Collage made using Picasa

These are mentioned in no specific order..

Tata’s Nano: Well we all know what products in middle-class’s pocket range can do to the world. This is a new addition to the same list. You can buy one by the end of October. The Nano is alleged to have severely affected the used car market in India, as many Indians opt to wait for the Nano’s release rather than buying used cars, such as the Maruti 800 (a rebadged Suzuki Alto), which is considered as the Nano’s nearest competitor. Sales of new Maruti 800s have dropped by 20%, and used ones by 30% following the unveiling of the Nano. As one automotive journalist summarizes; “People are asking themselves – and us – why they should pay, say, 250,000 Rupees for a Maruti Alto, when they can wait and get a brand new Nano for less in a few months’ time, a car that is actually bigger”

Plastic Logic

Plastic Logic! Well, we are waiting for quite a long time for a device which can help u do with it the only(ok. mostly) work we do with our computers, READ AND BROWSE! This new product from Plastic Logic(not yet named) is a simple, ultra-sleek full-page 8.5-inch by 11-inch electronic book and newspaper reader with a flexible plastic touchscreen, Wi-Fi connectivity, and the ability to read regular Office documents without conversion of any kind. Well, price is not yet out, but millions of dollars are already been put into its production, so hope “i” magic here. Expected to go on sale during the first half of 2009.

Cern Laboratory

To be launched on 10th September, Large Hadron Collider has earned, “world changing” tag to its name, for good as well as bad reason. Along with producing higgs particles, the missing link in the “theory of everything” it will produce first man made black hole, which conspirators (Communist Party of India would too have, but they are busy elsewhere) are arguing will be the end of this world. Well if you are reading this after 10th September, they are wrong. It is one of the biggest effort from humans to learn about our world and should be a sought after topic in days to come. A similar attempt was undertaken by US 3 decades ago, but then canceled the project because of the financial requirements. Called Superconducting Super Collider(SSC), had proposed experiments 4 times the energy, 3 times in its size and thrice as costly as LHC.

Look out this space for more..

Nuclear Power Plant

supply 25% of electricity from nuclear power by 2050(currently its 2.5%). The Indo-US nuclear deal will prove to be key here. But India’s home plan isn’t performing that bad either.  Well, from world’s lowest performing Nuclear Power plants to world’s first fast breeder test reactor reprocessing 100 GWd/t fuel to developing world’s first thorium based reactor, she has whole sorts of +/- achievements in its book.

Indian Nuclear Program is working heavily towards developing thorium based nuclear reactors since she was blacklisted from nuclear trade, with quite a few exciting results in its basket. She spruced up the search and mining of nuclear fuel, though currently all her reactors are working at around 60% capacity due to lack of fuel. Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) – India is working on this, the 300 MWe design is light water cooled.  <WARNING: TECHNICAL CONTENT>The main part of the core is sub critical with Th/U-233 oxide and Th/Pu-239 oxide, mixed so that the system is self-sustaining in U-233. The initial core will be entirely Th-Pu-239 oxide fuel assemblies, but as U-233 is available, 30 of the fuel pins in each assembly will be Th-U-233 oxide, arranged in concentric rings.  It is designed for 100 year plant life and is expected to utilize 65% of the energy of the fuel.  About 75% of the power will come from the thorium.</WARNING>

Arguably, India has 12-25% of world’s thorium(depending on the source you believe), and her investment and efforts should be biased in developing this technology. But the speed with which India is developing, she had to change its strategic plan of investing its future in Uranium based technology. It would be interesting to see the progress in thorium technology, now when advanced Uranium technology will be fighting for the front page.

More information on India’s thorium efforts are on this page.

Pranab Mukherjee(External Affairs Minister), lawer and also holds Masters degree in both History and Political Science. He was busy till now handling other foreign diplomats, agruing Austraila, Austria, New Zealand and Irelad for their support. He is also the man dealing with China(not easy to deal with them, known for their unpredictability). And it was not eaiser to counter the “letter bomb” in the media. He ensured the NGS group that India will use this technology for peaceful purpose only, his arguments and assurence were the keys to the 34 year nuclear lock.

