Every CAG report has a basis: Vinod Rai

BHUBANESWAR: Brushing aside criticism of the national auditor's method of calculating losses in coalgate and 2G spectrum scams, Comptroller & Auditor General Vinod Rai on Sunday said every CAG report has a certain 'basis'. The country is faced with corruption of unprecedented proportion, Rai said, while defending his reports, saying these were unique and extraordinary.

"Every report is unique and extraordinary. It has some basis. If it had no basis, we won't point out anything," Rai said at a seminar organised by the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), on 'Pursuit of excellence: role of governance'.

The CAG had earlier made a strong pitch for scrapping all controversial allocations of coal mines. Its report on coal block also got slammed by the UPA government, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rejecting the findings and suggesting that it had erred in estimating gains for private players.

In its report on 2G spectrum allocation, CAG had estimated a loss of over Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the public exchequer and charged the telecom ministry with undervaluing 2G spectrum causing losses to the government.

"We in the audit and accounts department sincerely believe that our mandate is not to conduct audit, prepare reports and place them in the legislature. It is more than that. It is our responsibility to hold the government financially accountable to our audit especially in the social sectors," said Rai.

Corruption, he said, has two aspects in India. "We commonly use bribery and extortion interchangeably. We need to understand there is a fine distinction. Ordinarily, a person would resort to paying a bribe for expediting his work. It involves an element of willingness to extract favour. But extortion is an entirely different thing. It is forceful extraction," he explained.

Appreciating India's economic growth, Rai said the economy this millennium has recorded growth of around 8%. "It's a matter of pride that when the rest of the world was facing a global meltdown, with negative growth among the developed economies, our growth rate merely reduced to 6%," he argued.

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Attack at Algeria Gas Plant Heralds New Risks for Energy Development

The siege by Islamic militants at a remote Sahara desert natural gas plant in Algeria this week signaled heightened dangers in the region for international oil companies, at a time when they have been expanding operations in Africa as one of the world's last energy frontiers. (See related story: "Pictures: Four New Offshore Drilling Frontiers.")

As BP, Norway's Statoil, Italy's Eni, and other companies evacuated personnel from Algeria, it was not immediately clear how widely the peril would spread in the wake of the hostage-taking at the sprawling In Amenas gas complex near the Libyan border.

Map by National Geographic

Algeria, the fourth-largest crude oil producer on the continent and a major exporter of natural gas and refined fuels, may not have been viewed as the most hospitable climate for foreign energy companies, but that was due to unfavorable financial terms, bureaucracy, and corruption. The energy facilities themselves appeared to be safe, with multiple layers of security provided both by the companies and by government forces, several experts said. (See related photos: "Oil States: Are They Stable? Why It Matters.")

"It is particularly striking not only because it hasn't happened before, but because it happened in Algeria, one of the stronger states in the region," says Hanan Amin-Salem, a senior manager at the industry consulting firm PFC Energy, who specializes in country risk. She noted that in the long civil war that gripped the country throughout the 1990s, there had never been an attack on Algeria's energy complex. But now, hazard has spread from weak surrounding states, as the assault on In Amenas was carried out in an apparent retaliation for a move by French forces against the Islamists who had taken over Timbuktu and other towns in neighboring Mali. (See related story: "Timbuktu Falls.")

"What you're really seeing is an intensification of the fundamental problem of weak states, and empowerment of heavily armed groups that are really well motivated and want to pursue a set of aims," said Amin-Salem. In PFC Energy's view, she says, risk has increased in Mauritania, Chad, and Niger—indeed, throughout Sahel, the belt that bisects North Africa, separating the Sahara in the north from the tropical forests further south.

On Thursday, the London-based corporate consulting firm Exclusive Analysis, which was recently acquired by the global consultancy IHS, sent an alert to clients warning that oil and gas facilities near the Libyan and Mauritanian borders and in Mauritania's Hodh Ech Chargui province were at "high risk" of attack by jihadis.

"A Hot Place to Drill"

The attack at In Amenas comes at a time of unprecedented growth for the oil industry in Africa. (See related gallery: "Pictures: The Year's Most Overlooked Energy Stories.") Forecasters expect that oil output throughout Africa will double by 2025, says Amy Myers Jaffe, executive director of the energy and sustainability program at the University of California, Davis, who has counted 20 rounds of bidding for new exploration at sites in Africa's six largest oil-producing states.

