'India appears to have stood its ground on strategic autonomy by resisting US pressure on Russia, China and Iran, but succumbed to the temptation to walk into a tighter embrace in defence cooperation, a high priority of the Trump administration,' notes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Dhanteras, the prime minister said, has become even more special.
Instead of ramming through change, Mr Parrikar has tied his own hands by placing reform at the mercy of numerous committees, says Ajai Shukla.
'It is the government's most important duty to ensure that when war breaks out, the armed forces are absolutely ready to face the adversary -- well equipped, well trained and in high spirits,' says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
China will flood direct flights to India with wholesale takeaways of the authentic stuff; Indian businessmen will fight for the commission and the consumers for the cuisine, predicts Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
'The sky is the limit for what all could be done at an air base to neutralise terrorists. Good proactive local leadership and delegated operational effort would be key to ensuring that a handful of terrorists cannot hold a whole air base, and by extension, the whole nation to ransom,' says Group Captain P I Muralidharan (retd).
Pakistan perceives that if it had declared Gilgit-Baltistan, PoK or both, which are only a part of the territories of J&K, as legitimate provinces of Pakistan it would weaken its case for the entire J&K and lead to legal complications, observes Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd).
Admiral Sam Locklear heads the US Pacific Command, making him the most powerful military commander on earth. With 60 per cent of the US Navy under him, PACOM oversees 52 per cent of the planet. Locklear is America's military pointsman for 36 countries, including India and China.
Remember the US withdrawal agreement was signed in February 2020. In the intervening period, a proper evacuation plan ought to have been in place. It was not. Consequently, tens of thousands of Afghans who had worked as interpreters, drivers, suppliers of goods and services, etc, face brutal retribution from the Taliban, Virendra Kapoor points out.
Navy chief Adm. Sunil Lanba said that by 2050, India will have 200 ships, 500 aircraft.
During a war, there are just four possibilities a soldier faces. One: Victorious and safe. Two: Wounded. Three: Killed in action. Four: Prisoner of War. It was my fate to face the fourth, says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd) on the year spent as a prisoner of war in Pakistan during the 1971 War.
'Demchock and Chumar are important crucibles for both China and India to know about the other. While India 'learns,' she also need to 'teach,' suggests Lieutenant General Anil Chait, one of the Indian Army's most cerebral thinkers, who recently retired as chief of the Integrated Defence Staff.
'We have not seen even during Vajpayee's time what Modi and the BJP has adopted now.'
The briefing comes ahead of the parliament session beginning Monday.
'The Army must always be balanced in response.' 'Rabble rousers will demand that it be given a free hand against anti-national elements in the streets. That is exactly what the adversaries want.' 'Burning the Kashmir Valley through the summer is their desire; the Army will never contribute to enhancing their aim,' says Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd), who served as the General Officer Commanding 15 Corps in Kashmir.
'In a war of guerrilla resistance from 1682 to 1707, the Marathas destroyed the foundations of the Mughal empire.' 'Shivaji was dead, but his example and ideals survived and were the main source for inspiration for the Marathas in their desperate struggle with the mighty Mughal empire,' notes Colonel Anil A Athale (retd), the well known military historian.
'In India, China's capacities to conduct new types of warfare is critically underestimated,' says Claude Arpi.
'The debate is not whether the Indian defence apparatus is in a state of disrepair, but whether it is capable of securing the defence of the country if any envisaged threat becomes real.'
India's military prowess and multi-hued images of the country's rich cultural diversity and achievements in various fields were on display at the majestic Rajpath on Tuesday during 67th Republic Day parade which was graced by French President Francois Hollande as the chief guest.
Tawang wears its history -- and also its present -- with ease. The flourishing town, with restaurants selling everything from noodles to dosas and locals returning home to new business prospects, shows little sign of the tension building up at the border about 40 km away to the north.
The navy wants to spend Rs 40,000 crore on INS Vishal, a choice the army and air force oppose. This is as much about turf as about funding. explains Ajai Shukla.
'There are retaliatory incursions, ambushes, captures and killings by Indian forces along the 700 km border; alleged spies are caught on both sides, then mutually traded as pawns; envoys are summoned in both capitals to be routinely given dressing downs.' 'And there is always a handy courier pigeon, like Sajjan Jindal, sent over to test the troubled waters,' says Sunil Sethi.
5 planes and 13 ships are out trying to track the aircraft, which was carrying 29 people on board.
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Beating of war drums, would further accord primacy to the army in Pakistan. A better approach would be to continue the talks for normalisation of trade relations, while giving the Indian forces autonomy to strike at militant camps across the LoC, says Alok Bansal
In the lead up to this week Indo-US Strategic Dialogue, for which United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, will be coming to Delhi, the Indo-US defence engagement is even more intense than usual.
'Wing Commander Abhinandan would not have even worried if he was going to cross the LoC or not because he was not going to let go of a shot.'
The PM's vision of a lean, agile, mobile and technology driven force requires more than 1.7 percent of GDP that it now gets.
'The military aim in a future conflict, if it can't be avoided, should be to cause maximum damage to the adversary's war waging capability and capture limited amount of territory as a bargaining counter,' says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
The election seem to have been conducted without any major security lapses. However, in the coming weeks, the military situation in Kandahar could tilt in the Taliban's favour, notes Aveek Sen.
The navy finds itself fighting for relevance, with navy planners lamenting that its share of the budget has dropped dramatically.
Swaraj expressed satisfaction over the agenda of the inaugural dialogue while giving the details of the deliberations.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has bestowed special honours on a PLA battalion posted in Tibet close to Arunachal Pradesh for its "outstanding performance in safeguarding borders".
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday mooted the idea of raising an all women battalion and stationing of women on warships besides opening the doors of the National Defence Academy and Sainik schools for them.
The special NIA judge charged him with being a member of a terror group, raising funds for them as well as aiding an outfit.
'What we are actually missing in India is a platform wherein the government engages with cybersecurity experts, gets them employed and then utilises their capability to deter such attacks.'
Outgoing Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh on Thursday said that India had given a befitting reply to Pakistan after the beheading of an Indian soldier by Pakistani troops in 2013 along the Line of Control even as he did not rule out the possibility of skirmishes on the western front in future.
'It is not a matter of fixing the military problem up there in the Himalayas and the retreat of the two militaries.' 'India has to find a way to correct the racist and very patronising views of India in the Chinese mind.'
'Pakistan's security establishment, despite its appallingly immoral approach to conflict, has worked with limited resources to maximise its national defence resources to continue bleeding India,' says Ajai Shukla.
India was fooled into believing that Communist China wanted a 'negotiated' settlement with the Tibetans; it was never the case, says Claude Arpi.
Once Mazar-i-Sharif falls, some isolate pockets of resistance may remain, which the Taliban would tackle through political work or coercion, asserts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
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