingly began employing in the late 1990s and, unceasingly, had complained about ever since.

Among largest arms programmes

The Army’s immediate requirement is for around 1,60,080 CQB carbines and over 2,20,000 assault rifles that it aims on meeting through a combination of imports and licensed-manufacture by the OFB. Ultimately, the paramilitaries and special commando units of respective State police forces too will employ either or both weapon systems in what will possibly be one of the world’s largest small arms programmes worth $7-$8 billion.

Gen. Singh’s guarantees, however, remain delusional and, expectedly unaccountable. And, in time-honoured Indian Army tradition, they will now be transferred to his successor, the Army Chief-designate, Lieutenant Gen. Dalbir Singh Suhag, to vindicate.

An optimistic time frame in inking the import of 44,618 carbines, which have been undergoing an unending series of trials since August 2012, is another 12-18 months away if not beyond. The deadline to acquire assault rifles, trials for which are scheduled to begin in August, is even longer — certainly not before 2016-17, if not later.

Till then, the Army faces a fait accompli of making do without carbines, a basic infantry weapon. It will also have to make do with inefficient INSAS assault rifles, another indispensable small arm for the force’s largest fighting arm.

Currently, three overseas vendors are undergoing “confirmatory” trials at defence establishments and weapon testing facilities in Dehradun, Kanpur, Mhow and Pune with their CQB carbines. The November 2011 tender for CQB carbines also includes the import of 33.6 million rounds of ammunition.

Competing rivals include Italy’s Baretta, fielding its ARX-160 model, Israel Weapon Industries (IWI) with its Galil ACE carbine and the U.S. Colt featuring the M4. The U.S. subsidiary of Swiss gunmaker Sig Sauer, which was originally part of the tender with its 516 Patrol Rifle, has failed to turn up at the ongoing carbine trials.

Sig is under investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on charges of alleged corruption in potentially supplying its wares to the Indian paramilitaries. Alleged arms dealer, Abhishek Verma and his Romanian wife, Anca Neacsu — both are in Tihar jail — once represented Sig’s operations in India.

Inefficiencies

The carbine trials, expected to conclude by mid-July, will be followed by a final report by the Army, grading the vendors on the performance of their systems. Thereafter, the MoD will open their respective commercial bids, submitted over two years earlier and begin price negotiations with the lowest qualified bidder — or L1 — before inking the deal.

According to insiders associated with the project, this intricate process is almost certain to be protracted, despite the inordinately high expectations of efficiency from the Narendra Modi government. They believe the carbine contract is unlikely to be sealed within the current financial year. However, once signed, weapon and ammunition deliveries are to be concluded within 18 months alongside the transfer of technology to the OFB to licence build the designated carbine.

In short, no Army unit will be equipped with a carbine till well into 2016.

The saga of the assault rifles is even starker.

A multi-service internal review in 2012 of the INSAS assault rifles revealed that they were made from four different kinds of metal, an amalgam almost guaranteed to impair their functioning in the extreme climates of Siachen and Rajasthan.

Surprisingly, the Indian Air Force was the most vociferous in castigating the DRDO over as many as 53 operational inefficiencies in the rifle that the country’s prime weapons development agency took nearly two decades to develop and at great cost.

Inexplicably, the DRDO insisted on the OFB developing the SS-109 round, an extended variant of the SS-109 NATO-standard cartridge for 5.56x39mm rifles aimed at achieving marginally longer range, a capability unnecessary for such a weapon system. This operational superfluity delayed the INSAS programme as it required the import of specialised and expensive German machinery and necessitated the “stop gap” import of millions of ammunition rounds from Israel.

The DRDO-designed and OFB-built rifle also cost several times more than AK-47 assault rifles of which around 100,000 were imported from Bulgaria in the early 1990s for less than $100 each as an “interim” measure at a time when the Kashmiri insurgency was its most virulent and Islamist militants better armed than Army troopers.

The MoD issued the tender for 66,000 5.56mm multi-calibre assault rifles in November 2011 to 43 overseas vendors, five of who responded early the following year.

The competing rifles, required to weigh no more than 3.6kg and to convert readily from 5.56x45mm to 7.62x39mm merely by switching the barrel and magazine for employment in counter-insurgency or conventional roles, include the Czech Republic’s CZ 805 BREN model, IWI’s ACE 1, Baretta’s ARX 160, Colt’s Combat Rifle and Sig Sauer’s SG551. The latter’s participation, however, remains uncertain. A transfer of technology to the OFB to locally build the selected rifle is part of the tender.

Meanwhile, field trials for the rifles are scheduled for early August, nearly 30 months after bids were submitted, as that is the extended time period it surprisingly takes the Army to conduct a paper evaluation of five systems.

But these too have already run into easily avoidable problems.

On security grounds, the rifle vendors are objecting to the Army’s choice of its firing range at Kleeth in the Akhnoor sector hugging the Line of Control (LoC) as the venue for the initial round of trials. A final decision on this is awaited. Thereafter, other trials will follow in diverse weather conditions in Leh, Rajasthan and high humidity areas, all regions where the assault rifles will eventually be employed.

Transforming the soldier

Acquiring these modular, multi-calibre suite of small arms is just part of the Army’s long-delayed Future-Infantry Soldier As a System (F-INSAS) programme envisaged in 2005, but interminably delayed.

The F-INSAS aims at deploying a fully networked infantry in varied terrain and in all-weather conditions with enhanced firepower and mobility for the digitised battlefield. It seeks to transform the infantry soldier into a self-contained fighting machine to enable him to operate across the entire spectrum of war, including nuclear and low intensity conflict, in a network-centric environment.

But senior military officers concede this programme stands delayed by six to seven years almost exclusively because of the Army’s inability in formulating qualitative requirements (QR) to acquire many of these ambitious capabilities.

Even deciding on a multi-purpose tool, akin to a Swiss knife, for example, has been delayed despite trials in 2011 featuring European and American vendors. Officers associated with F-INSAS said this, like other equipment acquisitions, was due to the Army’s rigid procedures, inefficiencies and inability to take timely decisions.

The Army continually blames the MoD for creating bureaucratic hurdles in its modernisation efforts, but fails in acknowledging its own shortcomings in drawing up realistic QRs, conducting timely trials and, above all, realistically determining its operational needs and working towards them economically.

Senior officers privately concede that the “uniforms” are largely responsible for the lack of modernisation, but manage to successfully deflect their own limitations sideways onto the MoD.

Gen. Singh’s tenure, like several other chiefs before him, exemplifies this. It is highlighted by their collective inability to even incrementally upgrade the Army’s war waging capacity be it night fighting capability for its armour fleet, modern artillery, light utility and attack helicopters or infantry combat vehicles, among others.