Jaitley says industry, common man to benefit from GST

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said GST would bring more transparency, better compliance, increase in gross domestic product growth and revenue collections

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday told members of Parliament the industry and the common man stood to gain from the rollout of a proposed goods and services tax (GST), besides state governments. Some MPs asked Jaitley to bring out a White Paper on the new tax system.

Speaking at a meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to his ministry, Jaitley said GST will help reduce tax-on-tax and will be beneficial to consumers. GST like state-level value added tax (VAT) is imposed on value addition in each stages of production and, hence, avoid cascading effect, or tax-on-tax.

"GST will benefit most of the states from Day 1, especially consumer states," he said, according to a statement issued by the finance ministry. GST is a destination-based tax imposed on products and services in the states where these are consumed.

Jaitley said GST would be beneficial to the Centre, states, industrialists, manufacturers, the common man and the country at large since it will bring more transparency, better compliance, increase in gross domestic product growth and revenue collections.

As the volume of trade expanded and growth momentum picked up, every state would benefit with the rise in their revenue collections, he added.

He said the Centre proposed to levy a non-vatable additional tax of one per cent on goods involved in inter-state trade which would be assigned to states. While this tax will be levied for two years, it could be extended if recommended by the GST council.

A Constitutional Amendment Bill on GST was introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 19. It would be taken up by Parliament in the next session.

The government intends to roll out GST, which will subsume most of the indirect taxes, from April 1, 2016. Jaitley also said the government was open to suggestions for making further improvements to the GST Bill.

"GST is a continuing process, which would further evolve and improve with time," the statement quoted him as saying.

In this regard, members made suggestions, including that the Centre brings out a White Paper, giving details on revenue to the Centre, states and who will be the ultimate beneficiaries. Clarity was also sought on whether the manufacturers, suppliers or consumers would be the ultimate beneficiary of the move.

A member also suggested the Finance Commission be made a permanent body for allocation of funds to states.

To remove apprehensions among states about the fall in their revenue collections, provisions had been made in the GST Bill, Jaitley said.

The government, Jaitley added, was in favour of strengthening the cooperative federalism and make all efforts to evolve as much consensus as possible on GST.

The minister also said the Centre would compensate states for any loss of revenue arising on account of implementation of the GST for a period of five years.

The statement said most of the committee members supported the decision of the government to implement GST.

"They said since the number of departments will also reduce in due course, which, in turn, will lead to less corruption," it added

Vinod Rai to infuse transparency in Railways Former CAG might take up the assignment without a fee

Vinod Rai, the former Comptroller and Auditor General of India, is likely to head a committee to suggest ways for infusing more transparency in the functioning of Indian Railways (IR).

Rai is widely credited with taking the former government to account for the various legal breaches which led to the telecom spectrum and coal block allocation scams.

The committee would be the first assignment from the government which Rai would be taking after retiring last year.

“A decision has already been put in place that takes away the power to approve tenders from the minister, based on Sreedharan’s (E Sreedharan, the noted implementor of metro rail projects, asked to suggest better business practices at IR) recommendation. Now, the minister has asked Vinod Rai to look at (bringing in) complete transparency in the railways,” a top ministry official told reporters, asking not to be named.

The terms of reference for the committee are yet to be finalised but a person privy to the process said ministerSuresh Prabhu had asked Rai to choose who else should be on the panel. Rai is likely to take up the assignment without a fee, in public interest.

Prabhu had promised to turn around the operational and financial position of IR, immediately after assuming charge last month.

He had begun by setting up the single-member Sreedharan panel, to improve transparency in systems and operational processes, including tendering for award of works.