Oil and natural gas are a large part of the Algerian economy, accounting for 60 percent of government budget revenues, more than a third of GDP and more than 97 percent of its export earnings. But the nation's resources are seen as largely undeveloped, and Algeria has tried to attract new investment. Over the past year, the government has sought to reform the law to boost foreign companies' interests in their investments, although those efforts have foundered.

Technology has been one of the factors driving the opening up of Africa to deeper energy exploration. Offshore and deepwater drilling success in the Gulf of Mexico and Brazil led to prospecting now under way offshore in Ghana, Mozambique, and elsewhere. (See related story: "New Oil—And a Huge Challenge—for Ghana.") Jaffe says the Houston-based company Anadarko Petroleum has sought to transfer its success in "subsalt seismic" exploration technology, surveying reserves hidden beneath the hard salt layer at the bottom of the sea, to the equally challenging seismic exploration beneath the sands of the Sahara in Algeria, where it now has three oil and gas operations.

Africa also is seen as one of the few remaining oil-rich regions of the world where foreign oil companies can obtain production-sharing agreements with governments, contracts that allow them a share of the revenue from the barrels they produce, instead of more limited service contracts for work performed.

"You now have the technology to tap the resources more effectively, and the fiscal terms are going to be more attractive than elsewhere—you put these things together and it's been a hot place to drill," says Jaffe, who doesn't see the energy industry's interest in Africa waning, despite the increased terrorism risk. "What I think will happen in some of these countries is that the companies are going to reveal new securities systems and procedures they have to keep workers safe," she says. "I don't think they will abandon these countries."

This story is part of a special series that explores energy issues. For more, visit The Great Energy Challenge.

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President Obama Sworn In for Second Term

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden today officially embarked on their second term, taking the Constitutionally mandated oath of office in two separate private ceremonies inside their homes.

Shortly before noon in the Blue Room of the White House, Obama raised his right hand, with his left on a family Bible, reciting the oath administrated by Chief Justice John Roberts. He was surrounded by immediate family members, including first lady Michelle Obama and daughters, Malia and Sasha.

As he hugged his wife and daughters, Sasha said, "Good job, Daddy."

"I did it," he said.

"You didn't mess up," she answered.

Biden was sworn in earlier today by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic to administer a presidential oath, in a ceremony at his official residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory. He was joined by more than 120 guests, including cabinet members, extended family and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden.

Because Jan. 20 -- the official date for a new presidential term -- falls on a Sunday this year, organizers delayed by one day the traditional public inauguration ceremony and parade down Pennsylvania Avenue.

Vice President Joe Biden Sworn in for 2nd Term Watch Video

President Obama's 2nd Inauguration: Hundreds of Thousands to Attend Watch Video

Obama and Biden will each repeat the oath on Monday on the west front of the Capitol, surrounded by hundreds of dignitaries and members of Congress. An estimated 800,000 people are expected to gather on the National Mall to witness the moment and inaugural parade to follow.

The dual ceremonies in 2013 means Obama will become the second president in U.S. history to take the presidential oath four times. He was sworn in twice in 2008 out of an abundance of caution after Roberts flubbed the oath of office during the public administration. This year Roberts read from a script.

Franklin Roosevelt was also sworn in four times but, unlike Obama, he was elected four times.

This year will mark the seventh time a president has taken the oath on a Sunday and then again on Monday for ceremonial purposes. Reagan last took the oath on a Sunday in 1985.

Both Obama and Biden took the oath using a special family Bible. Obama used a text that belonged to Michelle Obama's grandmother LaVaughn Delores Robinson. Biden placed his hand on a 120-year-old book with a Celtic cross on the cover that has been passed down through Biden clan.

The official inaugural activities today also included moments of prayer and remembrance that marked the solemnity of the day.

Obama and Biden met at Arlington National Cemetery for a brief morning ceremony to place a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknowns, honoring military service members who served and sacrificed. The men stood shoulder to shoulder, bowing their heads as a bugler played "Taps."

Biden, who is Catholic, began the day with a private family mass at his residence. The president and first family attended church services at Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, a historically black church and site of two pre-inaugural prayer services for former President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore and their families.

The Obamas and Bidens plan to participate in a church service on Monday morning at St. John's Episcopal, across Lafayette Park from the White House. They will also attend a National Prayer Service on Tuesday at the National Cathedral.

