The new name of luxury, sports car Kizashi is soon going to hit Indian roads. ‘Maruti Suzuki India’ is planning to launch this new car in Indian market with Japanese car maker Suzuki.
This luxury car was first unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show 2007.
Maruti Kizashi is expected to be priced at Rs. 10-13 lakh. The car is designed with the finest features and the noted technologies. The manual transmission for the car is six-speed. Other noted feature is its optional automatic one-based CVT technology accompanied with paddle shift. It has an engine of capacity 2.4 litre Euro IV. The car has already been introduced in US and will be there soon for the Indian customers.
Eurofighter Consortium eyes $10.4 billion contract for future Indian fighter aircraft
11:04 GMT, February 15, 2010 defpro.com | Coinciding with the starting signal for India’s largest defence exhibition, DEFEXPO 2010 (15-18 February 2010), a German Air Force Eurofighter fighter aircraft will be heading to India today. However, this aircraft will not be making acrobatic manoeuvres for the visitors of the show but, rather, will be thoroughly examined by the Indian Air Force (IAF) as part of the medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) MMRCA programme. The Eurofighter will join India’s ongoing programme, which has been initiated in August 2007 and is currently in the process of testing all participating contenders, to undergo trials until March in Bengaluru as well as in Jaisalmer and Leh. The two latter stations will demonstrate the Eurofighter’s desert and high altitude performance.
As 8ak.in recently reported, the prospects for a success of Eurofighter in India still are difficult to judge, as the European consortium is receiving mixed signals from Indian officials. While there is general consent that the performance of the aircraft is up to the expectations, the pricing reportedly is an issue. Reuters news agency quoted India’s Ambassador, Arif Shahid Khan, saying Eurofighter Typhoon is leading the race to win the new fighter deal with the Indian Air Force. The Ambassador stressed the top position held by Eurofighter Typhoon during a meeting in late January with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in Rome.
However, a technical triumph of the Eurofighter in the evaluation phase would not automatically mean that the Eurofighter consortium will be awarded the contract for the 126 required aircraft, worth an estimated 10.4 billion. As 8ak.in explains, EADS (holding 46% in the four-nation Eurofighter consortium) has already had bad experiences with Indian procurement procedures in the past. Despite the IAF’s full approval of the procurement of Airbus tanker aircraft, the Indian finance ministry brought these plans to a sudden end, saying it would be too expensive.
The Eurofighter is competing against Dassault’s Rafale, Saab’s JAS 39 Super Gripen IN, Boeing’s F/A-18E/F-IN Super Hornet, Lockheed Martin’s F-16IL and Russia’s MiG-35. According to the Eurofighter Press Office Blog, the Eurofighter Typhoon offers a broad spectrum of operational advantages to India, such as its adaptability to severe weather conditions, high mission effectiveness and survivability in threat situations as well as considerable in country economic benefits.
Bernhard Gerwert, chairman of the supervisory board of Eurofighter GmbH and CEO of Military Air Systems, a business unit of EADS Defence & Security (DS) said: “We are well positioned in the ongoing tender [...] because the Eurofighter Typhoon is the ideal answer to the threats that India faces.” He added “The aircraft's outstanding operational performance, coupled with low life-cycle costs and a tailor-made industrial partnership offer, make the Eurofighter Typhoon a key contender in India's competition.”
Eurofighter will attempt to demonstrate the aircraft’s claimed advantages at the DEFEXPO show, where its stand will showcase a Eurofighter simulator. A success in the Indian fighter race would be a bonanza for the consortium which is searching for additional export customers since quite a while. Enzo Casolini, CEO of Eurofighter GmbH, told the Indo-Asian News Service: “We evaluate the global demand for combat aircraft in the next 20 years at around 800 units. For Eurofighter Typhoon, we target 300 additional export contracts, with Asia representing a substantial part of these orders.”
So far, the only export successes for the Eurofighter have been Austria and Saudi Arabia. While the Austrian procurement programme suffered from a controversial political and financial debate, resulting in the procurement of only 15 aircraft, the Saudi Kingdom ordered a total of 72 aircraft in late 2007.
As 8ak.in points out, the engine question (always being one of the most prominent field of interest in a fighter aircraft programme) may further support Eurofighter’s position in the MMRCA race. EUROJET Turbo GmbH is not only providing the engine for the Eurofighter but is, furthermore, interested in extending its industrial presence in India (see http://www.defpro.com/daily/details/502/). EUROJET recently announced that, if required, they are willing to transfer their single crystal turbine blade technology to India. According to company sources, the technology transfer is currently not under the scope of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) engine request for proposal (RfP). However, the news service states “it makes commercial sense for India to choose the same engine for the MMRCA that they would choose to power the Tejas.”
MARJAH, Afghanistan (Reuters) - U.S. Marines are making steady progress in one of the biggest NATO offensives in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001, but areas infested with roadside bombs are bogging them down, a spokesman said on Monday.
The assault is the first test of U.S. President Barack Obama's plan to send 30,000 more troops to seize insurgent-held areas ahead of a planned 2011 troop drawdown.
"We are making steady progress but being very methodical about detecting and clearing routes in an area heavily saturated with IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices)," Marine Capt. Abraham Sipe told Reuters in response to an email, adding counts of militants killed of captured would not be provided.
Afghan officials said on Sunday that as many as 35 militants had been killed in the first two days of the offensive.
"In many parts of Marjah, we have seen very little opposition. There are areas where Marines have met with stiff resistance, but they are making steady progress throughout the area," Sipe said.
Afghan officials said there had been some fighting.
"There was fighting last night and some sporadic clashes are still going on in Marjah. The enemy has suffered casualties," said Ghulam Mahaiuddin Ghori, a senior Afghan army general in Helmand.
EARLY PROGRESS
Much of the success of the operation in Helmand province depends on whether the new administration wins the trust of the local population and Afghan troops must be effective enough to keep the Taliban from returning.
NATO and the Afghan government's credibility rests on limiting civilian casualties, especially since NATO commanders told Marjah residents to stay home during the offensive which could last weeks.
Highlighting the dangers of fighting a resilient and unpredictable enemy, Helmand Province Governor Gulab Mangal said three would-be suicide bombers were gunned down on Sunday while trying to blow themselves up among troops.
"The situation moment by moment is going the way the government had expected. The forces are extending their advances from points they have captured and the operation is going on successfully," he told a news conference.
NATO rockets killed 12 Afghan civilians on Sunday on the second day of an offensive designed to impose Afghan authority on one of the last big Taliban strongholds in the country's most violent province.
The offensive has been flagged for weeks to persuade Taliban fighters to leave so the area can be recaptured with minimal damage or loss of civilian life, in the hope that the roughly 100,000 people there will welcome the Afghan administration.
U.S. commanders are under pressure to deliver results on the battlefield in time for the start of the troop drawdown due in 2011.
Marjah has long been a breeding ground for insurgents and lucrative opium poppy cultivation, which Western countries say funds the insurgency.
The United States' top military officer on Sunday said the assault on Marjah had got "off to a good start".
"It's actually very difficult to predict (the end)," Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters during a visit to Israel. "We have from a planning standpoint talked about a few weeks, but I don't know that."
The attack started on Saturday with waves of helicopters ferrying troops into Marjah and the nearby Nad Ali district. The next day, U.S. Marines came under intense fir
