Emarson plans to provide digital signage for Indian Army

New Delhi: Emarson IT Solutions, a digital signage provider is exploring opportunities of providing digital signage for the Indian Army. Prateek Jaswant, CEO and Co-founder of Emarson said, "This is a time where every industry is adapting new technologies, so should the Indian Army and I feel proud that we could service our army officials." 

Jaswant was speaking at an IT seminar called 'The Cutting Edge' organized by the Indian Army at Mamun, near Pathankot. The seminar which is taking place on 12th and 13th October will see the participation of a large number of senior officers from Corps of Signals as well as officers from all the arms and services. The seminar is aimed at providing a platform for deliberate and structured user-industry interaction to explore viable technologies for designing robust communications and IT solutions for the Indian Army.

During his session with the army officials Jaswant introduced them to digital signage and digital keyboard, video and mouse (KVM) switches technology. He explained them on how to choose, fix or maintain servers with KVM switches from a single station at any given time. Also, in regard to digital signage he explained that it is a dynamic media as opposed to static billboards and posters and how it has emerged as a powerful tool for instructing, informing and disseminating information to the masses. Apart from Emarson, other companies such as Barco, Ericsson, Softel Solutions, HCL Infosystems and Cisco also addressed various aspects in the IT segment.

http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Emarson_plans_to_provide_digital_signage_for_Indian_Army_-nid-61979.html

FROM PAK WITH LOVE : India fuming at Pakistani Newspaper for leaking story on Army prostitutes

PAKISTAN—India is fuming because a Pakistani newspaper broke the news that the Indian military has finalized plans to deploy a unit of women sex providers in occupied Kashmir, where figures of suicides and mental problems among Indian soldiers deployed in a hostile territory have shot through the rooftop. This time, Pakistani diplomats in the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi may receive an unusual Indian protest.  So far the Indians have been ISI-phobic, seeing the hands of Pakistan’s feared premier counterespionage service in everything that went wrong in India.  Now the diplomats will be receiving a letter of protest against an independent Pakistani newspaper.
For the first time in the 62-year tumultuous relationship between Pakistan and India, New Delhi wants to lodge a complaint with Islamabad against a Pakistani newspaper, The Daily Mail. 
On Sept. 8th, 2009, The Daily Mail ran a story filed by the paper’s New Delhi correspondent Christina Palmer, titled ‘Indian Army To Deploy Prostitutes As A Women Battalion In Held Kashmir’.
The PakNationalists, PakAlert, PKKH, PakistanFirst and dozens of other Pakistani and international online news portals, picked it up.
Ms. Palmer’s story was based on a statement issued by the Inspector General of Border Security Force Himmat Singh. The story basically said that the Indian military was concerned about the rising incidents of suicides among Indian soldiers deployed in Indian-occupied Kashmir, a territory where Kashmiris are fighting India for the right to determine whether they want to be independent or join Pakistan.
A high level Indian military delegation went to Moscow to study the Russian experience in dealing with such problems.  Like India, the former Soviet Union military was spread thin across a large territory, including distant and difficult regions.
Mr. Singh confirmed that a batch of 178 female soldiers was being sent to Northern Command where they would be deployed along with Indo-Pak border to check the border violations by women, working in the field.  Mr. Singh further stated that these women were not fully trained for operational military duties however in the next phase, after further training, they would be given the duties of operational Border security.  Mr. Singh refused to admit that these female soldiers were actually prostitutes and were being dispatched to the valley as undercover sex workers.  When contacted, Rohit Sharma, a senior defence analyst here in New Delhi, said that the move was a creative step by Indian army leadership as it would boost the medical and mental health of the soldiers. Some departments of the Indian government were permitted to contact licensed brothels in several Indian cities to explore the possibility of recruiting candidates.
But the Indian reaction to this story was unexpected.
According to an Indian newspaper, the Mid-Day, an official of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs retorted by saying what he or she thought is a hit below the belt for Pakistan: “We do not have a Talibanised society like Pakistan’s.  In India, women have very successful military careers.”
Never mind that Pakistan has a large women’s police force deployed in all the major cities of the country, in addition to active duty women officers in the Army and the Pakistan Air Force.
The Indian news portal Mid-Day.com confirmed that “India has decided to lodge an official complaint against the ‘wrongful news reports” and that “the order to lodge a complaint has come directly from the office of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram.”
The Indian portal quoted an unnamed Indian diplomat as saying, “Such news can tarnish the image of our forces. So far, it was a conscious decision by the government not to deploy women troops on the border. But we want total success of this experiment and we need to tell the Pakistanis to behave.”
Several foreign reporters based in the Indian capital reported receiving calls from Indian government and intelligence officers asking where to find Christina Palmer.
Ms. Palmer, who will be appearing on Geo Network’s weekly show TSS with Ahmed Quraishi soon, is a foreign journalist who lives with her Indian husband. According to Indian laws, you have to be a Pakistani citizen legally residing in India or an Indian journalist to work as a correspondent for a Pakistani newspaper.  Non-Indian journalists cannot represent Pakistani media in India.  For this reason, Ms. Palmer writes under an assumed name. But to prove that she is real, Ms. Palmer is appearing through telephone from New Delhi on a Pakistani television talk show.
In her report, Ms. Palmer wrote on Oct. 6: “In a unique and unprecedented move, India’s Minister for Home Affairs Mr. P. Chidambaram has threatened the Islamabad-based Pakistani newspaper The Daily Mail over one of the investigative reports by the Daily regarding first female troops of Indian Army that have been deployed in the Held Kashmir. According to the reports appearing here in local Indian media as well as international media, the Home Affairs Minister has ordered his officials to lodge an official complaint with Pakistan’s High Commission in New Delhi to sort out The Daily Mail.” 


