MNS:- The twelfth meeting of the India-Russia Inter-governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation was held in New Delhi today. The Indian delegation was led by the Defence Minister Shri AK Antony and the Russian delegation was led by Shri AE Serdyukov, Defence Minister of the Russian Federation.
During the meeting of the Commission, which was conducted in a spirit of mutual cooperation and understanding, the two sides expressed readiness to take all necessary measures to further expand the cooperation on a mutually beneficial basis.
The Commission endorsed the Protocols of the meetings of the Working Group on Shipbuilding, Aviation and Land Systems, (WG SALS) and the Working Group on Military Technical Cooperation (WG-MTC) which were held in New Delhi on 27-28 August, 2012 and 30-31 August, 2012 respectively. The Commission appreciated the work done by the Co-Chairmen and Members of both the Working Groups and noted with approval the significant progress made in promoting bilateral military technical cooperation between the two countries.
The Commission noted that during the period under review, the two countries have taken various steps to deepen interaction in the development of defence technologies, modernization of military equipment and joint manufacture of military-purpose products. The two sides confirmed that such cooperation involves the strengthening of interactions between the Armed Forces, defense industry enterprises and research agencies of the two countries.
The Commission reviewed and discussed the status of some of the major issues in Military Technical Cooperation. Earlier, immediately after his arrival this morning, Mr. AE Serdyukov visited Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate and laid a wreath in the war memorial. Later he was accorded a tri-services Guard of Honour at the Lawns of South Block. Shri Antonyalso hosted a lunch in honour of the visiting Russian Defence Minister and his delegation.
N Ao/DM/NN Cable TV Digitization in Delhi crosses 66% Ministry of Information & Broadcasting monitoring progress of digitization
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has been monitoring the progress made towards digitization with all stakeholders regularly. As per the data made available to the Ministry by the Multi System operators, the level of Cable TV digitization in Delhi has increased to 66%.. As per the Census data 2011 released by the Office of Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India, the Total Households in Delhi are 33.41 Lakh with 88% TV penetration which implies that Delhi has 29.39 Lakh TV households. It has been reported by the 6 private DTH operators that 9.45 Lakh households have got DTH connections in Delhi as on 9th October 2012. This implies that 19.94 Lakh households have Cable TV connections. Adding a provision of 20% to account for multiple TV homes and TV sets in offices etc., it is implied that about 23.93 Lakhs subscribers require set top boxes. As per the data made available by the Multi System Operators, 15.88 Lakh Set Top Boxes have already been installed in Delhi.
There have been reports in certain sections of the Press questioning the reliability of data given by the Ministry. During the initial stage of planning, the data was collated by the Ministry based on the information supplied by the MSOs. On perusal of the data, it was observed that there were grave discrepancies in data, particularly number of Cable TV subscribers in four metro cities furnished by the MSOs as it did not present the true picture largely due to duplication of cable connections. Industry stakeholders also felt that the data projected by MSOs are on higher side. Moreover, the data did not reflect the numbers vis-à-vis service and entertainment tax collection. In view of the given discrepancy, the Ministry has under taken the exercise to base the data Census of India 2011, released by Office of Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. This data has authentic figures relating to households and TV penetration in four metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. Census data has been widely used both Government and non Government agencies for planning and policy purposes as data collection is done by house to house survey by an impartial body. Data in respect of the number of DTH subscribers in four metros are also being collected by the Ministry on a regular basis from six private DTH operators to know their reach in the four metro cities.
Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/india-and-russia-agree-to-take-forward-their-defence-co-operation/
