The presence of Taliban marauders in Swat valley, in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan located 160 km/100 miles from Islamabad, and its continual onslaughts against the Pakistani army is posing a threat not only to Pakistan but to its neighboring countries as well. There is no doubt that the prime of these is India and it is learnt that the Taliban forces are always keen to wage a Jihad against India directly and for this reason, it is helping Islamic militants to create more incidents akin to 26/11 in the country. What is the response of India then?

India is gearing up to combat the situation and as a part of greater strategies, its Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Russia with regard to academic development of scientists and students of both the countries. The experts are terming this as a major development and it was L M Patnaik, Vice-Chancellor of DIAT, who announced this major advance during a press conference, held to reveal details about DIAT’s fourth convocation ceremony. It has also come to the knowledge that from this year onwards students, from even non-defence backgrounds, who have qualified the GATE examination will be allowed to take admissions in the institute.

Speaking on the fresh accord between India and Russia Patnaik said, “We have recently signed an MoU with the Russian Academy of Sciences. The MoU will help increase interaction between DIAT and various institutes in Russia.” According to VC, the main intention of the MoU is to make use of Russia’s knowledge regarding basic sciences and thus to fortify India’s future. “Russian researchers have done a lot of good work in basic sciences. We are hopeful that our scientists will benefit from such research, thanks to the MoU.”

The same optimism was expressed by R B Sharma, head of the physics department of DIAT, who said that exchange of students and faculties would be facilitated under the MoU. “Work is under way to fine tune details regarding the time schedules of the exchange. Many good projects in physics and other related subjects may be in the offing under the exchange programme,” said Sharma, who is coordinating the MoU-related programme from the DIAT’s side.