Narayanan, who was chief of IB then, said PM Rajiv Gandhi asked him to prepare the brief at Gorbachev’s request. But Soviet leader didn’t even ‘glance’ at it later.
Hailed in the West as a liberator of his people, he increasingly became despised within Russia for destroying the Soviet Union and dismantling a great power.
Gorbachev's outreach to countries like India, efforts to thaw relations with the US & pulling troops out of Afghanistan marked a shift in Soviet foreign and military policy.
Russia is calling for a fresh approach to Europe’s security architecture upon which it believes to hold significant leverage and influence similar to the US.
It is unlikely that billionaire Jack, who was last seen publicly in late October 2020, would go into self-hiding. And even if he is ‘lying low’, it is only to dodge the Xi Jinping administration.
Stigma could, in time, turn domestic opinion in China, sway public attitudes in Russia, India & elsewhere, or even bring the U.S. back to the arms-control negotiating table.
For an industry globally classified as hazardous, protections such as health insurance and a provident fund for workers are necessities. In Sivakasi, they remain elusive.
The industry forecasts exports are set to grow 16% in 2025-26, boosted by surplus domestic production and a drive to push into 26 underserved global markets with strong potential.
Indigenisation level will progressively increase up to 60 percent with key sub-assemblies, electronics and mechanical parts being manufactured locally.
It is a brilliant, reasonably priced, and mostly homemade aircraft with a stellar safety record; only two crashes in 24 years since its first flight. But its crash is a moment of introspection.
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