The paper’s Editor-in-Chief Makhdoom Babar defended his newspaper’s credibility in a special editorial: “Mr. Chidambaram’s action has shocked the entire global media community as it is the first move of its kind in which a top minister of a country has threatened an independent newspaper of another country of lodging a complaint against it and seeking strong action, there this move of India’s MHA has exposed the true face of so-called secular India and the belief of Indian leadership in freedom of press and freedom of expression. In the 62 years of the history of Pak-India relations, The Daily Mail is the first ever victim of this kind of aggression from the Indian government”.


http://dailymailnews.com/1001/13/Editorial_Column/DMColumn.php

Myanmar top leader meets Indian army chief in Nay Pyi Taw

YANGON, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Chairman of Myanmar State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) Senior-General Than Shwe met with visiting Indian Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor in Nay Pyi Taw Monday, the state-run Myanmar Radio and Television reported in the evening.

    Earlier on the day, another meeting between Kapoor and SPDC Vice-Chairman Vice Senior-General Maung Aye had also taken place.

    Maung Aye is also Myanmar Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Defense Services and Commander-in-Chief of the Army.

    The report did not disclose the details about their separate meetings.

    Kapoor, who is also chairman of the chiefs of staff committee of India, arrived at the new capital on Sunday on a three-day visit to Myanmar, aimed at boosting bilateral cooperation in the defense sector.

    Kapoor's visit came eight months after Indian Vice-President Shri M. Hamid Ansari visited Nay Pyi Taw in February this year at the invitation of Maung Aye.

    In April 2008, Maung Aye visited New Delhi, assuring Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh that Myanmar will never allow using its territory to any organization that harm neighboring countries, while acknowledging that India does not allow its territory to movement of organizations against Myanmar.

    During Maung Aye's visit, three documents between the two governments were signed, of which a memorandum of understanding on intelligence exchange is to combat transnational crime including terrorism. 

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-10/12/content_12218957.htm

Biggest war drill with US begins

New Delhi, Oct. 12: The Indian and US armies today began their largest war games at Babina, near Jhansi in Madhya Pradesh, that are tailored to drills under peace enforcement missions under the UN charter.

Exercise Yudh Abhyas (war preparation) 09 will continue for more than two weeks till October 29.

The US has shipped 17 Strykers, its most modern fighting vehicles that lead in most ground operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, to India for the war games. This is the largest deployment of the Strykers outside Iraq and Afghanistan.