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OTHER SIMILAR POSITIONS

C G Somiah
CAG from 1990-1996; headed a committee set up to vet Air India’s Rs 35,000-crore fleet acquisition plan in 2005

V K Shunglu
CAG from 1996-2002; headed various committees including those on corruption allegation in conduct of Commonwealth Games 2010; financial position of power distribution utilities;  displacement caused by Sardar Sarovar Project; the demand of Indian Institutes of Management for a fee raise; he was part of the prime minister’s empowered committee to select excellent IAS officers in 2007

V N Kaul
CAG from 2002-2008; currently serving on the eminent persons advisory group, Competition Commission of India

Year end Review for the Ministry of Agriculture for the Year 2014-15

YEAR END REVIEW The Immediate challenge to the Ministry of Agriculture when the new Government had taken over, was to sustain the increasing agricultural output of the country in the face of impending deficit rainfall in this year 2014-15. All the requisite preparatory measures were made in coordination with the State governments to have the District-wise contingency action plans in place and to bring in flexibility in the various schemes in order that the States are enabled to cope with any desired changes in the Approved Action Plans for tackling the situation arising out of deficit rainfall. With the perspective the Central Research Institute for Dry Land Agriculture (CRIDA) in collaboration with State Agricultural Universities and the State Governments has prepared crop contingency plans in respect of 576 districts across the country. Further, all necessary and appropriate steps have been taken to meet the seed and fertilizer requirement and to disseminate information and on suitable farming practices to be followed in such a situation.   INDIAN AGRICULTURE AT A GLANCE v     Agriculture continues to be the backbone of Indian economy. v     Agriculture sector employs 54.6% of the total workforce. v     The total Share of Agriculture & Allied Sectors (Including Agriculture, Livestock, forestry and fishery sub sectors) in terms of percentage of Gross Domestic Product is 13.9 percent during 2013-14 at 2004-05 prices. [As per the estimates released by Central Statistics Office] v     For the 12th Plan (2012-17), a growth target of 4 percent has been set for the Agriculture Sector v     As per the 4th Advance Estimates of Production of food grains for 2013-14, total food grain production is estimated to be 264.77 Million Tonnes. GROWTH STRATEGY In order to keep up the momentum gained during the 11th Plan and achieve the targeted growth rate of 4% during the 12thFive Year Plan as also the ensure focused approach and to avoid overlap, all the ongoing 51 schemes of the Department have been restructured into five missions viz. National Food Security Mission (NFSM), Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture Mission (MIDH), National Mission on Oil Seed and Oil Palm (NMOOP), National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), and National Mission on Agricultural Extension & Technology (NMAET); five Central Sector Schemes viz. National Crop Insurance Programme (NCIP), Intergrated Scheme on Agri-Census & Statistics (ISAC&S), Integrated Scheme of Agriculture Marketing (ISAM), Integrated Scheme of Agriculture Cooperation (ISAC) and Secretariat Economic Service; and one State Plan Scheme viz. Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana. Recognizing the importance of Agriculture Sector, the Government during the budget 2014-15 took a number of steps for sustainable development of Agriculture. These steps include enhanced institutional credit to farmers; promotion of scientific warehousing infrastructure including cold storages and cold chains in the country for increasing shelf life of agricultural produce; Improved access to irrigation through Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sichayee Yojana; provision of Price Stabilisation Fund to mitigate price volatality in agricultural produce; Mission mode scheme for Soil Health Card; Setting up of Agri-tech Infrastructure fund for making farming competitive and profitable; provide institutional finance to joint farming groups of “Bhoomi Heen Kisan” through NABARD; development of indigenous cattle breeds and promoting inland fisheries and other non-farm activities to supplement the income of farmers. Details of the Initiatives are as follows: v     Rashtriya Gokul Mission             India ranks first among the world’s milk producing Nations are such 1998 and milk production peaked at 137.97 million tonnes in 2013-14.  India has the largest bovine population in the world.  The bovine genetic resource of India is represented by 37 well recognized indigenous Breeds of cattle and 13 breeds of buffaloes. Indigenous bovines are robust and resilient and are particularly suited to the climate and environment of their respective breeding tracts.  Rashtriya Gokul Mission a project under the National Program for Bovine Breeding and Dairy Development is being launched with the objective of conserving and developing indigenous Breeds in a focused and scientific manner.  