While Defence Minister A K Antony has remained steadfast on the stand that there should no dilution of the current restriction of 26 per cent on FDI in the defence industry,voices of dissent from within the ministry and the armed forces occasionally come to surface. While earlier then serving DRDO chief V K Saraswat had spoken in favour of increasing the limit,a top air force officer has now joined the chorus. Air Marshal P P Reddy,Director General,Flight Safety on Wednesday made a public statement that the 26 per cent limit does not make investing in the Indian defence sector attractive for the foreign industry,saying that we need to ponder over it. Meeting ground Parliamentary panel meetings are usually volatile affairs with members from opposition parties making their points with vigour. However,members at Wednesdays consultative committee on defence agreed on one point. At the meeting to review DRDO projects,a suggestion was made that members should be taken to a lab to figure out the ground situation. An on-the-spot decision was taken by Defence Minister A K Antony,who passed directions that a visit needs to be arranged at the earliest. In the past,members of the consultative committee have demanded,and got,a similar visit to a Hindustan Aeronautics Limited facility. Better halves Wives of the chiefs of border guarding forces of India and Bangladesh are said to have developed a good rapport. Thanks to the camaraderie between Sudha Joshi,wife of BSF Director General Subhash Joshi,and Dilshad Nahar Aziz,wife of BGB chief Major Gen Aziz Ahmed,a stall selling Bangladeshi handicraft,clothing and leather goods will be put up at the annual fair of the BSF later this week. Exclusive stalls will be put up by the wives welfare association of both the countries for three days from November 8 in front of the CGOs complex here. Sudha Joshi,who heads the wives welfare association,had recently accompanied a a BSF delegation to Dhaka. Australia calling Indian Information Service officers will now get to train in Australia on the use of modern technology and social media to disseminate information about government policies. This is one of the areas underlined in an international cooperation agreement between the Indian Institute of Mass Communication and Queensland University of Technology signed on Monday. This is the first agreement signed by IIMC for international collaboration and partnership with a foreign university. Training of information service officials in new media is a project said to be very close to I&B Minister Manish Tewaris heart. Stalled study While the government looks set to announce reservation for the Jat community in the OBC category in central government jobs,a study-cum-survey it had commissioned regarding this has made no headway. The National Commission for Backward Classes had last year asked ICSSR to conduct a comprehensive survey on the educational and social status of Jats across six states. However,it is learnt that state governments have not shared necessary data with ICSSR. In the absence of any data,the study is nowhere near completion.
