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INDIA AS FULL MEMBER OF SHANGHAI COOPERATION ORGANISATION

India and Pakistan recently were accepted as full members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Ufa, a regional grouping including China and Russia. India, which has had an observer status for the past 10 years, will technically become a member by 2016 after completion of certain procedures.

SHANGHAI COOPERATION ORGANISATION (SCO) INTRODUCTION

SCO is a Eurasian economic, political and military organization established in 2001 with its headquarters in Beijing. Its founding members are: China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Tajikistan. Uzbekistan was added in 2001. India was having an Observer status of SCO and had applied for full membership in 2014.Other observer countries are Afghanistan, Iran, Mongolia.

SIGNIFICANCE OF FULL MEMBERSHIP TO INDIA:

1) Security grouping of India ,Pakistan, China with other central Asian countries and Russia will bolster counter terrorism efforts. This especially crucial with rise of ISIS and other radical groups in western Asia.

2) SCO membership is good for projects such as the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) and Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipelines, which are held by India due to security concerns.

3) Politically it is an effort to counter Indian tilt towards US and its allies for security issues.

4) Open up trade, energy sector and strategic transit routes for India between Russia, Central Asia and China. For India it will be easier to enter central Asia through Iran by NW corridor.

5) Provides a platform to engage on the issue of security in Afghanistan after NATO force pull out.

2)SURFACE TO AIR MISSILE AKASH INDUCTED IN IAF

Indigenously developed supersonic surface-to-air Akash Missile has been inducted in Indian Air Force (IAF).It should be noted that Akash missile already has been included in Indian Army. It was inducted in Army in May 2015. The development of Akash missile system was started in 1983 with a first production in 2002.

AKASH FEATURES

1)The Akash (sky) is a mid-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) system being built by India's state-owned Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO).

2)The missile is being developed under the integrated guided-missile development programme (IGMDP).

3)The missile system was developed based on the Soviet 2K12 surface-to-air missile defense system

4)Capable to neutralize aerial targets like cruise missiles, fighter jets and air-to-surface missiles with   strike range of 25km. It can destroy aerial target upto 30 km away at altitudes upto 18,000 m.

5)Its own weight is 720 kg with ability to carry conventional and nuclear warhead upto 60 kg .Total length is 5.78 m and can be easily mounted on truck for shipping.

WHAT IS IGMDP?

IGMDP was conceived first by APJ Abdul Kalam with the vision of making India self sufficient in missile technology .So far 5 missiles have been developed under this namely Nag, Agni and Trishul, Prithvi ballistic missile along with Akash. DRDO in Jan 2008 had announced successful completion of IGMDP.