The potential to enhance the productivity of the indigenous breeds through professional farm management and superior nutrition, as well as gradation of indigenous bovine germplasm will be done with an outlay of Rs. 550 crores. v     Rail Milk Network In order to promote Agri Rail Network for transportation of milk, overs have been placed by AMUL and NDDB on behalf of Dairy Cooperative Federations for procurement of 36 new Rail Milk Tankers and will be made available by Railways.  This will help in movement of milk from milk surplus areas to areas of demand providing dairy farmers with greater market areas. v     An allocation of Rs. 50 crore for development of indigenous cattle breed has been provided. v     ‘Blue Revolution’ for development of inland fisheries being initiated with a sum of Rs. 50 crore v     Target for providing institutional agricultural credit to farmers during 2014-15 has been    enhanced to Rs. 8 lakh crore which is expected to surpass. v     Agriculture credit at a concessional rate of 7% with an interest subvention of 3% for timely repayment will continue during 2014-15. v     An allocation of Rs. 5,000 crore for 2014-15 has been made for scientific warehousing infrastructure for increasing shelf life of agricultural produce and thereby increasing the earning capacity of farmers. v     A higher allocation of Rs. 25,000 crore has been made to the corpus of Rural Infrastructure Development Fund during 2014-15 which helps in creation of infrastructure in agriculture and rural sectors. v     An initial corpus of Rs. 4,000 crore is being created to set up long term rural credit fund in NABARD to give a boost to long term investment credit in agriculture. v     For ensuring increased and uninterrupted credit flow to farmers and to avoid high cost market borrowings by NABARD an amount of Rs. 50,000 crore during 2014-15 has been made for Short Term Cooperative Rural Credit (STCRC-refinance fund). v     To improve access to irrigation, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sichayee Yojana has been initiated with a sum of Rs. 1,000 crore in the year 2014-15. v     To mitigate price volatility in the agricultural produce a sum of Rs. 500 crore has been provided for Price Stabilization Fund. v     Government has initiated a scheme for Soil Health Card for every farmer in a mission mode with an initial allocation of Rs. 100 crore in 2014-15. v     An additional amount of Rs. 56 crore has been made to set up 100 mobile soil testing laboratories countrywide. v     National Adaptation Fund for climate change has been established with an initial allocation of Rs. 100 crore. v     To protect landless farmers from money lenders 5 lakh joint farming groups of Bhoomiheen Kisan will be financed through NABARD in the current financial year. v     A Kisan TV - Channel dedicated to agriculture will be launched with the initial allocation of Rs. 100 crores in the current financial year. v     An initial allocation of Rs. 200 crore has been allocated for establishing Agriculture Universities in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan and Horticulture Universities in Telangana and Haryana. v     An allocation of Rs. 100 crore has been made in the current financial year for setting up of two institutions of excellence in Assam and Jharkhand which will be at par with Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa. v     An allocation of Rs.100 crore is made for 2014-15 for setting up Agri-tech Infrastructure Fund with a view to increasing public and private investments in agriculture and making farming competitive and profitable. v     Various initiatives taken by Government to support agriculture and allied sectors is to sustain the growth rate at 4%. v     In order to increase profitability for small and marginal farmers, Rs. 200 crore has been earmarked for setting up of 2000 Farmer Producer Organisations. v     Wage employment under MGNREGA will be mainly used for more productive asset creation substantially linked to agriculture & allied activities. v     Sum of Rs. 14,389 crore for Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana for 2014-15 which will improve access for rural population including farmers. v     With a view to promoting farmers and consumers interest setting up of a national market will be accelerated by encouraging States to modify their APMC Act and other market reforms. v     With a view to develop commercial organic farming in the North Eastern Region a sum of Rs. 100 crore has been allocated. Central Government recognizes and discharges its responsibility to assist State Governments in overall development of Agriculture sector. Effective policy measures are in position to improve agricultural production and productivity and address problems of farmers. State Governments are also impressed upon to allocate adequate funds for development of agriculture sector in State plan, as well as initiate other measures required for achieving targeted agricultural growth rate and address problem of farmers.

Lima, a new low for climate action

A climate deal cannot be achieved by endless squabbling, but by accepting responsibility and acting decisively

After nearly a fortnight of prolonged talks, some of it acrimonious, there was little that made anyone happy — except perhaps the developed world which was not called on to make any more clear-cut mitigation or financial commitments — in the Lima Call for Climate Action.

