Armed forces veterans have expressed mixed reaction to the Agnipath scheme under which soldiers will be recruited in the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, largely on a short-term contractual basis, with an aim to cut the ballooning salary and pensions bill.
India's plans to bolster its military strength along the border with China by deploying its potent Sukhoi fighter jets in Tezpur have been badly hit due to poor infrastructure at the front line airbase.
The IAF and USAF would begin a 12-day exercise at Kalaikunda base from November 7 and West Bengal's ruling CPI (M) has threatened to mobilise 30 lakh activists in statewide protests against the event.
In a move that could raise the hackles of neighbouring Pakistan and China, India will soon raise two new division-sized army formations to give more teeth to its mountain warfare machinery.The Defence Ministry's proposal for raising of the two mountain divisions was approved recently by the Cabinet Committee on Security, ministry sources said.The proposed mountain divisions will further enhance the tactical strength of the Indian army in its strategically important areas.
Rediff.com's Dominic Xavier introduces you to the new look CCS, the most elite club in government.
India has already purchased 16 MiG-29K aircraft from Russia for $536 million. The total deal, including the warship, was for $1.5 billion in 2004.
The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met in New Delhi on Monday to discuss a package for Jammu and Kashmir hit by a fresh bout of violence since Eid last Saturday.
The government continues to grope in the dark while looking for an initiative, which would end the three month cycle of violence that has claimed 69 lives and disturbed the peace in Kashmir Valley.
Banners have come up in front of Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar's residences in Bengaluru, erected by supporters, congratulating them for Congress win and projecting them as "next CM".
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.
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.
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.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise visit to the new parliament building in New Delhi on Thursday evening and inspected various works as well as interacted with construction workers, sources said.
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.
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.
Extending its winning run in the south, the Congress on Sunday won 64 assembly seats to form government in the Bharat Rashtra Samiti-dominated Telangana, with the southern solace coming in the midst of a saffron sweep of the Hindi heartland where the Bharatiya Janata Party wrested two states from the grand old party and retained one.
Das, a law graduate, was in politics from his college days and was elected as the Students' Union president at Gangadhar Meher College at Sambalpur, one of the oldest colleges in western Odisha.
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.
The government on Monday appointed former Sebi member Madhabi Puri Buch as chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
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.
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.
August 15, 2023 became for me, an extraordinary Independence Day. I will remember it as the day the country's largest political party -- one that struts around like a colossus and tutors us in apt behaviour -- suddenly looked bankrupt in terms of ideas and had to take out a personal guarantee from the prime minister to underscore its capacity to deliver our future, observes Shyam G Menon.
The agreement between the two has a long stop date clause, stipulating that all approvals be secured by then.
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.
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.
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.
'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).
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
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.
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 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.
At the meeting, it was felt that army operations should continue in the state in view of the recent success gained against insurgents.
The meeting is also understood to have taken stock of ceasefire violations and infiltration attempts.
The CCS also discussed the Nuclear Confidence Building Measures with Pakistan.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances