Prime Ministers visit to Russia

[Yusuf]

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today arrived here on a three-day visit to Russia during which he will work on further expanding bilateral cooperation and consolidating coordination on regional and global issues.

http://toi.in/nnxkXZ

 

[nrj]

Routing Iran oil payments on PM's Moscow agenda
​

NEW DELHI: With Turkey refusing to be intermediary for Indian oil payments to Iran, New Delhi is expected to start talks with Moscow about routing payments through Russian banks.

Energy and defence is high on the agenda as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh makes his annual summit visit at a time when Russian president Dmitry Medvedev is preparing to hand back power to Vladimir Putin early next year. Singh's visit also coincides with Russia formally joining the WTO.

Reports said Turkish bank Halkbank had refused to open an account for Indian oil company BPCL to pay for Iranian oil. The move comes after the US and the EU prepare to slap new sanctions against Iran's oil sector and seeks to penalize countries who deal with Iran's central bank. While Turkish government sources clarified that Turkey did not act on unilateral sanctions by countries, banks and other entities were free to take independent decisions.

Russia, which is one of the two Iran's strongest supporters, may be approached by India to pitch in as an intermediary. This is expected to feature in the talks in Moscow. Briefing journalists before the visit, foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai said Iran was crucial to India's energy security. "The importance we attach to our energy security, the fact that a very large amount of India's oil imports do emanate from Iran and in fact that in the current energy market it is not easy to consider that India can sort of manage without Iranian oil. Iranian oil is very important to India. So, I think that continues to be a very important issue for us. That is why we had sought the mechanisms for payments so that we continue our trade with Iran."

Before his departure, the PM said, in a statement, "I look forward to an in-depth exchange of views with the Russian leadership on the crisis facing the global economy and the political developments in our extended neighbourhood, including West Asia, the Gulf and Afghanistan and the impact of all this on peace and stability in the world."

Calling it a "special and privileged" partnership, the PM told a group of Russian journalists that there is an effort to inject new ideas into an old relationship, like "such as exploring the possibility of creating a joint investment fund, studying a possible Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement with the broader Eurasian region, encouraging greater connectivity through the North South Transport Corridor, and linking Indian States with Russian regions."

Russia is refusing to bring Kudankulam 3 and 4 reactors under a new agreement that will be governed by the Indian nuclear liability law. Until now, Russia had maintained the primacy of the inter-governmental agreement nuclear negotiations with India. Mathai gently refuted that by describing the agreement as a "broad roadmap". Refusing to acknowledge the differences with Russia, the FS, however, said, "(Kudankulam) 1 and 2 came up in a particular timeframe. Now there is an existing law. So, the expert committees will look at it and then come to a conclusion."

Routing Iran oil payments on PM’s Moscow agenda - The Times of India

 

[pmaitra]

Interesting comparison from RIA Novosti:

It is important to note that Russians, on an average, earn 7 times more than Indians.

 

[pmaitra]

Russia's Machinery & Industrial Group opens assembly plant in India

Russia's Machinery & Industrial Group opens assembly plant in India

Chetra tractors



11:37 18/02/2011


The Machinery & Industrial Group, a large Russian manufacturer of light and heavy engineering and off-road machinery, plans to set up an assembly plant for Chetra tractors in India, the company's press service announced Friday.

The company has been supplying its machinery to India since 1999. In 2008, it opened a subsidiary in India, the CHETRA Machinery India Pvt. Ltd., to meet the growing demand for Russian machines. Currently, the company offers bulldozers, pipe-layers, wheeled loaders, hydraulic shovels and special machines for pipeline maintenance in India.

The new assembly plant will strengthen the position of Russian companies in India and beyond, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Australia and South Korea, according to Vladimir Lepin, the company's deputy general director for corporate finance and economy. There is serious interest in Chetra machines in these markets.

"By 2015, the plant will produce 200 machines a year. Meanwhile, Russian specialists will be training the engineering personnel responsible for manufacturing and maintaining the machines," Mr. Lepin said.