Twenty-two years after the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and five assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) — the last report of the IPCC perhaps being the most conclusive on human impacts on climate change — the world is still waiting for decisive action. As the Lima talks were going nowhere, the Peruvian Environment Minister and president of the Conference of the Parties (COP), Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, was called on to lead the consultations a day before the conference ended. Earlier, he had made a strong emotional appeal for consensus which received sustained applause from countries which had gathered there to further a new treaty in Paris and decide the scope of the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC)s. After nearly 10 days of negotiations — which the European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, Miguel Arias Cañete, described as “exceedingly slow” — the seven-page text which emerged on December 18 was pulled out after protests, and Mr. Vidal called for a new text.

No matter for celebration

In the first week, the process of going through the text and making additions was finally accepted by the two co-chairs of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP). With countries making many additions, the text almost reached 60 pages. But in the lean seven-page version that was later revised more than once, most of the additions were left out. Mr. Vidal later apologised for introducing a new brief text on December 12 without consultation, which angered developing country blocks. After a flurry of revisions, the final text or the Lima Call for Climate Action which was agreed upon seemed to be more the result of a need for some bare consensus to get ahead, and was low on commitment and ambition. The final text only “underscores” its commitment to reaching an ambitious agreement in 2015 that reflects the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, “in light of different national circumstances”. It also “urges” developed countries to provide and mobilise enhanced financial support to developing countries for ambitious mitigation and adaptation actions.

There was much jubilation over the Green Climate Fund (GCF) crossing the $10 billion mark, but this is hardly a matter for celebration since the original target was to reach $100 billion by 2020. Countries have pledged various amounts for four years and GCF will disburse funds for projects from 2015. The developed countries were reluctant to commit to a year-on-year financial road map or mitigation actions to cut emissions. A lack of transparency and equity, apart from deep divisions between developed and developing countries was reflected in the final text.

A ‘Sputnik’ moment

As U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s impassioned speech for a climate deal clearly indicated, the onus was on all countries to curb emissions. “We have to remember that today more than half of global emissions — more than half — are coming from developing nations. So it is imperative that they act too,” he said while addressing the press in his brief stopover in Lima. The whole principle of polluter pays and historical responsibilities has been diluted over the years and developing countries now face a double burden, that of reducing their pollution and, since there is inadequate financial flows from the developed world, also raising funds to pay for climate actions. The new deal, which will be negotiated in Paris, is unlikely to have a strong base to ensure any binding commitments from the developed countries post 2020.

The failure of Lima lies precisely in not arriving at a level playing field for a new deal. It is left to each country to come up with what it can do in its own capacity, which will not even be subject to scrutiny of any sort. As climate adaptation expert Dr. Salimul Huq pointed out, we need to ask: “Are the targets of each country adequate and are there enough funds?”

The global response is limp, even as the world suffers one extreme climate event after another. During the climate talks, typhoon Hagupit was another harsh reminder of what the Philippines has to undergo year after year. As always, the debate has been hijacked by some of the rich and powerful, who are now not only seeking to shrug off their responsibilities but pass it on to the developing world. Even mitigation efforts in the developing countries cannot take place without finance, as Lidy Nacpil of Jubilee South Asia Pacific pointed out. With U.S. President Barack Obama making climate change a priority, the U.S. seemed to be keen, for once, on moving ahead and achieving a new agreement next year. As a senior negotiator remarked, this is a “Sputnik moment” for the U.S.; it cannot let China take the global lead in climate change.

Optimistic position

India and other developing countries, while making strong points at first, could not leverage their collective position to demand stronger commitments. On the final text, the Indian position was one of optimism. Minister of State for Environment and Forests Prakash Javadekar had said that India was committed to protecting the interests of the poor. Even though the final agreement in Lima was against that spirit, he expressed happiness that it had addressed the concerns of developing countries and that the efforts of some countries to rewrite the UNFCCC have not fructified. It gives enough space for the developing world to grow and take appropriate nationally determined steps, he added.