Later on Sunday evening, the newly-inaugurated leaders will attend a candlelight reception at the National Building Museum. The president and vice president are expected to deliver brief remarks to their supporters.

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Opposing views on Obama and future of the country split Ohio community

FREMONT, Ohio — On the same day, in the same county of northern Ohio, two new grandparents prepared to drive to the same factory for work. They had started their careers at Arm & Hammer in the same year, and for more than two decades they had stood together on a concrete floor and watched baking soda roll down an 80-foot production line. But, on this morning, what they saw looked nothing alike.

Bill Herr, 61, left a house that had declined in value by 20 percent, in a neighborhood blemished by foreclosures, in a town where he believed the economy for the middle class was “falling apart.” He said goodbye to a wife who was recovering from open-heart surgery, which she blamed in small part on the stress and disappointment of the presidential election. He grabbed a coat purchased for $6 at Goodwill and walked out a front door where he had recently hung a sign created by a local Christian motorcycle group: “AMERICA NEEDS GOD’S HELP! PRAYER OUR ONLY HOPE.”

Cathy Morris, 53 left a home she had bought with the help of a middle-class tax break and then drove by the mailbox where she sent regular $25 checks to President Obama. She passed through a town that she believed was “almost back” and pulled into an Arm & Hammer factory where orders had increased by 5 percent and management was once again hiring. “Obama,” she said. “Thank goodness.”

This is the America that President Obama will govern in his second term: A place divided not only by ideology, race and class, but also by the very perception of reality. Four years since Obama first took office, is the country better or worse off? Safer or more at risk? Principled or desperately lost?

Here in Fremont, as in much of America, it all depends on whom you ask. In this rural, Rust Belt county where Obama won exactly 50 percent of the vote, located in a state where he won 50 percent, residents expect Obama to either ruin the country or rescue it. The president who spoke ambitiously at his first inauguration about uniting America instead arrives at his second with the country further divided. Fourteen percent of Republicans think he’s doing a good job, compared with 88 percent of Democrats. The goal is no longer to effect sweeping conciliation so much as to find fractional compromise in a diminishing common ground.

Inside an Arm & Hammer factory that billows smoke across the farmlands of Ohio, 180 employees now self-segregate into what Morris calls “ideological islands.” Co-workers who were once moderate Democrats or Republicans shifted fully to their sides over the past four years, intensifying the disconnect.

There are free copies of a National Rifle Association monthly magazine in one break room and, as of late last year, a life-size cardboard cutout of Obama in the other. There are workers who share copies of Obama’s biography, “Dreams of My Father,” and others who distribute the movie-version parody, “Dreams of My Real Father: A Story of Reds and Deception.”

And then there are Morris and Herr, two longtime employees working side-by-side, each anticipating Obama’s second inauguration as a seminal moment.

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Algeria hostage crisis ends in bloodshed

IN AMENAS, Algeria: Algerian troops stormed a remote gas plant on Saturday to end a hostage crisis that killed 23 foreigners and Algerians, seven of them executed by their Islamist captors in a final military assault.

Twenty-one hostages died during the siege that began when the Al-Qaeda-linked gunmen attacked the In Amenas facility deep in the Sahara desert at dawn on Wednesday, the interior ministry said.

Thirty-two kidnappers were also killed, and special forces were able to free "685 Algerian workers and 107 foreigners," it said.

Among the dead were an unknown number of foreigners -- including from Britain, France, Romania and the United States -- and many were still unaccounted for, including Japanese.

The kidnappers led by Algerian Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a former Al-Qaeda commander in North Africa, killed two people on a bus, a Briton and an Algerian, before taking hundreds of workers hostage when they overran the gas plant.

Belmokhtar's "Signatories in Blood" group had been demanding an end to French military intervention against jihadists in neighbouring Mali.

In Saturday's assault, "the Algerian army took out 11 terrorists, and the terrorist group killed seven foreign hostages," state television said, without giving a breakdown of their nationalities.

A security official who spoke to AFP as army helicopters overflew the plant gave the same death tolls, adding it was believed the foreigners were executed "in retaliation".

As experts began to clear the complex of bombs planted by the Islamists, residents of In Amenas breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"We went from a peaceful situation to a terror situation," said one resident who gave his name as Fouad.

