'What do you think the Congress is today?' 'Is it a political party heading for a life-and-death battle?' 'Or an NGO, just doing its thing and hoping it will improve the state of the world?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
Taking on the Congress over the Rafale deal, the defence minister asserted that 'there is something different between defence deal and deal in defence.'
Along with HAL, Boeing intends to involve the Mahindra Group in building Super Hornets in India.
The government is looking into the complaints about the procedure to determine the winner of the multi-billion dollar combat aircraft deal, Defence Minister A K Antony said on Thursday while admitting that there was no money to sign such a big deal in this fiscal.
The army is planning to procure 100 self-propelled artillery howitzers and three Indian vendors, including two private companies, have been selected for trial of their equipment, Defence Minister A K Antony told the Lok Sabha on Monday.
The armed forces are quite happy with the attention paid to their concerns, reports R S Chauhan.
The deal for purchase of 36 Rafale fighter planes from France is not done yet, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Friday with an assertion that the government was negotiating to reduce to deal value and "save a lot" of money.
The French government has rejected Indian negotiators' demand for a 50 per cent offset clause citing sharp cost escalation but offered to participate in 'Make in India' projects to carry forward the talks for 36 Rafale fighter jets that have hit turbulence.
The contracts with Israel Aerospace Industries will condemn the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft to a marginal presence in the IAF's future fleet.
The Rafale will surely be flying in Indian skies next year. But the way the BJP government has botched this will cast a shadow on defence acquisitions in the years to come.
Boeing's plan involves setting up an Indian factory and the aerospace ecosystem to build the Block II Super Hornet.
Rafale deal will bring relief to IAF: Parrikar
NSA Doval, defence top brass brief Union ministers on the deal to help them counter Opposition charges.
Gandhi was in the eye of a storm for allegedly leaking defence secrets to controversial arms dealer Abhishek Verma.
Gandhi said the BJP, in power in Madhya Pradesh since 2003, is only working for a few rich people.
It is learnt that the Aeronautical Development Agency, which oversees the development of Tejas, has put together a flying routine that 'significantly surpasses any aerobatics display the fighter has presented earlier'.
The events of September 24 have not only earned the country a whole lot of interest but also showed the world how a lot more can be accomplished with a shoestring budget.
'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.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on range of issues -- from Rafale deal to Ram temple and triple talaq.
Production in India would be open for companies other than HAL
'Make in India' will be central to Mr Modi's visit to Europe and Canada. It is difficult to predict what will happen with the Rafale deal, but if it goes through, it will undoubtedly become the 'Mother' of all 'Make in India' projects,' says Claude Arpi.
There could be significant announcements about India's purchase of Kamov-226T helicopters, S-400 air defence missile systems, and the long-delayed contract for joint development of the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft.
Over 20 political parties, except the Biju Janata Dal and the Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Front, took part in the massive rally.
'Let us remember that Make in India for defence must not be our goal.' 'The goal is to have a strong military to help the nation protect its identity and assert its will.'
In the light of India's increasingly 'darkening' threat environment and the convergence of strategic interests between China and Pakistan, the IAF's declining combat capabilities are a cause for concern, says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
Marking a breakthrough in the protracted talks in the French Rafale jet deal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Friday that India will purchase 36 of these fighter planes that are ready to fly, citing critical operational requirement of the Indian Air Force.
The IAF has just 33 squadrons, 9 short of the 42 squadrons needed to tackle China and Pakistan together, says Ajai Shukla.
'There is no remorse over the Dadri lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq or of Pehlu Khan by cow vigilante groups.' 'But should you not have remorse for those who came to kill them?' 'They were Hindus. Do you accept that?' 'That to kill one Pehlu, 20 Hindus have become murderers.' Rajdeep Sardesai in conversation with Ravish Kumar.
As football fans arrive to watch Euro 2016, France's trade unions have undertaken a series of strikes to provoke a make-or-break situation. Claude Arpi encounters both Gallic beauty and ugliness in the country of his birth.
Indian states are preparing for a Rs 1.9 lakh crore (Rs 1.9 trillion) tax windfall this fiscal year.
Top leaders from India Inc may be busy throughout the year, but they too have a very strong social life beyond work.
What the new defence minister does with the Rafale fighter jet deal will decide if India wants to build genuine, long-term defence capability through an indigenous product that slashes life-cycle costs, or opt for glitzy signing ceremony with foreign vendors that would please the public, says Ajai Shukla.
Every demand of the armed forces remains essentially anchored to 1964 and its fulfilment or otherwise largely a function of money availability
'The India-France relationship has been that of the elites of two countries, who appreciate each other's philosophical traditions -- whether it is ancient Indian civilisation and Sanskrit texts or the French tradition of Rene Descartes, Albert Camus, (Jean-Paul) Sartre... This is a drawback. It doesn't create the buzz, the excitement necessary for a relationship. We need more people-to-people contact, especially among students,' says former Ambassador to Paris, Rakesh Sood.
Modi's visit to some developed countries such as the US, Japan, China and Australia were sprinkled with humongous investment figures. But do we have the wherewithal to absorb such big investments?
The conservative bureaucracy that influences the political masters is clearly not concerned with the vision documents prepared by defence chiefs to bring India's military into a state of preparedness, says Seema Mustafa
'Under the present Defence Procurement Procedure, it would have been a nightmare, and a long, long one at that, to build 108 Rafales in India. Modi realised this and took the wise decision, though it is a definitive setback for his Make in India scheme.'
Delhi's inability to open up a new canvas with Pakistan and Sharif is symptomatic of its sluggish thinking. Jyoti Malhotra analyses
'The government has belied the hope that many harboured of change, efficiency and dismantling old practices as the defence ministry continues to pursue the same well trodden and wasteful path.'
'The armed forces have been given clear indication that they have to give priority to Make in India and indigenisation and dependence on foreign source should be reduced.' 'Almost Rs 90,000 crores contracts have been signed during my tenure. Another almost Rs 70,000 crores are in the pipeline.'
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