According to the agreement in Lima, the UNFCCC will publish on its website the INDCs as communicated, and prepare by November 1, 2015, a synthesis report on the aggregate effect of the INDCs communicated by countries by October 1, 2015. This would form the basis for the new treaty in Paris. While there is a brief mention of loss and damage in the text, the idea was to link it with adaptation which was opposed by developing countries. The climate summit in Warsaw agreed to create a separate mechanism for loss and damage and groups like the Alliance of Small Island States want this to be anchored in the 2015 agreement, distinct from adaptation.

In the background of the climate talks in Lima were issues related to the killing of environmental activists who are demanding rights in the Amazon, apart from the destruction of forests and easy concessions for mining and oil exploration. A new climate deal has to take the future of the planet into consideration. This cannot be achieved by endless squabbling but by accepting responsibility and acting decisively. Lima marks a new low for climate action and while the multilateral process has been kept alive, there needs to be a real and immediate momentum for change on the ground.

Deal for high altitude UAVs likely

An agreement or announcement to this effect is likely when U.S. President Barack Obama visits India as the chief guest for the Republic Day ceremony next month, sources informed The Hindu.

India and the U.S. are negotiating a deal for the purchase of high altitude, long endurance (HALE) Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV).

An agreement or announcement to this effect is likely when U.S. President Barack Obama visits India as the chief guest for the Republic Day ceremony next month, sources informed The Hindu.

Though the variant and the numbers are not known, it has been learnt that the UAV in question is most likely the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk, a non-combat drone and the largest unmanned aircraft system built by the U.S.

Global Hawk is a HALE Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) with extraordinary intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities, providing near-real time, high resolution imagery of large geographical areas both during the day and night, in all types of weather.

The Global Hawk has an endurance of over 24 hours and can operate at an altitude of 60,000 feet. The U.S. has extensively deployed it in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It has further been upgraded as the MQ-4C Triton maritime surveillance platform for the U.S. Navy.

When the second rate sets the standards

The history of being second rate is such a deep part of the Indian psyche that it is now part of the real character of being Indian. There is an implicit mistrust of something that works, does not fall apart and is efficient

Once on a site visit to a newly built hotel in Lucknow, I was appalled at the poor quality of construction: misaligned brickwork, crooked walls, windows in ill-fitted frames, light switches fixed without switch plates, broken tiles plastered over with cement. Despite pointing out the flaws, the contractor failed to understand what all the fuss was about, but finally agreed to remedy the mistakes. In the redone version some weeks later, he stood proudly by all the flawed items that had been diligently corrected; but unfortunately, he had spread his mistakes liberally and carelessly to other details: a misaligned mirror, cupboards that wouldn’t shut, window polish smeared on glass. In a place where these are acceptable standards of construction, it seemed futile to point out the errors, or suggest their correction.

Second rate has always been the only measure of quality in India, and the presence of anything first rate often leaves people gasping with surprise. When the Delhi Metro first opened nearly 12 years ago, the look of mild shock on the commuters said it all. How was it possible that a public transport of such clinical efficiency with immaculate stations and train interiors could be conceived and built in India? Isn’t it for the same reason that something as innocuous as a new bus depot or a flyover is inaugurated with unusual fanfare?

Copy and paste

So used is the Indian mind to borrowing the best from other cultures that the assumption that local skills are incapable of producing anything of value has been sadly stapled to our psyche. Two decades ago, Indian businessmen travelled abroad to European and Japanese industrial fairs merely to pick up items that could be duplicated in India at a fraction of the cost, and then resold to the country of origin. Grimy workshops in Ludhiana and Surat were kept busy duplicating Japanese machine parts, American denim, and English cutlery. It was a matter of great national pride that the world’s most successfully selling items and ideas could be copied in India. If we were second best, at least our copies were first rate.

