The Indian government said on Thursday that the use of Indian Air Force helicopters in any offensive against Naxals is not part of a strategy in its new plan to deal with rising Maoist violence.
Anguished over the Cabinet referring the Social Security Bill to a GoMs, members of a tripartite labour committee demanded that a legislation to provide social security to the unorganised sector be passed at the earliest.
The clearance to raise the 10,000-strong Combat Battalion for Resolute Action (COBRA), under the command and control of the Central Reserve Police Force, was given last evening by the Cabinet Committee on Security chaired by the prime minister.
Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar on Tuesday directed the Committee of Secretaries to formulate a unified command for coastal districts to counter the terrorist threat from the sea.
Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishore on Tuesday said finishing touches are being given to the new Parliament building and the Lok Sabha Speaker will decide whether the forthcoming Winter Session will be held there or the existing building.
The government on Thursday decided to continue the ban imposed on Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) for its alleged links with certain Pakistan-based terrorist outfits.
The NSA visited the affected northeastern parts of Delhi, including Jaffrabad and Seelampur, where he met police officers and gave them necessary directives, besides meeting leaders of different communities to assuage the tensed situation, the officials said.
The recent rise in number of deaths of Indian fishermen by Sri Lankan naval forces has raised an alarm in New Delhi. Politicians from Tamil Nadu met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday to brief him on the recent killings on the Sri Lankan waters, and also gave him a memorandum on the same.
In a bold move, Devendra Fadnavis-led Bharatiya Janata Party government has decided to downgrade security of top politicians of Congress and Nationalist Congress Party and their kin, including former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and his then deputy Ajit Pawar.
Ahead of the assembly polls in Rajasthan, the Congress government on Saturday night issued an order for the conduct of a caste survey in the state.
A bonanza is in the offing for the senior ranks as the Defence Ministry has cleared proposals for creating more than 110 posts of Generals.
The agreement between the two has a long stop date clause, stipulating that all approvals be secured by then.
The Naresh Chandra report is the result of the first-ever focused exercise since the Kargil Review Committee, headed by the late K Subrahmanyam, of 10 years ago after which no such holistic review of all aspects of national security was taken up, reports Sheela Bhatt
Through the upgradation, the Indian Air Force is planning to increase the life of its Mirage fighters by 25 years. The upgradation will involve advanced radars, avionics and arming them with air-to-air missiles with longer reach beyond visual range.
'In the present era of strategic uncertainty and rapidly changing threats, no military professional now disputes the unavoidable necessity of a joint planning staff for the planning and conduct of joint operations so that integrated operations can be planned 'top down',' says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
Announcing the decision to go ahead with the exercises planned in Kalaikunda Air Base near Kolkata, Mukherjee told reporters on Friday, "Everything has been sorted out."
Till now, India has been importing Israeli-made 'Heron' medium and high altitude series of UAVs for the three services, which are using them extensively for surveillance operations in Jammu and Kashmir and certain other strategic areas.
The MoU will be signed during Home Minister Shivraj Patil's 5-day visit to China.
The income tax department will share PAN and bank account details of any entity with 10 investigative and intelligence agencies, including the CBI and NIA, under the integrated counter-terrorism platform NATGRID, according to an official order.
The IAF fighter strength would plunge to an all-time low of 29 squadrons by 2007 as more and more of the ageing MiG-21, the IAF's mainstay, are phased out.
The new frigates will be fitted with BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles.
'Ensuring through diplomatic means and in conjunction with strategic partners that India will not be required to fight a simultaneous two-front war with China and Pakistan.' Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd) lists what India must have in its national security strategy.
The BJP on Sunday said its senior party leader L K Advani had never said that he was not aware of the decision to send former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh along with terrorists in an aircraft to Kandahar for release of passengers of a hijacked Indian plane.
The 5.8-tonne twin-engine gunship chopper is armed with air-to-air missiles, 20 mm turret guns, rocket systems and other weapons.
The meeting is also understood to have taken stock of ceasefire violations and infiltration attempts.
The government has given the nod for the purchase of six C-130J Super Hercules transport aircraft at an estimated cost of Rs 4,000 crore from the US.
In what would be a major boost for the submarine building capability within the country, the first three nuclear attack submarines to be built indigenously would be having 95 per cent 'Made in India' content in them and it would further go up in the next three.
At the meeting, it was felt that army operations should continue in the state in view of the recent success gained against insurgents.
The CCS also discussed the Nuclear Confidence Building Measures with Pakistan.
To be bought at a cost of over Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion), these jets will replace the two ageing Boeing 737-200 aircraft purchased in 1983 for VVIP travel, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
The Home Ministry has recommended against repealing the controversial AFSPA, dubbed by its critics as "draconian".
Russia will build three stealth warships for India under a Rs 5,514-contract signed in New Delhi on Tuesday.
The deal includes 700 million for the refit and modernisation of the ship and rest for a complement of 28 Mig-29K fighters and six Kamov-31 anti-submarine helicopters.
Antony has asked Defence Secretary Shekhar Dutt to furnish the report by Friday.
The meeting has been convened by Home Minister Rajnath Singh and invitations have been extended to all major political parties.