"The plant could have exploded and taken out the town," said another.

Brahim Zaghdaoui said he was not surprised by the Algerian army's ruthless final assault.

"It was predictable that it would end like that," he said standing outside the town's hospital, where coffins were seen arriving in the morning.

Most of the hostages had been freed on Thursday when Algerian forces launched a rescue operation, which was widely condemned as hasty.

But French President Francois Hollande and US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta refused to blame Algeria.

The response by Algiers was "the most appropriate" given it was dealing with "coldly determined terrorists ready to kill their hostages," said Hollande.

Panetta added: "They are in the region, they understand the threat from terrorism... I think it's important that we continue to work with (Algiers) to develop a regional approach."

British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said the crisis had been "brought to an end by a further assault by Algerian forces, which has resulted in further loss of life".

The deaths were "appalling and unacceptable and we must be clear that it is the terrorists who bear sole responsibility for it," he said.

The hostage-taking was the largest since the 2008 Mumbai attack, and the biggest by jihadists since hundreds were killed in a Moscow theatre in 2002 and at a school in the Russian town of Beslan in 2004, according to monitoring group IntelCenter.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said a total of six British nationals and one resident of the United Kingdom were either dead or unaccounted for.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan said he had received "severe information" about 10 of his country's nationals who were still missing.

The gunmen said on Friday that they were still holding "seven foreign hostages" -- three Belgians, two Americans, one Japanese and a Briton.

However, Brussels said it had no indication any of its nationals were being held.

Algeria was strongly criticised for launching Thursday's assault, which the kidnappers said had left dead 34 of the hostages and 15 of their own fighters.

Belmokhtar also wanted to exchange American hostages for the blind Egyptian sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman and Pakistani Aafia Siddiqui, jailed in the United States on charges of terrorist links.

At least one American had already been confirmed dead before Saturday's assault.

But the State Department said "the United States does not negotiate with terrorists".

France, which said on Saturday that 2,000 of the 2,500 troops it had pledged were now on the ground in Mali, said that no more of its citizens were being held.

President Hollande said French troops would stay in Mali as long as is needed "to defeat terrorism" in the West African country and its neighbours.

Algerian news agency APS quoted a government official as saying the kidnappers, who claimed to have come from Niger, were armed with machineguns, assault rifles, rocket launchers and missiles.

This was confirmed by an Algerian driver, Iba El Haza, who said the hostage-takers spoke in different Arabic dialects and perhaps also in English.

"From their accents I understood one was Egyptian, one Tunisian, another Algerian and one was speaking English or (another) foreign language," Haza told AFP after escaping on Thursday.

"The terrorists said: 'You have nothing to do with this, you are Algerians and Muslims. We won't keep you, we only want the foreigners.'"

- AFP/de

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JBT scam: Convicted retired staff & kin in a shock

NEW DELHI: Four days after the CBI court gave its verdict in the junior basic trained (JBT) teachers' recruitment scam, 50 retired Haryana primary education department employees, who were convicted by the court, and their families are in a state of shock.Having lost the legal battle following the CBI court's conviction, the former government employees of the education department on Saturday pleaded before the court for minimum sentence on medical grounds. The special CBI court in Rohini, Delhi, which is now hearing the arguments on quantum of punishment, which will be announced on January 22. Former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala and his son Ajay were convicted by the court in the case on Wednesday.

Family members of the convicted retired staff maintained that the officials would have been subjected to more severe punishments had they refused to carry out the orders issued by Chautala and his associates. The convicted retired officials included former district primary education officers (DPEOs), block education officers (BEO) and senior officials of education department. They were members of the 17 district level selection committees constituted by the education department for recruitment of JBT teachers in 1999-2000.

Majority of those convicted in the case are in their mid 60s and early 70s. Their relatives now insist that compulsion of carrying out the orders issued by superiors became the biggest crime for them. "This is the perfect example as to how a government service can turn out to be a sin. My mother-in-law had served the department for 34 years. Her fault was that she signed the list like others,'' said Krishan Kumar, a resident of Jind whose mother-in-law, Kailash Kaushik, a retired BEO of Jind, has been convicted in the case.