The company showcased its best bulldozers and pipelayers at the Bauma CONEXPO Show in Mumbai in early February, the company's press service said.

The Machinery & Industrial Group is one of the leading machine engineering holdings in Russia and in the world in terms of innovation, production and financial strength. The holding manages over 20 major facilities in ten Russian regions as well as in Denmark, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Serbia and Ukraine.
MOSCOW, February 18 (RIA Novosti)


Source: Russia's Machinery & Industrial Group opens assembly plant in India | Business | RIA Novosti​

 

[johnee]

It is important to note that Russians, on an average, earn 7 times more than Indians.

Why is that important? And what is its importance? I am assuming that the importance is supposed to be in Indo-Russian relationship.

 

[pmaitra]

Why is that important? And what is its importance? I am assuming that the importance is supposed to be in Indo-Russian relationship.

It is important because they earn 7 times we do. India needs to catch up with the more developed countries. If we don't give importance to such statistics, we will not have the drive to improve.

 

[nrj]

Russia welcomes India's SCO membership bid | Russia | RIA Novosti

India's accession would "significantly increase the [organization's] political weight and introduce a new quality and dimension to cooperation within the SCO," it said.​

 

[nrj]

Russia, India to cooperate in production of satellite navigation equipment | Russia | RIA Novosti

 

[nrj]

PM to raise Su-30 MKI engine failure with Russia

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to red-flag serviceability, product support and pending upgrade of India's frontline Su-30 MKI multi-role fighter with President Dmitry Medvedev at the annual summit meeting on Friday in Russia.

Top government sources said that Air Headquarters has urgently requested the Prime Minister to raise the issue of engine serviceability with his Russian counterpart after few incidents of engine failures have occurred in the long range twin-engine fighter. The Su-30 MKI is powered AL-31 FP engine, whose variant also powers the Chinese Su-30 MKK fighter.

While the Indian Air Force is tight-lipped about the issue and would like to play it down, the top brass has conveyed to government that "shaft bearing failures" have occurred in some engines. "In peacetime, the fighter can land on the other engine but this can be a life and death situation in adverse conditions, said a senior official.
Sources said that IAF had conveyed to the Russian manufacturer of Su-30 MKI that it needed to make design changes to prevent any future engine failures. However, the manufacturer raised objections to the lubricants used by the IAF in the Su-30 MKI engine. But after it was proved that the engine was still failing despite the use of oil recommended by the manufacturer, the IAF decide to escalate the matter to the government level. Since it was inducted in 1997, Su-30 MKI has performed well with IAF despite three crashes, none of which have been attributed to engine failures.

The other issue of concern is the pending upgrade for Su-30MKI fighters, which have now been in IAF service for over eight years. While the Air Headquarters wants the manufacturer to upgrade avionics and weapon platforms, the matter is stuck not on technical but on the commercial aspects as the original manufacturer is bargaining hard for better price.

PM to�raise Su-30 MKI engine failure with Russia - Hindustan Times

 

[trackwhack]

The Hindu : News / International : India, Russia to go ahead with Kudankulam Units 3, 4

Russia will always be treated differently regarding nuclear liability. Koondakulam 1 and 2 deals were signed long before the US - India nuclear deal. Hence the nuclear liability bill does not cover these reactors. Now it will not apply to plants 3 and 4 either. The news also mentions more plants at the same site. I hope for at least 8 in total and a 20 KM radius evacuation zone with the population resettled.

Russia has rightfully earned the exclusion from the liability bill due to the fact that they helped with scaling our nuclear generation capacity. This is also an indirect message to the West. Remember, there was no compromise on liability terms for American or French reactors.

In my view, I think the broad position India is stating is that we dont need western nuclear reactors to scale up. All we need is fuel. We are capable of scaling up if we have fuel. And with the recent deals of long term fuel supply from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Nigeria we should be ok with fuel supply in the short to medium term. I doubt if we will need Australian uranium if we move into scaling our breeder reactors as planned.

All the best BARC and NPCIL.