A mechanised infantry battalion of the Indian Army and the second squadron of the 14th cavalry of 25 Stryker Brigade Combat Team (about 325 soldiers) lined up and began preparing for the drills that will have a “semi-urban” setting, army sources said. The drill will focus on counter insurgency and counter terrorist operations.

Officers will work on mutually agreeable military co-ordination, rules of engagement and military decision-making processes.

The rules of engagement will cover “stability operations” (like the Nato’s International Security Assistance Force’s mission in Afghanistan) that will require soldiers to train in counter-mine and IED (improvised explosive devices) lessons.

Drills will also cover civil-military operations, road opening and convoy protection measures and community support and humanitarian initiatives.

Yudh Abhyas 09 that involves the Stryker Brigade Combat Team and the Indian Army’s mechanised infantry in a hostile setting shows that the level of co-ordination between the two militaries is being scaled up.

The war games also coincide with the latest edition of Cope India, an Indo-US air and special forces exercise that will be centred in Agra.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091013/jsp/nation/story_11608660.jsp

RAILWAYS IN NDC COURSE

Two Railway officers B P Awasthy and Adesh Kumar are joining the NDC Course.

tug of war

There is a tug of war between the Army Chief and the Ministry of Defence over the appointment of Lt Generals. Reason is delay in the appointment of 17 Lt Generals.

Antony to seal Gorshkov deal during Russia visit

New Delhi, October 11

Playing its military-diplomacy cards correctly, India has yet again showed that it was “comfortable” with both, the USA and Russia. The Defence Minister AK Antony leaves for Russia on October 13 to ink the pending deal for the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov and also finalise the extension of the existing military cooperation agreement between the two countries.

On the other hand, Indian Army and the Indian Air Force will stage separate exercises with their US counterparts within this month. The exercise between Indian Army and the US Army starts on October 12 and is the biggest ever between the two countries. It will have participation of armoured elements of both sides. The IAF exercise will be to fine-tune the carrying capacities of the transport planes.

Meanwhile, sources in the defence ministry said, “Both countries will seal the deal for Admiral Gorshkov during Antony’s visit to Russia.” Apart from signing the deal, the two countries will discuss projects like development of fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA), T-90 tanks and issues relating to supersonic BrahMos missiles.

Crucially, Antony will also lay the foundation for extending the existing inter-governmental commission beyond 2010. The deal for extension will be formally signed by the Prime Minister’s of the two countries when Manmohan Singh visits Russia at the end of this year. However, Antony and his Russian counterpart AE Serdyukov will tie up the looses ends.

India and Russia had concluded an agreement in December 1988, which envisaged a programme for defence cooperation between the two countries up to the year 2010.

Modernisation of the Sukhoi-30 MK1 aircraft is also expected to come up for discussion. The aircraft, contracted in 1996, are due for overhaul shortly.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2009/20091012/nation.htm#11

Baloch story a lie, says PM

Mumbai, October 11
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today categorically rejected as “false” Pakistan’s charges blaming India for terrorism in Balochistan and emphatically said the country is not in the business of “spreading” terror.
Singh on the other hand sent a strong message to that country saying, “Pakistan should realise the great harm that patronisation of terrorist groups has done to South Asia.”
Replying to a pointed question on Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s allegation that India was arming militants in Balochistan, Singh said, “This is entirely wrong.”
“We are not in the business of spreading terror in Pakistan or in any other country. We are not in that business. And the Government of Pakistan and the people will jolly well know that their accusations are false accusations,” Singh told a press conference here.
On the situation in the neighbourhood, the PM said, “We have to make adequate preparations to deal with the consequences of this overflow of terrorism from the neighbourhood to our country. We are taking all necessary steps in that direction but it is still my belief that particularly Pakistan and the people and Government of Pakistan should realise the great harm and (their) patronisation of terror groups have done to the South Asian region,” he said.
“We need a neighbourhood of peace, friendliness and I will be the last one to say that, I think, if these conditions prevail (like) today in our neighbourhood in Pakistan and in Afghanistan the situation is not what it should be.” He was replying to a query about the recent blast outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul and the terror attack at the Pakistan army headquarters in Rawalpindi.
On domestic issues, Singh refused to bracket Naxals with terrorists and ruled out use of armed forces against them. — PTI & Tribune