Shiv Shankar Menon(Foreign Secretary), the man who led India in the NSG meetings. He also had a stint in the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) as an Adviser, a re-assurance for the right choice for this task. Now considering, that for every Indian diplomat, there were four Brazilian diplomats and seven Chinese diplomats, you can imagine the ground work and leads he will have to follow in this scenario. Due to his efforts, the Cabinet cleared the creation of a total of 514 posts in the ministry over the next 10 years. The ministry currently has about 600 officers manning more than 160 missions all over the world.

Shyam Saran, Considered the architect of the nuclear deal during his tenure as foreign secretary, Saran is currently the special envoy of the Prime Minister. In the last two months, he visited almost all the major world capitals to garner support from developed nations in favour of the deal. A 1970 IFS officer, Saran served as India’s Ambassador to Nepal, Indonesia and Myanmar and High Commissioner to Mauritius.

An articulate diplomat, Saran is also credited with giving an impetus to the India-Pakistan composite dialogue process during his tenure as foreign secretary.

MK Narayanan(National Security Adviser) A tough-talking official, Narayanan enjoys confidence of the PM. In his capacity as National Security Adviser, he is also primary adviser to the Prime Minister, the Indian Cabinet and the NSC on internal and international security issues.

Even as the Indian diplomatic team in Vienna was finding the going tough at the NSG meeting, it was always in touch with Narayanan, said to be the eyes and ears of Manmohan Singh.

Anil Kakodkar(Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commision)Kakodkar is a famous Indian nuclear scientist, who was associated with the first successful peaceful nuclear experiment conducted by India on May 18, 1974, at Pokhran. He also played a key role in a series of five successful nuclear tests conducted by India during May 1998 again at Pokhran.
At present, Kakodkar is the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India (AECI) and secretary to the Indian government, the Department of Atomic energy. Kakodkar was also the director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre at Trombay.
He was the main Indian negotiator with IAEA Director-General Mohammed el-Baradei over the India-specific safeguards agreement, which the global nuclear watchdog approved on August 1.

RB Grover (Director, Department of Atomic Energy’s Strategic Planning Group)The other half of the Kakodkar-Grover duo of the DAE, he had been the key technical negotiator, acting as a bulwark against American demands. Anil Kakodkar and Ravi Grover were the technical advisors to India’s politicians in the tense negotiations that led to the Indo-US nuclear agreement, a culmination of two years of painstaking negotiations Is the founding director of the Homi Bhabha National Institute, the Director of the Department of Atomic Energy’s Strategic Planning Group (SPG) and Associate Director of the Technical Coordination & International Relations Group at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC)

DB Venkatesh Varma(Member, Indian mission in Geneva) counsellor, Permanent Mission of India to the Conference on Disarmament. He joined the official delegation at the National Suppliers Group (NSG) meeting in Vienna. He had been party to the talks since he was a director in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in his previous posting.

Ronen Sen. Sen has been India’s Ambassador to the US since August 2004. He did most of the groundwork in Washington burning the midnight oil with key US officials to finalise the civil nuclear cooperation understanding that was finally approved by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President George Bush on July 18, 2005.

Sen joined the IFS in July 1966. From May 1968 to July 1984, he served in Indian missions/ posts in Moscow, San Francisco and in Dhaka and in the ministry of external affairs, and had also been secretary to the Atomic Energy Commission of India. From July 1984 to December 1985, Sen was joint secretary in the ministry of external affairs. He was thereafter joint secretary to the Prime Minister from January 1986 to July 1991, responsible for foreign affairs, defence and science and technology.

S. Jaishankar Currently the Indian High Commissioner to Singapore, Jaishankar was the joint secretary (Americas) in the external affairs ministry when the nuclear deal was being negotiated. A close confidant of Shyam Saran, who was then the foreign secretary, Jaishankar frequently travelled to Washington to conduct the tough negotiations with the Americans.

Chinese President, Hu Jintao and Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh

and India put some strongly-worded notes in their mailbox. After the NSG declared a consensus on the waiver for India, Chinese diplomats stressed their national position for a “balance between international non-proliferation efforts and nuclear energy.”

Coming from a country with the dubious tag of “chief proliferator”, few would have been taken in by the professed concern. In fact, diplomats from various countries in Vienna had few doubts that China did not want the deal to go through since they feared it would bring India closer to the deal. There was complete unanimity that China which promised neutrality since it never expected the deal to go, but was forced to come out in the open because of the momentum generated by the US lobbying. With the NSG finally giving the waiver, China may regret the sabotage. The outcome at Vienna may have enhanced US standing in India. It is sure to set back the normalisation of ties with China by a couple of years by strengthening the suspicions and mistrust.-Times of India

Chinese diplomats were confirmed the deal will not move ahead, and to kill it, they just need to delay it. They were whispering in other diplomats ears regarding their concern and playing “behind the scenes game”. But why China did this?

