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Nilgiri

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Zapper

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His profile definitely looks impressive

Education:

  • Pre degree course ==> Govt Arts College, Trivandrum
  • 61st course National Defence Academy (NDA)
  • Naval Staff Course ==> US Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island
  • Bachelor's degree ==> Jawaharlal Nehru University
  • Master's degree. ==> King's College, London, UK
  • MPhil ==> University of Mumbai (Defence & Strategic Studies)
  • PG Diploma ==> Narottam Morarjee Institute of Shipping, Mumbai (Shipping Management)
  • Army Higher Command Course ==> both at Army War College, Mhow & Royal College of Defence Studies, UK
Some of his awards/medals

 

Nilgiri

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Indian Navy launches its new large survey vessel 'Sandhayak' in Kolkata​

The Indian Navy launched its new large survey vessel 'Sandhayak' in Kolkata on Sunday.


Abhishek Bhalla Manjeet Negi New DelhiDecember 5, 2021UPDATED: December 5, 2021 23:24 IST


The Indian Navy launched 'Sandhayak', the first of the four large survey vessels, in Kolkata on Sunday.



The ship was launched by Pushpa Bhatt, spouse of Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt, who was the Chief Guest at the event.

The primary role of these survey ships would be to conduct full-scale coastal and deep-water hydrographic survey of ports and harbours, and determination of navigational channels and routes.

READ: INS Vela, fourth Scorpene-class submarine, commissioned into Indian Navy

"The ships would also be deployed for collecting oceanographic and geophysical data for defence as well as civil applications. In their secondary role, these ships would be capable of performing roles such as Search and Rescue and Disaster Relief, besides serving as hospital ships with limited facilities during emergencies. The ships will have a retractable hangar for stowage of a utility helicopter," a statement from the Navy said.

These survey vessels will have over 80 per cent indigenous content.

According to the Navy, the ships will replace the existing Sandhayak-class survey ships and are equipped with new generation hydrographic equipment to collect oceanographic and geophysical data.

The ships are 110 metres long, 16 metres wide with a deep displacement of 3,300 tons and a complement of 235 personnel. The ship's propulsion system consists of two main engines in twin shaft configuration and is designed for a cruise speed of 14 knots and maximum speed of 18 knots.

The Navy also tweeted pictures and videos of the launch of Sandhayak ship.

The ship has taken its name from the first ship of the erstwhile Sandhayak-class survey ships. The erstwhile Sandhayak, incidentally, was also launched in Kolkata 44 years ago, on April 6, 1977.

The contract for building four survey ships was signed between the Defence Ministry and Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) on October 30, 2018, at a total cost of Rs 2,435 crore.

As per a build strategy adopted by GRSE, the first ship is being built at GRSE Ltd and construction of the balance of three ships is envisaged at L&T Shipbuilding in Kattupalli.

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Nutuk

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'Sandhayak' as Sancak?

I wonder if linguistically it has the same meaning

Nilgiri, what is the meaning of Sandhayak?
 

Gessler

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Official graphic of the class, 110-meter 3,300-ton:

GRSE-class survey vessel 3300 ton.jpg


FF2Xav8VEAAslia.jpg


The original INS Sandhayak: 88-meter, 1,930-ton class (this hull was decommissioned in June '21) -

2191737.jpg
 

Paro

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So 10 in Arakkonam base and 8 in Goa.

Are they thinking to base anything in Andamans? The original requirements was 24 I guess.
There are at least 3 in Andamans. if you visited Andaman you'll see them at the airport.

Also, They have activated another airfield down south closer to Indra point. Don't remember the station name. There was a piece of news while back saying P8s would also be stationed there.
 

Rajendra Chola

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There are at least 3 in Andamans. if you visited Andaman you'll see them at the airport.

Also, They have activated another airfield down south closer to Indra point. Don't remember the station name. There was a piece of news while back saying P8s would also be stationed there.

They don't have a permanent base. They fly over for a few weeks. Hopefully infra is build for P8I in that base too.
 

Nilgiri

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Till there is sea-change of attitude literally, India defence production be it naval or otherwise will continue to suffer
Far better capacity + management is being criminally thrown to wayside.


