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Bofors Scam
The Bofors scandal was a major weapons-contract political scandal that occurred between India and Sweden during the 1980s and 1990s, initiated by Indian National Congress politicians and implicating the Indian prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, and several other members of the Indian and Swedish governments. These politicians were accused of receiving kickbacks from Bofors AB, an arms manufacturer principally financed by the Wallenberg family's Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken, for winning a bid to supply to India the company's 155 mm field howitzer – the sale of 410 field howitzers, and a supply contract for almost twice that amount, totalling a US$1.4 billion deal. It was the biggest arms deal ever in Sweden, and money marked for development projects was diverted to secure this contract at any cost. The investigations revealed flouting of rules and bypassing of institutions. On 16 April 1987, a Swedish radio station broke a story, sourced from a whistleblower in the Swedish ...
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Haubits 77 ("Field Howitzer 77" Or FH-77)
() or FH77 is a Swedish 155 mm howitzer, developed and manufactured by Bofors. It is also colloquially known as the Bofors gun in India. There were several versions, the original (sometimes referred to as Haubits 77 A) with a 38 calibre barrel and Falling-block action, sliding block mechanism, the export version FH77 B version with a 39 calibre barrel and an Interrupted screw, interrupted ogival screw breech. For the demonstrator of the Archer Artillery System, some FH77A were modified into FH 77 AD L/45, while the series production were FH77Bs rebuilt into FH77 BW L/52. The carriage was also used for the 12 cm mobile coastal artillery gun m/80, KARIN, used in the Swedish coastal artillery. Design and development History In the 1960s, Sweden started to look for a replacement for the French Obusier de 155 mm Modèle 50 (''Haubits'' F). The American M109 howitzer, M109 self-propelled howitzer was offered and tested. Though the price was low, the Swedish Arms Administration f ...
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The Indian Express
''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight years after Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split between the family members. The southern editions took the name '' The New Indian Express'', while the northern editions, based in Mumbai, retained the original ''Indian Express'' name with ''The'' prefixed to the title. History In 1932, the ''Indian Express'' was started by an Ayurvedic doctor, P. Varadarajulu Naidu, at Chennai, being published by his Tamil Nadu press. Soon under financial difficulties, he sold the newspaper to Swaminathan Sadanand, the founder of '' The Free Press Journal'', a national news agency. In 1933, the ''Indian Express'' opened its second office in Madurai, launching the Tamil edition, '' Dinamani''. Sadanand introduced several innovations and reduced t ...
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Italians
Italians (, ) are a European peoples, European ethnic group native to the Italian geographical region. Italians share a common Italian culture, culture, History of Italy, history, Cultural heritage, ancestry and Italian language, language. Their predecessors differ regionally, but generally include populations such as the Etruscan civilization, Etruscans, Rhaetians, Ligurians, Adriatic Veneti, Magna Graecia, Ancient Greeks and Italic peoples, including Latins (Italic tribe), Latins, from which Roman people, Romans emerged and helped create and evolve the modern Italian identity. Legally, Italian nationality law, Italian nationals are citizens of Italy, regardless of ancestry or nation of residence (in effect, however, Italian nationality law, Italian nationality is largely based on ''jus sanguinis'') and may be distinguished from ethnic Italians in general or from people of Italian descent without Italian citizenship and ethnic Italians living in territories adjacent to the I ...
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Ottavio Quattrocchi
Ottavio Quattrocchi (1938 – 13 July 2013) was an Italian businessman who was being sought until early 2009 in India for criminal charges for acting as a conduit for bribes in the Bofors scandal. Quattrocchi's role in this scandal, and his proximity to Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi through his wife Sonia Gandhi, is thought to have contributed to the defeat of the Congress Party in the 1989 elections. In 1999, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) named Quattrocchi in a chargesheet as the conduit for the Bofors bribe. The case against him was strengthened in June 2003, when Interpol revealed two bank accounts, 5A5151516M and 5A5151516L, held by Quattrocchi and his wife Maria with the BSI AG bank, London, containing Euros 3 million and $1 million, a "curiously large savings for a salaried executive". In January 2006, these frozen bank accounts were unexpectedly released by India's law ministry, apparently without the consent of the CBI which had asked for them to be fro ...
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Blacklisted
Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list; if people are on a blacklist, then they are considered to have done something wrong, or they are considered to be untrustworthy. As a verb, blacklist can mean to put an individual or entity on such a list. A blacklist is synonymous with a list of banned persons or organizations, and is the opposite of a whitelist. Origins of the term The English dramatist Philip Massinger used the phrase "black list" in his 1639 tragedy '' The Unnatural Combat''. After the restoration of the English monarchy brought Charles II of England to the throne in 1660, a list of regicides named those to be punished for the execution of his father. The state papers of Charles II say "If any innocent soul be found in this black list, let him not be offended at me, but consider whether some mistaken principle or ...
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Sveriges Radio
Sveriges Radio Aktiebolag, AB (; "Sweden's Radio") is Sweden's national publicly funded radio programming, radio broadcaster. Sveriges Radio is a public limited company, owned by an independent foundation, previously funded through a television licence, licensing fee, the level of which is decided by the Riksdag, Swedish Riksdag. As of 1 January 2019, the funds stem from standard taxation. No advertising is permitted. Its legal status could be described as that of a quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation, quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization. History The company – which was founded as AB Radiotjänst ("Radio Service Ltd") by a consortium of newspaper companies, the Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå, TT news agency, and radio manufacturing interests on 21 March 1924 – made its first broadcast on 1 January 1925: a relay of High Mass from Saint James's Church, Stockholm, St James's Church in Stockholm. It was officially renamed Sveriges Radio in 1957. Sveriges Radio ...
