INTELLIGENCE

SANCTIONS IMPOSED BY THE U.S. ON INDIA after New Delhi's nuclear weapons tests in May 1998 are slowing the Indian army's ability to wage war in Kashmir. Munitions production is hardest hit at the new factory at Badmal in the eastern state of Orissa - once projected to become Asia's largest such facility. The plant was set up by U.S.-based Day and Zimmermann company to make detonators and fuses for the high-explosive extended rounds fired by India's 155-mm Bofors howitzers. Sources connected with the project said the plant was commissioned barely a week before the nuclear tests and subsequent sanctions forced it to abandon work on the fuse and detonator plants scheduled for commissioning a month later. And India now gets no warranty support, spares or technical assistance on all the U.S.-made equipment at Badmal. Military sources in New Delhi said it is making agreements with Denel of South Africa to provide about 25,000 rounds of 155-mm shells for the Bofors howitzers, some 30,000 160-mm mortar rounds from Israel Military Industries and 50,000 rounds from Russia for India's Russian-made 130-mm M-46 field artillery.

Get Them While They're Young

WHY HAVE SEVERAL MALAYSIAN CABINET MINISTERS been lecturing university students as the school year starts? One round of these special sessions has already been completed and a second will begin as the next batch of freshmen arrive on campuses in the third week of June. In mid-May, PM Mahathir Mohamad summoned two representatives from every university to discuss foreign influence on the nation's students, expressing his concern over the growing impact of anti-government information available on the Internet and the pervasive influence of foreign news broadcasters. He urged the academics to tell their charges that such sources "are not value free" - they should not be seen as neutral, unbiased sources of information. "The idea," says one academic who attended the meeting with Mahathir, "appears to be to get these students while they are still in the 'high school mode,' before they move on to the more aware 'university mode.' " Mahathir should hurry: Some upperclass students who attended the first round of talks felt they "were more of an UMNO lecture than a government briefing."

Who's Next in Line in Yangon?

WHO WILL SUCCEED GEN. THAN SHWE, boss of Myanmar's junta? Is there a split between Secretary No. 2, Lt.-Gen. Khin Nyunt and Armed Forces chief Gen. Maung Aye? "There is no substance whatever to the allegations," Khin Nyunt says, claiming they are spread by dissident expatriate groups. But Maung Aye extended the power of the conservative bloc he nominally heads by taking the new key post as head of the Trade Policy Council. It overrides all ministries in trade and business matters, giving him enormous additional influence and funding. The trade council has been issuing edicts like they were military orders and has apparently thrown its weight behind the massive Irrawaddy Delta reclamation project, which many see as ill-conceived, and that Khin Nyunt is not keen on. So is there a split? Savvy Yangonites feel the rumors are exaggerated, given that the two men know they need each other's mutual support. But all admit that Maung Aye's future has started looking a lot brighter recently.