According to a report from the Indian defense, the short-range Python 5 air-to-air missile has been added to the Tejas’ list of integrated weapons, alongside the Russian R-73/AA-11.

The EL/M-2032 was originally selected but the new 2052 is now available with a more compact antenna which is best designed to fit the nose cones of LCA and Jaguar. This will offer enhanced capabilities for both fighters. If the Defense update report is true, it would roughly double the Mk.II fighter’s radar performance, and sharply lower its maintenance costs.

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The plane already uses American made GE engines, after the domestic Kaveri design failed customer testing.

India and Russia on Tuesday signed a protocol for Russian funding for units III and IV at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project in Tamil Nadu. Russia will extend export credit amounting to $3.4 billion. Signed by India’s Department of Atomic Energy Special Secretary A.P. Joshi and Russian Deputy Finance Minister S.A. Storchak, the credit is repayable 14 years after the commencement of the work on the two units.  85 per cent funding of the nuclear projects’ works, supplies and services is to be provided by Russian companies

The total investment in these two new units is expected to be $6.4 billion so there is about $3 billion  of investment open for countries other than Russia. The assumption is that the Indian government will fund this portion.  The project involves 1,000 MW reactors of the VVER-1000 model being constructed by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and Russia’s Atomstroyexport company, a Rosatom subsidiary.

To obtain patent protection internationally it is necessary to file a patent application and and to prosecute the application to grant of a patent.

Many medical device companies are wary of the process, but with the help of an experienced patent agent/attorney, the process can be completed relatively smoothly. Here are a few of the key issues companies should consider when obtaining patent protection in the BRIC countries, according to attorney D’vorah Graeser, Graeser Associates International in Chicago as quoted in EMDT.

Budgeting for international patent costs can be challenging, given the differences between the patent systems. But India is an exception among the BRIC countries. Patent applications are filed and prosecuted in English. Furthermore, filing and prosecution costs in India are quite reasonable, lower than costs in Europe or the USA and lower than Brazil, Russia or China.

Apart from the requirement to pay regular (typically yearly) fees, some of the BRIC countries also have post-grant requirements that must be fulfilled to avoid cancellation of the granted patent. India, for example, requires filing of a yearly post-grant statement of working, describing the commercial exploitation in India of the invention disclosed in the patent. If commercial exploitation does not occur within three years of receiving the granted patent, a third party could request a compulsory licence of the patent. Selling the medical device in India, directly or through a licensee, may be sufficient to fulfill this requirement.

Russia offers India 49% control of joint uranium mining projects in country, such as the proposed Elkon development.  Russia’s Rosatom and India’s Uranium Corporation of India Limited have been negotiating the joint development of a large uranium reserve in the republic of Sakha, Sergei Kiriyenko, the Russian state nuclear holding’s head, said last month.

The Elkon group of uranium deposits in Sakha is second in size only to Australia’s Olympic Dam, which is being developed by BHP Billiton and contains 34 percent of the world’s known reserves of uranium. The total reserves of uranium in one of the parts of the Elkon group were evaluated this summer at 229,800 tons. Japanese and Korean companies are already reported to have signed memoranda of understanding on involvement in the project.

India’s own supplies of Uranium are fairly limited and it recently imported a large amount from France to feeds its current reactors. It is also in discussion with Kazakhstan for supplies of the radioactive metal. For its massive development of foreign technology nuclear plants, India is currently requiring the reactor maker to guarantee a lifetime supply of uranium fuel.

Using uranium fuel supplied by France’s Areva and Russia’s TVEL Corporation, three of India’s oldest atomic power stations have been able to recover from low capacity factors.

The General Electric-supplied Tarapur units 1 and 2 ran at 90 and 99 percent of capacity in the period from April to June 2010; they are both rated at just 160 megawatts each  and are over 40 years old. These units are located near Mumbai. Further north in desert of Rajasthan, the RAPS 2 unit produced at 97 percent of its 200 megawatt capacity in the same time frame.

All three reactors are under the IAEA safeguards regime which allows India to use imported uranium at plants where there is no potential of military application. Currently six Indian reactors  totalling to 1060 megawatts are under international safeguards and qualify for the use of imported uranium.

Areva is contracted to supply 300 ton for India’s existing Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors based on the “Candu” technology. TVEL Corporation is commited to 2,000 tons of uranium pellets in low-enriched form for use in Tarapur and in the new plants at Kudankulam, which use Russian VVER technology but are not operational yet.

The benefits to Russian and French companies are flowing from the American led movement to open up nuclear commerce with India, after sanctions were first imposed in 1974. Ironically American companies have yet to gain export permissions to sell anything to India.