Reflection of government services

Second best was particularly true of government services. For much too long the country’s public systems functioned on an ad hoc basis, given to chance, political whim and a promise of inefficiency. After Budget sessions, expansion of public rail was guaranteed, if only to the home village of the railway minister, as was a highway to the hometown of the minister of roads. That Air India could only be a second-rate airline, and a Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) watch a third-rate product was obvious from the government’s endorsement of both products. Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems could never function efficiently because their adoption to Indian conditions was neither studied, nor completed to detail. Systems for food distribution, or utility transmission would not work for reasons of inefficiency, incompleteness and corruption. Roads and highways fell apart after the first monsoon shower for similar reasons. The history of being second rate has been so deeply ground into the Indian psyche; it is now part of the real character of being Indian. There is an implicit mistrust of something that works, does not fall apart, is efficient and is visibly differentiated in its design and presentation. Surely it must be foreign, or assembled by foreigners.

A taxi I often take from the stand near my house has had a cracked windshield for the last three years, but despite the potential dangers of injury, the driver refuses to change it. An information booth erected for the Commonwealth Games four years ago, lies abandoned near the taxi stand, its shattered glass front still displaying an old sports schedule. The ramshackle, unmade and incomplete character of our towns is largely the result of a similar unwillingness to see urban situations as important parts of our lives that may need correction and order. Things persist because they are allowed to persist. Houses are left incomplete, bricks and cement lie piled on roads, cars are parked on sidewalks, drains clog and burst.

“In the surge to make new India accountable, the character of the old India will doubtless play a major obstructive role”

Only when an eight-year-old schoolgirl fell into a manhole in North Delhi and died did the authorities feel compelled to provide a cover; not for any of the five years when the manhole had remained coverless was a complaint lodged. Had the girl survived with only minor injuries, perhaps no action would have been taken. The psychology of such callousness is the outcome of an inbred recognition that public life is of little value. It neither occurred to the municipality nor to the residents of the house across the street that they were in any way responsible for the impending tragedy.

In the surge to make new India accountable, the character of the old India will doubtless play a major obstructive role. At the heart of Narendra Modi’s ‘Swachh Bharat’, ‘Smart City’, and ‘Make in India’ campaigns lies the indomitable problem of public attitude — one that through rigorous training, or denial, or hope is unlikely to simply go away. Unfortunately, the intrinsic nature of each of these three transnational exercises relies on a change of attitude — an outlook that encompasses a wider public dimension. For too long the Indian mind has mistaken Modernism for Modernity. The mere transposition of style, the making of fancy structures — glass malls and six-lane highways — has been seen by most as enough to make India Shine in the 21st century. Yet the glitter and sparkle of steel forms only a technological replacement for the old brick and monsoon stained walls, and as symbols of the rising affluence, they can hardly rescue a culture from its provincial ways of thinking.

Certainly, a corrosive and relentless expunging may create small artificial pockets of international efficiency and design — a highway here, an airport there, an industrial township somewhere else — but the persistent belief in second rate continues to mark the country as a stagnant third world backwater. When private enterprise flourishes, it does so in a public garbage heap. Without a serious dose of civic pride and public participation, there is no guarantee of success for any of Mr. Modi’s multifaceted campaigns.

Sadly, only the home remains a special space, protected, loved and enhanced with privilege. Outside the family compound, public space is condemned to squalor; people desecrate monuments, abuse road privileges, electrify fences, dump trash in parks, encroach on land, build gated communities, barricade streets for marriages; in other words, exploit or self-regulate when civic regulations are missing, or can be flouted without consequences. Without rules, any and all private actions can be easily enacted in the public realm, including the most rudimentary acts of personal violence, molestation, and rape. When the streets are just disjointed piles of material, people and actions, even bombs and explosives can easily be hidden in the mess.

The antidote

The importance of an active life of public participation can be the only antidote in such a dismal scenario. To create a flourishing awareness of civic purpose and responsibility in the space beyond the private house, and make people — and not just the government — feel accountable for its design, upkeep and well-being is the only way to bring an altogether changed attitude, and raise standards. If not to first rate, then close enough.