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Yahoo! News
Yahoo News (stylized as Yahoo! News) is a news website that originated as an internet-based news aggregator by Yahoo. The site was created by Yahoo software engineer Brad Clawsie in August 1996. Articles originally came from news services such as the Associated Press, Reuters, Fox News, Al Jazeera, ABC News, ''USA Today'', CNN and BBC News. In 2000, Yahoo News launched pages tracking the content on the site that was most viewed and most shared by email. The "most emailed" page in particular was noted as an innovation in online news aggregation. Yahoo News allows users to comment on articles. Between late 2006 and early 2010, comments were disabled in part due to moderation challenges. By 2011, Yahoo had expanded its focus to include original content, as part of its plans to become a major media organization. Veteran journalists (including Walter Shapiro and Virginia Heffernan) were hired, while the website had a correspondent in the White House press corps for the first ti ...
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Bofors
AB Bofors ( , , ) is a former Swedish arms manufacturer which today is part of the British arms manufacturer BAE Systems. The name has been associated with the iron industry and artillery manufacturing for more than 350 years. History Located in Karlskoga neighborhood of Bofors, Sweden, the company originates from the hammer mill "Boofors", which was founded as a royal state-owned company in 1646 when P. L. Hosman was permitted to erect a forge at the site.' Sigrid Ekehielm, also known as Boås-Beata, who lived from the 1640s to 1700, at one point owned it."Sigrid Ekehielm", https://skbl.se/en/article/SigridEkehielm, Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon (SKBL) iographical Dictionary of Swedish Women(article by Sofia Danielsson, translated by Alexia Grosjean), retrieved 2023-09-3. The Bofors Works was acquired by Johan Eberhard Geijer (1733–1796) in 1762. It was then acquired by the latter's brother, Emanuel af Geijerstam. The modern corporate structure was created in 18 ...
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Government Of India
The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union territories of India, 36 states and union territories. The government is led by the president of India (currently ) who largely exercises the executive powers, and selects the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India and other ministers for aid and advice. Government has been formed by the The prime minister and their senior ministers belong to the Union Council of Ministers, its executive decision-making committee being the Cabinet (government), cabinet. The government, seated in New Delhi, has three primary branches: the legislature, the executive and the judiciary, whose powers are vested in bicameral Parliament of India, Union Council of Ministers (headed by prime minister), and the Supreme Court of India respectively, with a p ...
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GIAT-155 TR
The TRF1, originally known as GIAT 155 mm Tracté (TR) is a 155mm French towed howitzer produced by Nexter (ex Giat Industries) and used by the French Army. The TRF1 was showcased in 1979 at the Eurosatory arms trade show, as a replacement for Armée de Terre's BF-50. Giat produced it from 1984 to 1993. Performance *Setting out of battery: 2 min *Crossing of slopes of 60%, fords of 1.20m. *Horizontal field of fire: 445mil to the left, 675mil to the right. *Hydrauliaiming Ammunition *Capacity of tractor: 56 rounds, 32 on pallets and 24 in racks. *Can fire all 155 mm ammunition (the normal ammunition is the high-explosive shell). *Casings are combustible, which improves rate of fire: there is nothing to extract before reloading. Combat history The TRF1 was used in combat by Ukrainian Ground Forces during the 2022 invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian ...
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GHN-45
The GC-45 (''Gun, Canada, 45-calibre'') is a 155 mm howitzer designed by Gerald Bull's Space Research Corporation (SRC) in the 1970s. Versions were produced by a number of companies during the 1980s, notably in Austria and South Africa. The most publicized use of the design was in Iraq, where the GHN-45 variant used by some Iraqi artillery units had a longer range than any coalition cannon systems. This initially caused considerable worry on the part of the allied forces in the Persian Gulf War. Design history The GC-45's general design followed several decades of work by Bull with fin-stabilized artillery shells, starting at the Canadian Armament Research and Development Establishment (CARDE) and later at Project HARP. In these efforts accuracy was not a huge concern, the objective was muzzle velocity, and the test articles were finned darts representing missiles, a low-cost alternative to wind tunnels. Yet with the removal of the rifling and the soft-metal driving band on ...
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FH-70
The FH70 (field howitzer for the 1970s) is a towed 155 mm howitzer used by several nations. History In 1963, NATO agreed a NATO Basic Military Requirement 39 for close support artillery, either towed or tracked. Subsequently, Germany and UK started discussions and design studies and in 1968 established agreed operational characteristics for a towed 155 mm close support gun. Italy became a party to the agreement in 1970. Key requirements were: * A detachable auxiliary power unit (APU) * An unassisted range of ; an assisted range of * A burst capability of three rounds in 15–20 seconds, six rounds per minute for a short period and two rounds per minute sustained * The ability to fire all 155 mm munitions in NATO service, plus a new range of ammunition The two national authorities had overall responsibility for R&D, and Vickers Ltd was the co-ordinating design authority. They were also the design authority for the carriage and Rheinmetall GmbH was the authority ...
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