Japan could soon be the second country after the US with which India has a logistics support agreement. Besides the LSA, India and Japan may also sign a maritime domain awareness agreement which would enable the two navies to share information. For example, if a Japanese P-1 maritime patrol aircraft detects a Chinese submarine in the Indian Ocean, it would pass on the information to the Indian Navy, reveals Ajai Shukla.
The new minister must commit himself to supporting long-term defence plans or else defence modernisation will continue to lag and the growing military capabilities gap with China will assume ominous proportions, warns Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
The National Investigation Agency and Nagaland Police have arrested three suspected activists of NDFB-S, including Ajoi Basamutary on whose alleged instructions 36 people were killed in Assam's Sonitpur area last month.
General Bakshi is understood to have been assured by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar that the process was under way to appoint him as India's first tri-service commander, a post that would, at least nominally, place him senior to General Rawat.
Cyberspace is a battleground as important as the traditional domains of air, land, sea and space, says US Defence Secretary Ash Carter, who visits India next week.
The Naxals fled from the spot after a prolonged gunfight.
'Given the present force levels, India cannot fight and win.' 'India can't hope to terminate the conflict on India's terms and impose the nation's will upon the adversaries,' says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
The Central Reserve Police Force has lost six times more men at the hands of Naxals this year as compared to its casualties in other combat zones, including terror-hit Jammu and Kashmir or insurgency-affected North East. While the counter-Naxal task has claimed the lives of 46 CRPF personnel across 20 states till September this year, seven troops lost their lives in Jammu and Kashmir while one was killed in the North East.
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Lt Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag will be the next Army Chief succeeding Gen Bikram Singh as the government on Tuesday appointed him to the top post, ignoring protests from Bharatiya Janata Party.
'The provisions of the AFSPA must remain on the statute books given the increasingly violent and uncertain times.'
'Had it not been for the complicity of the state and Biren Singh's leadership, these riots would not have spread this far and for so long.'
This is a challenge India's political establishment will have to face unitedly, without looking for electoral benefit, warns Vir Sanghvi.
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Throughout a quarter century of proxy war, India has shown tremendous restraint in the face of grave provocation. It is inconceivable that any other nation would have refrained from launching trans-LoC operations to eliminate terrorist training camps and interdict known routes of infiltration, says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
'Offensive operations to capture objectives across the LoC to eliminate terrorist launch pads and deny the use of the most dangerous routes of infiltration, are likely to be limited to brigade-level attacks.' 'These limited operations are unlikely to escalate to war across the international boundary,' says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
Bhatnagar is expected to take charge of the CRPF later this week as he is on an official assignment in Indonesia in the capacity of NCB DG.
The Pentagon has praised India's significant contribution in the peaceful development of Afghanistan, aimed at securing a stable region and facilitating economic corridors into Central Asia.
'As far as Kashmir is concerned, a 'solution' was very much in play, and had brought endemic violence across the Jammu and Kashmir regions very much under control before the disruptive adventurism of the present regime resulted in a limited and localised escalation.'
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai will arrive in Washington on Monday to hold talks with the United States administration on a host of crucial issues.Karzai has already been pulled up by Obama over the rampant corruption in the Afghanistan administration. But in a bid to pacify its important ally in the war on terror, Obama has reportedly instructed senior officials to treat Karzai with respect and stop criticising his government.
For both India and China, the most likely option -- and the most challenging -- appears to be a freezing of the status quo.
'The target for all our counter-terror operations ought to be Pakistani Punjab's population,' argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The unfortunate thing is that the film will leave a poor impression of the IAF's and indeed of the armed forces's ability to handle sensitive social matters within their professional space, observes Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd).
'Vietnam has become an adjective as well as a verb -- the Americans, for instance, were driven by the passion to do a 'Vietnam' on the Soviet Union when that country invaded Afghanistan in 1979.'
'It is an ambush, and no IEDs were used, which means it is more tactical, more technical and more intelligent.'
'One of R&AW's greatest achievements is in projecting itself as benign.' 'This work -- done in tandem with the Diaspora and the MEA -- sells a story of India as mostly the victim.'
The Pakistan government is supporting Islamist groups close to the Taliban in its attempt to suppress tribal insurgency in Balochistan, a leading international think tank has alleged. In its report Pakistan: The Forgotten Conflict in Balochistan, the International Crisis Group said that the Musharraf regime relies on divide-and-rule policies. It supports Pashtun Islamist parties like the JUI-F, a key patron of the Afghan Taliban, in a bid to counter secular Baloch forces.
'But India, increasingly, is not that far behind, which is a story I never expected to tell.'
According to a report by the National Bomb Data Centre, a total of 337 blasts of various kinds were reported last year, an increase from 268 in 2015.
Though dubbed as the 'war hero', the role of Rajapaksa in ending the conflict with the LTTE with the death of its supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran in 2009 is quite divisive as he stands accused of violating human rights, a charge he vehemently denies.
'I can't tell my men to wait and die,' says Gen Bipin Rawat.
He said 90 IS sympathisers had been arrested across the country.
'We think Pakistan has moved decisively against terrorists that threaten Pakistan internally, but still needs to devote attention to those that represent a threat to their neighbours.'
The results have been encouraging and "many prospective militants have been weaned away from terrorism," Lt Gen Raju said refusing to either divulge further details or numbers.
Taliban insurgents disguised as police attacked a prison holding hundreds of militants in northwest Pakistan with rockets and mortars and have reportedly escaped with 300 prisoners after a gunfight with security forces.
'Make in India is one of the priorities identified by Minister Sitharaman and this is our great weakness,' warns Vice Admiral Premvir Das.
He was awarded DGP medal and commendation recently for his outstanding contribution.
'There is a clear plan being followed by the Indian government.' With these attacks, we are trying to dispel the myth that the Pakistani army can cause problems.'
'Reduce the perks and privileges of MPs, but let there be no reduction in the money spent on the education of martyrs' children,' says former BJP MP Tarun Vijay.
For the first time in its three decade-old history, the country's elite counter-terror force National Security Guard has begun training its commandos in undertaking precision hostage rescue missions in jungles keeping in view emerging Naxalite tactics aimed at capturing high-value targets.
Those advocating a similar raid in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, for instance, need to have a reality check on the applicability of the same template on other borders, says Nitin Gokhale.
Terrorists and insurgents are getting "public support" in some parts of the country and unless this is stopped, India will continue to get hit by acts of terrorism.