While living abroad in the 1980s, whenever I returned home, my airport arrival was always greeted with a range of reassuring visual signals that said very clearly that I had landed in India: the airline bus rattled and squeaked on a potholed tarmac heading to the terminal. Inside, four makeshift immigration counters were lit in the late night arrival by a lopsided tube light hanging on a cracked wall, partially whitewashed. As the immigration lines grew, the lone official manning the four counters would break for tea. Standing amidst the foreign crowd, in a wasted, unmanned hall, I would feel immediately comforted by the familiarity of India — no service, no welcoming pictures, no washrooms, no fuss. A realistic portrait of the country, it immediately prepared you for what was to come — the unlit outside, the fight for a taxi. As the broken Ambassador taxi rattled through uninhabited scrubland beyond the airport, you still felt entirely safe and secure; this was home, if slightly second rate. Delhi’s new T3 terminal leaves you wondering if the India outside the building will be as slick, efficient, safe and first rate as well. It takes but a few steps to find out.

Small Leap for LCA (Navy) – A Giant Leap for Indian Naval Aviation

It was a defining moment when LCA (Navy) Prototype 1 (NP1), the first indigenously designed and developed 4th plus generation combat aircraft designed to operate from the decks of air-craft carriers, took-off majestically from Ski-Jump facility of Shore Based Test Facility at INS Hansa in Goa yesterday. Piloted by Commodore JaideepMaolankar, the Chief Test Pilot of National Flight Test Centre, the aircraft had a perfect flight with results matching the predicted ones to the letter. The launch was orchestrated by the Test Director Cdr J D Raturi and Safety Pilot CaptShivnathDahiya supported by GpCaptAnoopKabadwal, GpCapt RR Tyagi and Lt CdrVivek Pandey. The readiness and availability of aircraft for the event was made possible through the relentless effort of HAL, ARDC under the aegis of Mr P S Roy the Executive Director. DrAvinashChander, SA to RM, Secretary DDR&D DG DRDO congratulated the LCA Navy program team and said, "With today's copybook flight of LCA-Navy from the land based ski-jump facility we see our own indigenous combat aircrafts soon flying from the decks of our aircraft carriers.” Congratulating the team DrTamilmani, DS & DG Aeronautics, said “A complex task of Ski Jump of NP1 Executed beautifully”. LCA (Navy) is designed with stronger landing gears to absorb forces exerted by the ski jump ramp during take-off, to be airborne within 200 m as against 1000m required for normal runways. It’s special flight control law mode allows hands-free take-off relieving the pilot workload, as the aircraft leaps from the ramp and automatically puts the aircraft in an ascending trajectory. The maiden successful, picture perfect launch of NP1 from ski jump at Shore Based Test Facility at Goa is a testimony to the tremendous efforts put in by scientists and engineers to design the Naval aircraft, its simulator (that helps pilots to know well in advance how the aircraft will behave on ski jump) and the flight test team that timed the whole event to near perfection. It can be stated with conviction “The indigenous Indian Naval Carrier Borne Aviation program has been launched, literally from the Ski-Jump” The LCA Navy program team of ADA (Aeronautical Development Agency) is jubilant on achieving the remarkable feat that is the culmination of several years of design, flight test, simulation and management effort with significant contributions from a number of DRDO laboratories. The teams were ably supported by the certification agency, CEMILAC and the quality assurance agency, CRI (LCA). INS Hansa, the Naval Air Station played the perfect host to achieve this significant milestone. The design teams guided by Program Director ADA Shri P S Subramanyam have ensured that all systems meet the stringent requirements of Carrier borne aircraft. Cmde C D Balaji (Retd) as Project Director LCA (Navy) and it’s Chief Designer has been at the helm of affairs right from the concept phase. The team led by Dr Amitabh Saraf indigenously achieved the flight control laws that take care of the problems encountered by a fly by wire aircraft undertaking a Ski Jump Launch. The Shore Based Test Facility (SBTF) has been created to replicate the aircraft carrier with a Ski Jump for take-off and arresting gear cable for arrested landing; by ADA with the participation of the Indian Navy, Goa shipyard, CCE (R&D) West, Pune, R&D Engg (E) Pune and the Russian agencies providing the design support and specialized equipment