Physical nature of the central singularity in spherical collapse

We examine here the nature of the central singularity forming in the spherically symmetric collapse of a dust cloud and it is shown that this is always a strong curvature singularity where gravitational tidal forces diverge powerfully. An important consequence is that the nature of the naked singularity forming in the dust collapse turns out to be stable against the perturbations in the initial data from which the collapse commences.