The Cabinet Committee on Security has cleared a proposal to buy from the US ten C-17 heavy lift military aircraft worth $4.1 billion, the biggest-ever defence deal to be entered between the two countries.
If General Asim Munir, Pakistan's new army chief, wants to help defuse the current polarised atmosphere and shepherd civilian politicians towards negotiations on an acceptable date for elections, he may need to distance himself from any perception of needless hostility to Imran Khan, explains Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W, India's external intelligence agency.
'Modi personally provides the higher direction of the ministry and the minister then works with bureaucrats on implementation,' points out Aakar Patel.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will be the deputy leader.
Both India and Nepal claim Kalapani as an integral part of their territory -- India as part of Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh district and Nepal as part of Dharchula district.
The RSS wants three nominees inducted: Tejaswi Surya, the young BJP MP from Bengaluru South, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, a Rajya Sabha member, and former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.
'The much-awaited decision could be a welcome change at a time when the Indian armed forces are crying for self-reliance and the defence industry is looking forward to more indigenisation,' notes Nitin A Gokhale.
The Home Ministry has recommended against repealing the controversial AFSPA, dubbed by its critics as "draconian".
Ajit Doval is now India's all-powerful security boss. This concentration of power disrupts our layered security system. Will it not weaken whatever remains of the power and authority of the home, defence and finance ministers? asks Shekhar Gupta.
Calling COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines as one of the most important aspects of his discussions with top officials of the Biden administration, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said the endeavour is to expand production of vaccines in India with assistance from the US.
'It was Parrikar's sharp insights into finance and international systems that stood out when India --at his suggestion -- decided to procure the Rafale combat jets from France.'
Randeep Surjewala also accused the government of "doublespeak" and "sacrificing" national interests.
Why did Modi bypass the Cabinet before he committed India to the Rafale deal?
L K Advani, Venkiah Naidu and Arun Jaitley, launched a blistering attack on government after PM Manmoha Singh's speech in Parliament on Friday. Jaitley asked Defence Minister A K Antony to explain how he got Rs 1,000 crores cleared up defence purchases bypassing the Cabinet Committee on Security, while stressing on indiginisation of defence production.
It is a record that the saffron party has created, where the majority of its legislators belonged to the minority community.
The senior Congress leader was in a coma since October last year, when he was admitted to AIIMS after he suffered a brain haemorrhage.
'The high court notice could go some way in easing the vitiated civil-military relationship, and the trust deficit between civil servants and the military.'
The delivery of the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) to the Indian Air Force under a Rs 48,000-crore deal will begin from March 2024 and around 16 aircraft will be rolled out annually till the completion of the total supply of 83 jets, Chairman and Managing Director of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited R Madhavan said on Sunday.
The street-fighter attitude is what keeps Rane going even at 69. The expectation is -- at least in the BJP camp -- that he will be itching for a battle royale with the Shiv Sena in its bastions.
Experts trace the reasons for the 26/11 attacks to the Pakistan's military interest in three key areas: Kashmir, Afghanistan and nuclear armaments.
The Congress has been attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party government on the defence deal, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of causing loss to the state exchequer by buying the fighter jets at inflated rate.
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.
He added there would not have been need of any due process or Cabinet Committee for Appointment if seniority alone was the criterion.
While the Gandhi siblings have had their way with Amarinder Singh's ouster, the future of the party under the temperamental Navjot Sidhu's leadership is uncertain, reports Sai Manish.
With the defence ministry averse to sparing the army to fight Naxals, the Union home ministry will "fend for themselves" and take a fresh look at its strategy to fight Left-wing extremism including reorienting the available paramilitary forces. This was seen as a fall out of Thursday evening's Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which failed to arrive at a consensus over deployment of Army for fighting Naxals.
Against the backdrop of long delays in its projects, the Government today asked the premier research agency Defence Research and Development Organisation to accelerate the work on its major military development programmes and complete them in time. The Cabinet Committee on Security headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was briefed by the DRDO on its major projects including the futuristic Agni-6 and the recently launched Agni-5 long-range missile programmes.
The MiG29K and MiG29KUB, the aircraft carrier's primary fighters, spent more time in the hangar than in the air, with fleet serviceability remaining below 50 per cent, reports Ajai Shukla.
'Is the appointment of a CDS likely to achieve the creation of battle-ready, tri-service military commands, from the current 17 single-service commands?', asks Ajai Shukla.
The Defence Ministry issued the order after the Cabinet Committee on Appointments cleared Singh's name for the top post, senior ministry sources said in New Delhi.
The three hour-long meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security on Monday evening failed to determine how best to control the ongoing violence in Kashmir Valley, except to decide to hold an all party meeting on September 15 to discuss the issue with the opposition parties.
Rahul targets the Modi government on Twitter, using the hashtag "BikGayaChowkidar".
The 'AH-64-E' choppers are known as one of the most advanced multi-role combat helicopters.
India on Thursday outrightly rejected Pakistan's proposal for UN investigation into Tuesday's incident on Line of Control in which two Indian soldiers were killed with the body of one being badly mutilated.
The storm is likely to impact Mumbai, Thane and other coastal districts of Maharashtra like Raigad and Palghar along with Valsad, Navsari, Surat, Bhavnagar and Bharuch districts of Gujarat and Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. Preparations for the impending cyclone were discussed at a meeting of the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC), headed by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, a home ministry statement said.
The Covid pandemic has left a question mark on how the central government manages its staff.
The Raksha Mantri was unable to address media queries about how much the Modi government was paying for 36 Rafales compared to what the UPA government had negotiated.
Ahead of his India visit on February 24-25, Trump said that India has not treated his country 'very well' on the trade front and indicated that a 'very big' bilateral deal with New Delhi may not be signed before the American presidential election in November.
In its first decision, the Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) on Wednesday cleared Reliance Industries' producing KG-D6 block and gas discovery area NEC-25 along with 3 other areas where the Defence Ministry had either barred oil and gas activity or put stringent conditions on that.
India has signed a deal worth over Rs 2,600 crore with Russia to procure 66,000 anti-tank shells to meet the shortfall of critical ammunition faced by its armoured fleet, including the latest T-90 tanks.
Eminent scientist S Christopher was on Thursday appointed as the director general of the Defence Research and Development Organisation for a two-year term.
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