Accompanied by other family members, Krishan had come to see Kailash in the court on Saturday. "Now we expect that the court will give the minimum sentence as members of the committees have been punished for virtually no fault of theirs. Unfortunately, all this has happened despite the fact that none of the members of committees was indicted for monetary or any other gains. Those who gained (the recruited teachers) are still in job,'' said K K Atri, a Panchkula resident and Kailash's brother-in-law.

"What could be worse than this, a person who earned reputation as a teacher is forced to live with hardcore criminals in jail for no fault of theirs,'' another relative of an accused in the case said. Relatives of Ajit Singh Sangwan, a retired DPEO, also echoed the same feeling.

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Ex-Teammate: Armstrong Showed 'Genuine Emotion'

While critics railed against Lance Armstrong for coming off as detached in the two-part interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired Thursday and Friday nights, former teammate and friend, Tyler Hamilton, told "Good Morning America" today that he felt Armstrong was displaying "genuine emotion."

"I've never seen Lance shed a tear until last night. Before I even heard one word from him Thursday night, I could tell he was a broken man," Hamilton said.

Armstrong's contrition turned tearful Friday when he revealed to Oprah Winfrey how difficult it was to betray his family -- particularly his 13 year old son -- who stood up for the fallen cycling star as rumors swirled that he was taking banned drugs.

Armstrong, 41, choked up when he recounted what he told his son, Luke, in the wake of the scandal.

"When this all really started, I saw my son defending me and saying that's not true…" Armstrong told Winfrey, "I told Luke. I said, 'Don't defend me anymore.'"

Armstrong's interview with Winfrey drew millions of viewers.

It was the first time Armstrong admitted using performance-enhancing drugs and oxygen-boosting blood transfusions to help him win the Tour de France.

"I view this situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times," Armstrong said. "I know the truth. The truth isn't what was out there. The truth isn't what I said.

George Burns/Courtesy of Harpo Studios, Inc./AP Photo

Lance Armstrong Confession: 'I Could Not Believe Lance Apologized' Watch Video

Lance Armstrong-Winfrey Interview: How Honest Was He? Watch Video

Lance Armstrong-Winfrey Interview: Doping Confession Watch Video

"I'm a flawed character, as I well know," Armstrong added. "All the fault and all the blame here falls on me."

However, Hamilton said any hope for Armstrong's redemption would come if he came clean about others who were part of the doping scandal.

"The question now is where he goes from this, his actions moving forward. He needs to name names," Hamilton said.

READ MORE: Armstrong Admits to Doping

Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles in October 2012, after a report by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency found that he and 11 of his teammates orchestrated "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."

Despite the admissions of his teammates that they had doped with Armstrong and seen him complete blood transfusions for races, Armstrong condemned the report and denied that he had ever cheated.

As sponsors including Nike began to pull support of Armstrong following the report, Armstrong's carefully-built image began to crumble. He stepped down from Livestrong, the charity he started to help cancer patients after he survived testicular cancer.

"It was a mythic perfect story and it wasn't true," Armstrong said of his fairytale story of overcoming testicular cancer to become the most celebrated cyclist in history.

In the interview, Armstrong explained his competition "cocktail" of EPO, blood transfusions and testosterone that he used throughout his career. He also said he had previously used cortisone.

Armstrong refused to give Winfrey the details of when, where and with whom he doped during seven winning Tours de France between 1999 and 2005, which was the last year he said he doped. Armstrong specifically denied using banned substances when he placed third in 2009 and entered the tour again in 2010.

Investigators familiar with Armstrong's case, however, told ABC News that Armstrong did not come completely clean to Winfrey, and say they believe he doped in 2009.

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Earl Smith is the man behind a military patch that President Obama prizes

AUSTIN, Tex. — That February morning in 2008 found Barack Obama decidedly out of sorts.

He was locked in one battle with Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination that showed no signs of ending — and another with a vicious cold that felt the same way.

As he rode the service elevator in the backway of a convention hotel here, the snowy-haired African American operating it turned suddenly. He held out a black-and-gold bit of fabric embroidered with a screaming eagle.

“Senator Obama, I have something I want to give you,” the man said. “I’ve carried this military patch with me every day for 40 years, and I want you to carry it, and it will keep you safe in your journey.” Obama tried to refuse, but the older man persisted.

Big endeavors can find their meaning in small moments.

Later that day, Obama and his aides discussed the encounter. The future president pulled the patch from his pocket, along with about a dozen other items people had pressed upon him.

