At a time when the process to appoint the new chief of defence staff is on, the government has sought the names of senior serving and retired officers from the Army, Navy and Air Force.
Here is a timeline of what happened to the Indian Air Force helicopter carrying Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat and others that crashed near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday:
Gen Rawat carried out an aerial recce of certain areas and was briefed about key aspects of the security matrix in the region by senior military commanders.
People pay their respects to the chief of defence staff and the 13 others who died in Wednesday's helicopter crash near Coonoor.
In a clear reference to Pakistan, he also sought diplomatic isolation and blacklisting by anti-terror watchdog FATF of countries sponsoring terrorism, asserting that there is a need to take the bull by its horns and strike at the root cause of terror.
The Lok Sabha observed a two-minute silence on the demise of the 13 people.
'It conveys the impression that there is not enough talent available among the serving officers.' 'That does not reflect well on the professionalism of officer corps.'
Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat was laid to rest with a 17-gun salute and full military honours on Friday.
The mortal remains were brought to the Madras Regimental Centre where people paid floral tribute to General Rawat and other personnel.
Vijay Rawat, brother of India's first chief of defence staff General Bipin Rawat who recently died in a helicopter crash, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday.
The defence ministry has amended rules to allow the Chief of Defence Staff to serve up to a maximum age limit of 65 years. The changes have been made in the services rules of the army, navy and the Indian Air Force for extension of retirement age of the Chief of Defence Staff to a maximum of 65 years if a service chief is appointed to the post.
Gen Rawat will be able to serve as CDS for a period of up to three years after the government amended the rules extending the age of retirement to 65 years.
Condemning irresponsible social media posts and rejoicing over the demise of Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat in a military chopper crash, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Friday said he has asked the police to identify and initiate legal action against them.
In his condolence message, Modi said he was deeply anguished by the helicopter crash in which Rawat, his wife and other personnel of the armed forces died.
General Bipin Rawat, his wife and 11 others were killed in a helicopter crash near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday, the Indian Air Force said.
The person had on Facebook posted derogatory comments about Rawat and the crash and also linked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to it, which went viral, police said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday visited the Palam airbase in New Delhi and paid his last respects to Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika Rawat and other 11 armed force personnel who lost their lives in a chopper crash in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday.
Official sources said the black box was retrieved in the wake of authorities expanding the search area from 300 metres to 1 km from the accident spot.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday informed the Lok Sabha that IAF Group Captain Varun Singh, the lone survivor in the military chopper crash in Tamil Nadu, is on life support in the Military Hospital at Wellington, Tamil Nadu.
This is probably the first time Rahul Gandhi is attending this committee's meeting since being nominated to the panel last year after Lok Sabha elections.
Gen Rawat is due for retirement on December 31 and top government sources said, if everything goes according to plan, then the government would name him as the country's first CDS before he hangs up his boots.
Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said the government has started on a wrong foot on the appointment and only time will unfortunately reveal the implications. Tewari wondered if the CDS as Permanent Chairperson of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee outrank the three service Chiefs.
He said the aim has been to create firewalls to deal with the cyber attacks and that the issue is being addressed in a "serious way".
This year, eight eminent individuals are being given Padma Bhushan and 54 are being conferred with Padma Shri awards, besides the two Padma Vibhushan recipents.
Her husband, Squadron Leader Kuldeep Singh, died in a helicopter crash in the Nilgiris in which India's first CDS General Bipin Rawat was killed.
The inquiry teams had started their work on the very next day the incident took place. The statements are being recorded and in one or two cases, some people have changed their account of the incidents, they said.
Indian Armed forces will leave no stone unturned to safeguard the country's frontiers, he insisted.
'The accident was a result of entry into clouds due to unexpected change in weather conditions in the valley. This led to spatial disorientation of the pilot resulting in Controlled Flight into Terrain (CFIT),' it stated.
Given Prime Minister Modi's emphasis on "sharp(ening) coordination" rather than "joint command", analysts are guessing that a four-star permanent chairman of the chiefs of staff committee is likely, with the title of CDS, if not the functions and five-star rank, reports Ajai Shukla. Ajai Shukla reports.
In the video clip, Gen Rawat paid glowing tributes to the Indian armed forces personnel killed in the 1971 war with Pakistan and appealed to the citizens to join the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the victory.
Military affairs experts said his key challenge will be to build consensus among the three services for the theaterisation plan as the Indian Air Force has some apprehensions about its roll-out.
General Bipin Rawat, India's first Chief of Defence Staff who died in a tragic helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu, was an exceptional leader, a valued partner and a strong proponent of US-India defence ties and helped deepen the bilateral strategic partnership, top US officials have said.
'The statement that Indian Air Force is supporting arm to the other two services is incorrect and wrong'
"This is the single reason why the country did not have a CDS so far," the former army chief said.
In Karnataka, home minister Araga Jnanendra directed police to track down the 'anti-national' persons who posted objectionable comments about the late chief of defence staff, and 'punish them befitting their distorted minds.'
Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat on Saturday said that China's ambitions and aspirations to global power presented an 'omnipresent danger' to stability in South Asia.
'Earlier the planning process was services specific, with others coordinating. 'Now we shall have an apex leader backed by a structure, who is accountable to provide single-point advice, based on best of all options dependent on geographical and situational intrigue, and that too, after validation,' says General Anil Chait (retd), the former central army commander.
The CDS will be senior to the service chiefs and his primary role will be to work towards increasing operational coordination among the army, the navy or the air force and deal with India's national security with a comprehensive approach.
A quintessential military commander, Gen Bipin Rawat possessed an uncanny understanding of geopolitical upheavals, calibrated a tri-services military doctrine to make India face myriad security challenges, and is largely credited with bringing down militancy in the Northeast and Jammu and Kashmir.
As per the plan, each of the theatre commands will have units of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, and all of them will work as a single entity looking after security challenges in a specified geographical territory under an operational commander.
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