Sinking ship causes oil slick near Mumbai coast

A leaking tank from a sunken ship has caused an oil slick off India's western coast, according to a defence ministry statement.

The leak occurred in the merchant ship MV Rak which sank near the Mumbai coast last Thursday, the statement said.

Coast guard ships have been deployed to clean up the eight mile-long slick, reports said.

The vessel was carrying a cargo of coal and was travelling from Indonesia to the western Indian state of Gujarat.

Indian navy and coast guard helicopters rescued the 30 crew members before the ship sank.

The MV Rak sank about 23 miles from the Mumbai coast last Thursday.

"Since Saturday night, oil has been observed leaking from the sunken vessel at an approximate rate of 1.5 to 2 tonnes per hour. The oil has spread to about seven nautical miles [eight miles] around the vessel," the defence ministry release said.

The vessel reportedly contained some 340 tonnes of fuel.Officials have described it as a "minor spill".In January, a leaking oil and gas pipeline caused a mile-long slick off the Mumbai coast.The leak was plugged after two hours and about 25,000 barrels of oil was lost.

Last August, a tanker collided with a ship off Mumbai, spilling about 500 tonnes of oil into the Arabian Sea.

Vice Chief of Indian Army to Address Soldier Modernisation

As the Indian Armed Forces embark upon one of the most sweeping, multi-billion dollar infantry modernisation programmes in the world, the Vice Chief of the Indian Army, Lieutenant General A.S. Lamba, will be briefing delegates at Defence IQ's Soldier Modernisation India conference in October on the strategy for future infantry development, and where investment will be prioritised.

Faced with the increasing threats of urban insurgency and sophisticated acts of terrorism, the Indian Armed Forces are currently carrying out the most thorough soldier modernisation programme the country has ever seen. Begun in 2008, the Futuristic Infantry Soldier as a System (F-INSAS) programme aims to improve the lethality and sustainability of Indian infantrymen over the next ten years by investing billions of US dollars into creating a fully integrated soldier, equipped with the highest level of digitised technology for increased situational awareness and real-time updates, as well as lightweight protective clothing and equipment to minimise injury whilst maintaining mobility.

Speaking on day one of the conference, Lieutenant General Lamba will be joined on the expert speaker panel by other key decision makers from the Indian Armed Forces involved in the F-INSAS programme including:

• Lieutenant General J.P. Singh, Deputy Chief of Army Staff, Indian Army
• Lieutenant General Nerender Singh, Director General Infantry, Indian Army
• Lieutenant General N.P. Singh, Director General Information Systems, Indian Army

In addition to specific plans for soldier modernisation and the future technology that will be introduced into the Indian Army, these senior officers will be briefing delegates on current capability gaps, opportunities for tenders and the Indian Armed Forces' procurement process for new technology and equipment.

Coast Guard says m.v. Pavit incident is not a security lapse

When the Coast Guard received an alert about m.v. Pavit on June 29 after a distress call was sent from the vessel, it had calculated that the adrift vessel would take approximately 30-35 days to reach the south Gujarat coast. When the police called them two days later to tell them about the ship, the first question authorities asked was, “Is it MT Pavit?”

“We had calculated the distance and the speed of the ship the day we received the alert. But then we received information that the ship had sunk. So we removed the alert,” highly placed Coast Guard sources told The Hindu on Tuesday.The unmanned, adrift vessel was found grounded near the shore of Mumbai's Juhu-Versova beach early on June 31.

“When the police called us to tell about a ship which has run aground, the first thing we asked was, ‘Is it m.v. Pavit?' But we were not expecting it because we had records of the ship as a known case of sinking,” an official said on condition of anonymity.

Officials denied that the incident exposed lapses in the coastal security. “It is not possible for any country to monitor its coastline for 24 hours for all 365 days. Also, no other passing ship reported that a ship was moving without its light on. If we had received an alert that the ship had not yet sunk, we would have actively looked for it,” a senior official said.

Asked about the possibility of a rogue ship trying to do it on purpose, when there will be no alert to any agency, senior officials said: “In case of any intelligence input, we can assure you that all the three agencies will put up such a strong surveillance that it won't be possible for anyone to penetrate.”

Apart from physical surveillance, the Coast Guard is also putting in place Coastal Radar Stations on the coastline of the country. “The trial is going on in Gujarat. Some radars have been installed there,” a Coast Guard official of the West Zone told The Hindu.

“These Coastal Radar Stations can detect ships 24-30 nautical miles away,” a senior official said. But this will be implemented phase-wise after 2011.

Russia delivers 11 MiG jets to India: official

Russia has dispatched 11 MiG fighter jets to India to equip the aircraft carrier it will deliver next year, head of the MiG corporation Sergei Korotkov said on Wednesday.

"We have already delivered 11. Five more will be delivered by the end of the year," he told reporters as quoted by the Interfax news agency.

Russia signed a contract in 2004 to supply 16 MiG-29K/KUB jets as part of its agreement to modernise the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov for the Indian Navy.

The refurbishment contract was initially valued at 974 million dollars and stipulated the delivery of the carrier in 2008.

But the price of modernising the ship, which will have the name Vikramaditya (All-Powerful) in the Indian Navy, later grew to $1.5 billion while deadlines extended by several years.

In March 2010, the countries inked an additional $1.5 billion deal for 29 more MiG fighter jets.

Russia has started work on the order, and the first jet was presented to an Indian representative in the assembly workshop, Korotkov said Wednesday.

Delivery of the second batch of jets as well as the carrier will start in 2012, according to the contract.

Russia has been a longtime military supplier to India and still provides about 70 percent of its military equipment, although India has looked to other countries like Israel and the United States as potential suppliers.

3 killed in Indian Air Force plane crash

LUCKNOW: A Jaguar fighter plane of Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed 50 miles south-east of Gorakhpur in Mau district of Uttar Pradesh on Thursday morning. At least three persons including the pilot died in the accident.

The plane crashed at Ferozpur Dhilai village under Madhubani block of Mau district. According to police, the pilot of the plane and two others including a woman working in the field died. Senior officers have rushed to the spot.

The plane had taken off from an air base in Gorakhpur district.

According to police, the plane has been identified as Jaguar. Soon after the accident, an IAF helicopter arrived and lifted the body of the pilot.