“This is why I do this,” he said. “Because people have their hopes and dreams about what we can do together.”

Two American stories intersected that morning in that elevator. The more famous, of course, is the one that begins its next chapter on Monday, as the nation’s first black president takes the oath of office for a second term.

But the other story also tells a lot about where this country has been and how far it has come.

No one in Obama’s small party that day noticed the man’s name tag or, if anyone did, the fact that it said Earl Smith was quickly forgotten.

No one knew how much of Smith’s life had been woven into a patch that, over four decades, found its way from the shoulder of an Army private to the pocket of a future commander-in-chief.

It was the only shred of cloth he had saved from the uniform of a nightmarish year in Vietnam. Smith fired artillery with a brigade that suffered 10,041 casualties during the course of the war. The brigade’s soldiers received 13 Congressional Medals of Honor.

The patch was waiting among his possessions when Smith was pardoned by the state of Georgia in 1977 after spending three years in prison for a crime he claimed was self-defense.

Smith kept it close as his lucky charm while he rebuilt his life and his reputation, starting with a job vacuuming hallways and changing sheets in an Atlanta Marriott. He carried it with him as he traveled halfway around the world again, to positions in hotels far from home, Riyadh in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

Along the way, as he tended to travelers and made sure VIP gatherings went smoothly, he met three U.S. presidents.

His instincts told him Obama would make it four.

Like just about anyone else who was alive on Nov. 22, 1963, Smith can describe exactly where he was when he heard the horrific news: He was coming off a high school football practice field in his home town of San Benito, Tex.

Though not yet old enough to have voted for the man slain in Dallas, “I was devastated — a lot of us young people were — because John Kennedy was the young president,” recalled Smith, now 68.

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US stocks mostly higher; Intel pulls Nasdaq down

NEW YORK: US stocks ended mostly higher on Friday helped by news that Republicans might give way to a short-term rise of the debt ceiling to avoid a new crisis, but poor earnings from Intel pulled the Nasdaq lower.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 53.68 points (0.39 percent) to 13,649.70.

The broad-based S&P 500 added 5.04 points (0.34 percent) at 1,485.98.

But the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ended down 1.29 points (0.04 percent) at 3,134.71, dragged lower by chipmaker Intel, which sank 6.3 percent after a poor fourth quarter, with a 31 percent drop in profit and a lowered forecast for this year.

- AFP/de

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Nirbhay to be test-fired in February

HYDERABAD: Nirbhay, India's first subsonic cruise missile, will be test-fired by the end of February, said V K Saraswat, director general of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and scientific advisor to defence minister A K Antony. Saraswat was speaking to the media during a seminar on 'Nurturing, Managing and Institutionalising Innovation' organised by the Defence Research and Develoment Laboratory (DRDL) here on Friday.

While 2012 was an eventful year for the defence organisation with almost a dozen successful launches of various kinds of missiles, this year also promises to be big with many more plans underway. "Nirbhay will be a medium-range cruise missile with advantages like the ability of not being detected and high accuracy. It is also a cheaper option," Saraswat said.

Asked if there were any hitches in test-firing the missile as it was expected to have taken place sometime back, Saraswat said some processes had been developed and there were no hitches.

This year, a major plan of the DRDO is 'canisterisation' of Agni IV and Agni V, which will enable firing of the missile from any platform. Another plan was to integrate Astra-III with Sukhoi. He said four Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) would be produced this year and in 2014, the necessary operational clearances would be sought.

The DRDO has also carried out 50 of the 56 modifications sought for the Main Battle Tank (MBT) Arjun Mark-II variant by the user. The rest of the modifications will be carried out in the next few months. Saraswat said the Long Range Cruise Missile (LRCM) will have all futuristic features.

Saraswat informed that they had got permissions for the missile testing range proposed at Machilipatnam. "It is a barren piece of land and we will turn it into a green area. There will be no environmental issues," he said. Talking about the civilian applications of defence technology, he said that the bio-digesters (toilets) were much in demand and there was a proposal with the tourism ministry on using them in buses.

Another important application would be the kit for detection of dengue. The kits developed by DRDO will take just two hours to confirm a dengue case while the kits available elsewhere take 24 hours. Saraswat said that the technology has already been transferred to manufacturers of the anti-mosquito 'attracticide', which is available in the market.

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