There are reports that Pakistan outsourced their nuclear bomb testing programs to China and let them conduct nuclear explosions (cool diplomatic idea, isn’t it?). So one may assume some pressure or friendly fire as a proof of Chinese love for Pakistan. Also, China is in favor of exporting Nuclear material to North Korea, which US is totally against. Chinese’s NSG move can be seen as stunt to develop global case for similar waiver for North Korea’s peaceful nuclear use. And their move wasn’t just a last minute cry to stop positive output. China is reportedly putting forward a proposal for similar deal for Pakistan. Just three incidents in the past two years show why India should never treat Beijing lightly. In November 2006, its Ambassador to India made a belligerent reassertion of China’s claim on Arunachal Pradesh on the eve of President Hu Jintao’s visit to India, hardly a gesture one expects from a responsible and so-called new-found friend. In 2007, China felt threatened enough to issue a statement against a new naval compact between India, Australia, Japan and Singapore. But the most glaring example of China’s hostility towards India came in the form of several blatant violations along the line of control in the past three years.

Clearly, until now China has been the major developing power in Asia, and with India entering the NSG, a new strategic equation has been introduced into Asia. Moreover India’s fast growth is welcomed by the US, EU, Russia and Japan as a balancer to China’s growth and dominance in Asia, perhaps one more reason. More energy means faster development of market, GDP growth and with that, rise in exports. With now easy energy, India can aim these tasks and increase the building threat to Chinese markets. Its impossible for India to replace China in terms of its export market, but Communist China would not like even a small share of their pie being taken away.

There are other reasons that should keep India on its toes when it deals with China.

China, it must be remembered has set up a massive road and rail network in the Tibetan plateau, a listening post in occupied Aksai Chin, and is repositioning likely nuclear missiles against India, in moves not only aimed at overwhelming India militarily, but to enable Chinese coercive diplomacy in respect of the border dispute.

Since March this year, there have been many tell-tale signs that China continues to look at India as a potential rival in Asia and would everything to keep it off-balance. As strategic analyst Gurmeet Kanwal has pointed out elsewhere, Zhan Liu, a Communist Party member, warned India in an article on the website of an influential Chinese think-tank not to “walk today along the old road of resisting China” as the People’s Liberation Army is now well-entrenched in Tibet and will not repeat its mistake of withdrawing after a border war as it did in 1962. Zhan extols the virtues of the PLA’s newly developed capabilities and goes on to advise India “not to requite kindness with ingratitude”. -NDTV.com

India is fast developing as automobile exporter(5% GDP share), and would reach $25 billion by the next decade. With Slow India catching up in many other similar export domain, indeed, India is taking away someone’s share(read China). The sooner policy-makers in New Delhi accept this reality, the better it is for India’s future diplomatic moves. That’s the biggest lesson from Vienna.

In New Delhi

Finally an end to decades of India’s nuclear isolation. “It is also a recognition of India’s impeccable non-proliferation credentials and its status as a state with advanced nuclear technology” said our PM. A collective effort from a lot of people. It is indeed a very proud moment in our history, not only because it was India’s biggest foreign policy initiative but also because of the fruits it brings along.

In brief:

• Could be a major contributor to our energy security
• Will provide 20,000 mw of electricity by 2020
• Opens door for nuclear cooperation with other countries
• India will enter the global mainstream of N-power
• Provides for full civil nuclear energy cooperation.
• Provides for development of strategic reserve of nuclear fuel.
• India doesn’t have to sign NPT or CTBT.
• Does not affect India’s right to conduct nuclear tests.
• Will provide access to high technology denied for 30 years.
• Will spur high-end manufacturing.

Lets look at the Nuclear Power generation. European Union (roughly 25% more in areas ) generates nearly as much electricity through Nuclear Energy as India does with all other means. France generates 80% of all its energy through Nuclear Reactors. India plans to bring total estimated nuclear power generation to 45,000 MW by 2020. That’s just 8% of what India would need (2.75 times current production) by 2020. Wonder how are we going to achieve the aim without carbon emssions.