With Lok Sabha elections just a year away, a key committee of the Congress embarked on an exercise aimed at turning around the electoral fortunes of the grand old party, which has been been on a losing spree.
Defence Minister A K Antony on Thursday said that India has placed an order of purchase for a ship with the United States and that the same has already arrived and been inducted into the Indian Navy. He said the Indian Navy has assessed her residual life to be over 10 years. He also said India has not purchased any landing platform dock from Russia.
Antony said the government would take all 'humanly possible' steps to protect the rights of fishermen.
Hours after United States Speaker Nancy Pelosi flew out of Taiwan, leaving the Indo-Pacific region in a state of some unrest, External Affairs Minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and US Secretary of State Antony J Blinken held extensive talks ahead of the ASEAN meeting in Cambodia on Thursday, August 4, 2022.
The army has re-deployed 3,500 troops from Misa in Arunachal Pradesh to Sibsagar and Dhemaji districts, where many Hindi-speaking people were gunned down.
Sitharaman criticised the news report for raising issues 'selectively' and ignoring the then defence minister Manohar Parrikar's reply.
Under the new scheme, women enrollees in the army will be eligible to attain the rank of Captain after two years, Major after a tenure of six years and can aspire to rise to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 13 years
He also advised Congress chief Rahul Gandhi to "learn" from former defence minister Pranab Mukherjee "lessons on national security."
The tanks with new systems will be imported from Russia at an estimated cost of Rs 3,900 crore and are likely to be inducted over the next two years, army officials said.
The first state visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the US is likely to be a defining moment for Indo-US relationship and both sides are working on a robust outcome document that may take up matters that would decide the contour of the bilateral ties for decades to come, according to people familiar with the planning of the high-profile trip.
Playing the great general will be a challenge for the talented actor.
India on Wednesday cancelled its Rs 3,600 crore deal with Anglo-Italian firm AgustaWestland for the supply of 12 VVIP choppers to the Air Force in view of charges that kickbacks to the tune of Rs 360 crore had been paid in it.
'More needs to be done in less time,' says Vivek Gumaste. 'A sense of urgency is crucial if the BJP wishes to fulfil its promise of tough, no-nonsense, governance in matters of security.'
The Tejas has flown an unprecedented 450 test flights this year towards a splashy ceremony in Bangalore scheduled for December 20, where Defence Minister AK Antony will preside over its induction into the Indian Air Force, says Ajai Shukla.
The defence minister also called the bickering against the deal as "disservice" to the armed forces, asserting that urgent requirement of the Indian Air Force was the main reason for sealing it.
Targeting the previous United Progressive Alliance regime over the controversial AgustaWestland deal, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday said the ongoing probe will focus on those named in the Italian court judgement.
The fleet landed at Al Dhafra airbase on Monday in the United Arab Emirates after flying for over seven hours from the Merignac airbase. It was the only stopover by the jets while flying from France to India.
Closing ranks, Political parties bristled with outrage over the killing of five Indian soldiers by Pakistan with Congress President Sonia Gandhi declaring that India could not be cowed down by such "blatant acts of deceit".
With the 126 fighter deal in the pipeline, India and France on Friday set out on a course of long-term strategic cooperation with the latter offering to move on from client-seller relationship to joint production of military hardware which could be exported to other countries.
He also said that it is more than a relationship between the two countries.
We can expect to see more Chinese wolf warrior diplomats on the prowl, in India's neighbourhood, though its mailed fist is not so visible while dealing with India, observes Colonel R Hariharan (retd).
The AgustaWestland issue was fiercely debated in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday with members of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress blaming each other.
The defence ministry has put on hold all existing and future deals with Rolls Royce pending a CBI probe ordered into allegations of bribery and engaging middlemen in contracts worth Rs 10,000 crore for supply of aircraft engines to state-owned HAL.
Defence is at the heart of the India-United relationship, so it is interesting that General Lloyd Austin, the US secretary for defense, was not among the officials present when Joe Biden met Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi for their first meeting since Biden became president in January.
In October 2018, India had signed a US$ 5 billion deal with Russia to buy five units of the S-400 air defence missile systems, despite a warning from the Trump administration that going ahead with the contract may invite US sanctions.
The government vowed to track down the main beneficiaries of the kickbacks so that "we can do" what "we could not do in Bofors
Rejecting Biden's comments, Pakistan foreign minister Bilawal at a press conference here said that Pakistan was following the global standards.
Dismantling a legacy of United Progressive Alliance rule, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has abolished all the 30 GoMs and EGoMs and told ministries and departments to take decisions on pending matters.
Blinken and Indian leaders on Wednesday will discuss a plethora of pressing issues such as the fluid situation in Afghanistan, regional security concerns, COVID-19 response and ways to boost Indo-Pacific engagement, people familiar with the agenda of talks said.
'Everyone I know has somebody kidnapped or murdered by the terrorists.'
In a major milestone in the country's military aviation, indigenous supersonic fighter aircraft LCA-Tejas on Friday received the Initial Operational Clearance, that takes it a step closer to its induction into the Indian Air Force squadron.
Complaints of alleged irregularities have been received in connection with Army's plan to procure ultra light howitzers worth over Rs 3,000 crore and a committee has been formed to probe these charges, the government has told Lok Sabha.
The Deputy High Commissioner was summoned by Joint Secretary in Ministry of External Affairs Rudrendra Tandon in South Block and delivered a strong diplomatic message, sources said.
Favouring self-regulation by media, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said some aberrations had crept into the "fiercely independent" journalism and it should itself find ways to remove them.
Among the long queues of voters, there were some famous faces too who exercised their franchise.
The mortal remains of Sunanda Pushkar, who was found dead in mysterious circumstances at a luxury hotel in New Delhi on Friday night, were consigned to flames on Saturday in presence of her family members.
Many countries including the United States and France have offered help to India in its ongoing operations to bring out bodies in the sunken submarine INS Sindhurakshak.
The Congress on Thursday dismissed an opinion poll predicting party vide-president Rahul Gandhi as the third choice for prime ministerial prospect, terming it inaccurate.
In his maiden visit to a defence establishment, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will sail on INS Vikramaditya, the largest warship of the Indian Navy, off the coast of Goa on June 14.
Many of the stories, the pictures going out of India worldwide lately with these provocative processions, taunting of Muslims, bulldozers targeting mostly their properties, the sweeping 'othering' of a community of 200 million are painting the front pages and TV screens in the democratic world. That is where most of the friends we covet lie. Soon enough, these will also make our vital friends among the Muslim nations, from Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, uneasy. The best time for course correction is now, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