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NEW DELHI — The Indian Navy is unlikely to meet its goal of having a 175-ship fleet in the next five years due to a lack of funds and the government’s preference to award contracts to state-owned shipyards over private businesses, service officials have told Defense News.

The goal, set in December 2019, was already lowered from 200 ships after the government allocated less funding than the Navy expected.

Both serving and retired Navy officials have expressed concern that the domestic shipbuilding industry cannot thrive in an environment where the government favors state-owned shipyards for building critical naval platforms, including aircraft carriers, destroyers, frigates and anti-submarine warfare corvettes — projects that are already fraught with delays or additional costs.

The Navy operates a 130-ship fleet, and 39 vessels are currently on order or under construction. The service spends about $1.5 billion annually on shipbuilding programs, but officials say that is not enough and should be increased threefold to meet the shortfall in capability.

“The Ministry of Defence in the past has always given preference to state-owned shipyards by nominating them for all big-ticket shipbuilding programs, and private shipbuilders continue to suffer due to a lack of orders,” one Navy official told Defense News.

A source at the MoD said the government allocated about $15.28 billion over 10 years for the construction of 50 ships (39 are on order or under construction, and 11 were already delivered).

Some sources spoke to Defense News on the condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Only three naval contracts worth a total of $71.42 million were awarded to private players, the defense official added, with the remaining 47 projects awarded to state-owned shipyards.

Of the 50 ships, 40 are meant for the Navy and 10 for the Indian Coast Guard.

“Warship building as an industry in the country has been on the downswing for over a decade now,” former Indian Navy chief Adm. Sunil Lanba told Defense News.

The shipbuilding division of private company Larsen & Toubro successfully completed a floating dock program for the Navy and built offshore patrol vessels and interceptor boats for the Coast Guard. But financial problems led to the cancellation of other maritime projects, including one to construct training ships by Bharati Shipyard and another to build offshore patrol vessels by Reliance Naval (previously known as Pipavav Shipyard).

Reliance Naval stopped production operations in December 2018. Last month, asset management firm Hazel Mercantile Limited was declared the highest bidder at $385.71 million for the financially strapped shipyard.

Government-backed National Asset Reconstruction Company Limited made the announcement Dec. 13, although the bid from Indian business tycoon Nikhil Merchant was not approved by press time. He owns a liquefied natural gas terminal at Jafrabad Port near the R-Naval facilities, and it’s unclear what he would do with the newly acquired facility.

United Shipbuilding Corporation of Russia had shown interest in buying out R-Naval’s assets but withdrew from the process in mid-2021, citing the unviable shipbuilding business in India.

Private players ABG Shipyard and Bharati Shipyard were also forced to eventually shut down operations after declaring bankruptcy. However, L&T and Shoft Shipyard — the latter of which primarily serves as a subcontractor to state-owned shipyards — have survived.

Private shipbuilders have managed to deliver 101 vessels to the Indian Coast Guard over the past 20 years. During that time period, only 62 small auxiliary vessels were delivered by state-owned shipyards.

In contrast, state-owned shipyards delivered 59 large ships to the Navy in the past two decades; private shipyards have not been awarded any big-ticket large ship programs since 2001.


“The continued nominations and extremely aggressive bidding for competitive programs by state-owned shipyards is a cause for concern,” Jayant Damodar Patil, an L&T board member and chief of its defense business, told Defense News.

Patil said government funding is available for establishing or modernizing facilities for state-owned yards, whereas private yards must use their own capital. Furthermore, he said, private yards must include in their bids the cost of investing in new shipbuilding efforts, but state-owned shipyards do not need to do so.

“The state-owned shipyards continue to enjoy government preference and continue to secure competitively bid naval projects on undervalued costs to eliminate private players from competition. This has resulted in dismal execution of existing warship orders,” said Mukesh Bhargava, an industry analyst and a retired Navy commodore.

The MoD source said for the next five years, the government is dedicating $13.85 billion for new shipbuilding projects. Out of that total, $7.85 billion is reserved for state-owned shipyards, the defense official said, while the remaining $6 billion will likely be pursued through open competition under the public-private partnership model.

