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Dear Prime Minister , It is with great regret that I am resigning as home secretary. I feel it is necessary to do so because I inadvertently misled the Home Affairs Select Committee over targets for removal of illegal immigrants during their questions on Windrush. Since appearing before the select committee, I have reviewed the advice I was given on this issue and become aware of information provided to my office which makes mention of targets. I should have been aware of this, and I take full responsibility for the fact that I was not. The Windrush scandal has rightly shone a light on an important issue for our country. As so often, the instincts of the British people are right. They want people who have a right to live here to be treated fairly and humanely, which has sometimes not been the case. But they also want the government to remove those who don't have the right to be here. I had hoped in coming months to devise a policy that would allow the government to meet both...

Source:- Tough bargain may halt Rs 2,000 crore Indian Air Force deal of 20 Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer planes A defence deal expected to cost over Rs 2,000 crore to buy 20 Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer planes is likely to be called off by the Air Force as the negotiations for it have been stuck for almost three years now over steep price hike by the vendors. The Air Force is also not interested in the upgrade of its fleet of over 120 Hawk planes that were inducted into service after a deal with Britain in 2004. The HAL is offering to upgrade the Hawk fleet of the Air Force to Hawk India jets by adding combat capabilities, government sources told Mail Today. “The benchmark price of each aircraft was around Rs 90 crore but the initial price offered by the vendors including the public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was more than double,” the sources said. “In the contract negotiations, the vendors have cut down the price but even now, the price offered is more than 60 per cent o...

To be sarcastic or not to be sarcastic, that is the question.... We don't often complain about Radio 4's Profile .  Speaking for myself (and, so, not presuming on Sue!), I find it to be generally very engaging and scrupulous when it comes to questions of balance and bias. This week's edition , however, took me by surprise - so much so that I'm now posting about it. ******* It profiled a prominent UK politician.  Now,  Profile often profiles politicians and, I'd say, usually succeeds in giving a fair and balanced view of them.  Not this time though.  ******* Seriously, O Dear Reader, please listen to it for yourselves and see if you agree with me that (this week)  Profile came far, far too close to sounding like a puff piece for the politician concerned. Even presenter Mark Coles (a very engaging presenter) dropped his trademark John Peel-style deadpan irony.  Indeed, listening to it, I thought of it as being a radio version o...

Source:- Why India and China’s new-found bonhomie could be historic The signs were out there. India took extra care to honour Chinese sensitivities on the Dalai Lama, and China endorsed India’s demand to include a specific anti-terrorism section in the BRICS’ Xiamen summit in September, barely a week after the sudden end to a 72-day border stand-off. The bluster gave way to quiet diplomacy and the sabre-rattling was replaced by low-key communication. China’s English newspaper, The Global Times, a mouthpiece of the government, even invoked an old Chinese proverb to describe the relationship between China and India today: Friends are often made after a fight. After the Doklam stand-off on which India Today did a cover story asking if there would be war, there was a calm interrupted only by a series of high-level visits beginning with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s India trip in December. The elevation of Vijay Gokhale, former ambassador to Beijing, to the post of foreign secretary...

Source:- India plans to acquire ship-based Ka-226T helicopters A delegation from the Indian MoD is to visit Kamov Design Bureau of Russian Helicopters Holding Company (part of Rostec) in order to participate in the demonstration flight of a light utility Ka-226T rotorcraft and to familiarize themselves with its ship-based version, according to a report by Rostec. Rostec, has evinced keen interest in the Indian Navy’s tender for purchase of 111 utility helicopters. The company is readying an advanced batch of the ship-based Ka-226T rotorcraft version, and has pitched it for the Indian Navy’s tender for armed light naval utility helicopters weighing no more than five tonnes. While 16 helicopters are expected to be procured in a fly-away condition, the remaining 95 are to be built in India by a foreign OEM and an Indian partner via a joint venture (JV) since it involves significant technology transfers. Russian Helicopters CEO Andrey Boginsky says the company’s existing JV with Hindust...

Source:- Pakistan set to launch space programme to keep an eye on Indian side: Report Pakistan is set to launch an ambitious space programme during the next fiscal year with an aim to keep an eye on the Indian side and reduce its dependence on foreign satellites for civil and military purposes, according to a media report. Several projects will be initiated to develop self-reliance capacity and reduce dependence on foreign satellites, mainly the US and French satellites for civil and military communications. The budget of the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Organisation (Suparco) for the upcoming fiscal year 2018-19 is Rs 4.70 billion which includes Rs 2.55 billion for three new projects, Dawn News reported. Suparco has been regularly conducting activities each year to increase awareness of space technology and to promote its peaceful usage amongst students and the masses in Pakistan since 2005. The funding includes allocation of Rs 1.35 billion for Pakistan Multi-Miss...

Source:- Brahmos will breach mach 7 barrier in next decade Brahmos, the fastest missile in the world co-developed by India and Russia, will be breaching the mach 7 barrier to be a hypersonic system in the next decade, a top official said.  “We will require seven to ten years from now to become a hypersonic missile system,” Sudhir Mishra, the chief executive and managing director of the joint venture company Brahmos Aerospace, told PTI here over the weekend. He said the missile, which currently travels at mach 2.8 or 2.8 times the speed of sound, will touch mach 3.5 soon and mach 5 in three years. The current engine will have to be “tinkered” to achieve mach 5 and will have to be replaced to achieve hypersonic speed, he said. The intent is to come out with a missile that will be able to deliver to the next-generation warfare, Mishra said. He said Indian institutions including the DRDO, IITs and Indian Institute of Science are working on technologies which will help it achieve ...