India’s economic progress in the recent days has made some people to blindly believe that anything private would be always better. They keep on talking to any extend without even understanding the base concepts of current economic era.

1. Strong policy of the government is the key to any sustained development
2. A strong leadership with a vision at the helm is extremely important to steer a private/public sector company or research wing to greater heights.
3. In a globalized world where difference between profit and loss can sometimes be the time you gain on your rival in launching a product, no company goes on to develop technology from scratch. They either buy it through acquisitions or collaborating with research houses and universities.

The same person, if put in a private and government office, behaves in two different ways then there is a problem in the way the office is operated. It is not like all bad goes to government and the brightest goes to the private.

When we go bulldozing and figuring out who is the culprit (DRDO, ADA, HAL, IA, AN and IAF) for the reason of India’s lagged defense indigenization, could someone here look at the amount of research conducted at the universities in India. Or again you want to say it is the responsibility of the above mentioned institutions to get them trained to the required level. And to what level would the private industry take this responsibility (I am not taliking about Java, C# but defense technologies) or would they just pouch for the best brains from the government institutions.

And don’t glorify the private sector blindly in the days of Lehman and Satyam. Well the nationalized Indian banks and LIC with all the built in government inefficiency still coming out the best, I wonder about all this government is BAD. So it is like saying when there is opportunity it must be given in golden plate to the private while in the days of recession they must be served with rescue funds but still in golden plates.

The above is correct. The agreement mandates prior information to be given to the other country only for ballistic missile tests.

So, just as India does not have to inform Pakistan before testing it’s Akash and Brahmos missiles, Pakistan won’t have to inform about it’s Babur tests.

I wonder what about the 3 PAD/AAD tests that India has conducted so far. PAD/AAD are not ballistic missiles, but the target missile is a ballistic missile. So, maybe Pak is informed only about the target, and not about the interceptors.

I wonder about Shourya too, not too sure about the depressed trajectory term

Though corruption is very much possible in these defense deals, the ruling party already had a good experience with the Bofors fiasco which hounded it for over a decade. Its only recently that they got it silenced. And same is the reason why they got a Mr. Clean as the current defense minister.

One thing for sure is that the political returns would be a major criteria for the selection. The civil nuclear trade also need to be taken into account.

But what would be the political returns India seek, that would help us to find the possible winner

Here is how I see this.

The biggest trophy that India need to win is the permanent membership in the UN security council.

A strategic space in Afghan and getting rid of terrorism from the neighboring regions is the other important goal.

Any other?

The civilian nuclear trade with US, Russia and France is the one reason I feel that the MMRCA would be for the Typhoon.

I think we are getting ahead of ourselves. According to that map Paul, we are talking about totally different issues. It doesn’t cover the Falkland Islands.

Good Lord, I am learning geography again. Never thought the Europe would raise a claim for Antartica

Though I have not researched on this topic well and is jumping into a conclusion, I believe Falkland may have everythig to do with what Paul has shown and the Exclusive economic zones and the claim for Antartica based on continental shelf/reef.

Check out this world map too, it seems to show the continental connects too http://www.printableworldmap.org/printable-world-map-political-wiki.jpg

Thanks for the expansion ….:)

There is a general feeling in India, mostly promoted by “indians” thats Russians are dumb and that every system that India buys from Russia has to be “sanitised” so as to get the dumb Russian system working.

I am not sure whether you are trying judge a billion people by the attitude of a few guys you might have come across. And since I am not sure what they said so I can’t comment that they are wrong or right. But I come from one of the villages in India where people talks about Russia and its military support to India with awe. But unfortunately you will not meet them any time soon in this forum. Even now you can see examples on this forum on MMRCA (Search the web for more on all other topics). They say Russia’s after sale support is bad (even I would say the same), but do they all trust Amrica/west to the same degree as they trust Russia? Hell NO !!

In peace India needs the west but in a war India definitely needs Russia, the only one country which would stand with it without thinking twice.

Also, “indians” lack the basic Indian value of acknowledging others achievements

I say that every time to my managers when the performance apprisal occurs at my work place:D

If u r not an “indian”, u’ll definetely understand what I said above.

You are wrong. I am, but I do understand you.

Rather than worry about RCS claims, just look at how the F-22’s RCS reduction has worked against F-15, F-16, and F-18 Super Hornets (coming in low/high, multiple angles, fast/slow, etc….), even to the point that pilots could visually see the Raptor without getting weapons locks. That result is better than any marketing claim.

But well we are talking about two 5th generation fighters trying to knock out each other. And so adding the question below,

what about two raptors meeting each other? would they lock each other?

May be its just my mind going beyond imagination that any structural lack in stealth of PAKFA will be compensated by plasma stealth.

For a start – Russians were playing with “intelligence” in their missiles decades before West came up with the now widely used fancy term “Artificial intelligence”….

Whats all the rant about…hmm what about the Bulava missile.

I have all respect for the Russian hardware which are always bang for the buck and am sure they would not need any of the assistance of mine niether you to prove that they are very intelligent people.

But that alone need not mean that they can’t go wrong or sometimes others can’t get it better.