That model allows for state-owned shipyards to offload production work to private shipyards.

But even state-owned shipyards are struggling technologically. The naval industrial bases of China, Japan and South Korea have seen the induction of advanced tech, such as 3D printing, machine-learning systems and cyber capabilities. However, Indian counterparts are not on equal footing, according to Bhargava.

“Despite Indian industry also being on the forefront of most of these technologies, state-owned shipyards have not been able to adopt these disruptive and gamechanging processes of digitalization,” he said.

Another MoD official said the government plans to implement new shipbuilding practices and technologies for state-owned shipyards based on requirements for ongoing and future projects to “increase efficiency [and] productivity, and reduce build periods and avoid cost overruns.”
 

Ryder

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Is it because state owned is more closer to government??

Is this another case neopotism?
 

Nilgiri

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Is it because state owned is more closer to government??

Is this another case neopotism?

Nepotism is just one part of what can take shape.

The larger thing (that drives nepotism) is unaccountability....since the govt can do no wrong as there is little to no way to hold them (specifically unelected bureaucrat-mass) accountable in suitable detail as political + bureaucratic considerations entrench themselves into decision making (that impact over 10+ years) rather than more result-based bottom line.

This is basic reason why state-socialism does not work in the long run in large capital-intensive sectors of the economy (and works even worse in more commercial based sectors too).

Govt (socialist welfare argument) intervention should be citizen-individual based as far as possible, rather than involving it in larger complicated process flows (that need good information transmission flow, signalling and response).

People like to use catch all phrases of "competition" and "reform"....but its really accountability (and its final staying+bargaining power w.r.t resources given to it) that forms the long term valid (or invalid) basis.

With for-profit corporate model, you at least have a more rationally understood structure that you can (more easily) set and demand results from, and also hedge with others to get some form of ship-shape accountability that you can then improve and iterate on.

Just like has happened in parts of the Indian private-owned economy (which tend to be the only parts of Indian economy doing well and keeping rest afloat).

At the national federal level, there is unfortunately no limited+precise govt ideological political force or dispensation of note.

Everybody is on the big bulky govt = good bandwagon....and then churn (rather irrelevant) political strife and competition with either existing or manufactured angst.

This extreme (multipartisan) overreach into statism today is a psychological reaction from India not having such a political state in enough expanse (across both relevant space and time) for majority of its civilisation history.

i.e what you didnt have before, you want too much of now to "make up for it".
 

Ryder

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Nepotism is just one part of what can take shape.

The larger thing (that drives nepotism) is unaccountability....since the govt can do no wrong as there is little to no way to hold them (specifically unelected bureaucrat-mass) accountable in suitable detail as political + bureaucratic considerations entrench themselves into decision making (that impact over 10+ years) rather than more result-based bottom line.

This is basic reason why state-socialism does not work in the long run in large capital-intensive sectors of the economy (and works even worse in more commercial based sectors too).

Govt (socialist welfare argument) intervention should be citizen-individual based as far as possible, rather than involving it in larger complicated process flows (that need good information transmission flow, signalling and response).

People like to use catch all phrases of "competition" and "reform"....but its really accountability (and its final staying+bargaining power w.r.t resources given to it) that forms the long term valid (or invalid) basis.

With for-profit corporate model, you at least have a more rationally understood structure that you can (more easily) set and demand results from, and also hedge with others to get some form of ship-shape accountability that you can then improve and iterate on.

Just like has happened in parts of the Indian private-owned economy (which tend to be the only parts of Indian economy doing well and keeping rest afloat).

At the national federal level, there is unfortunately no limited+precise govt ideological political force or dispensation of note.

Everybody is on the big bulky govt = good bandwagon....and then churn (rather irrelevant) political strife and competition with either existing or manufactured angst.

This extreme (multipartisan) overreach into statism today is a psychological reaction from India not having such a political state in enough expanse (across both relevant space and time) for majority of its civilisation history.

i.e what you didnt have before, you want too much of now to "make up for it".

Its like a eastern thing. Us Turks are no different to be honest.

Far out the defence of a nation should never be played at. But politicians dont care at all.

Indian beauracracy is such a nightmare 😬
 

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