Pawar, who was also the deputy CM in the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, which was in power from November 2019 to June 2022, enjoys the image of a grassroot leader and an able administrator.
This is for the first time that Vadra's associates have been linked to alleged commissions received in defence deals by the ED.
India's historical focus on its continental borders has overshadowed its maritime ambitions, but that is changing quickly, notes Ajai Shukla.
Union minister Smriti Irani reacted furiously to the Congress leader's barb at the prime minister over the Rafale purchase and the tense situation in Manipur.
Rostec, a Russian state corporation set up to promote development, production and export of hi-tech industrial products for civil and defence sectors, has strongly backed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' pitch.
Observing that it was dealing with a case which was an "exceptionally painful episode of our criminal justice system", the Supreme Court on Friday convicted former Lok Sabha MP from Bihar Prabhunath Singh in a 1995 double murder case, overturning the orders of the trial court and the Patna high court acquitting him.
'We have a common way of looking at the world, a common way of thinking, and a common set of values that predispose us to be partners. And our interests overlap greatly,' Dr Ashton B Carter, America's next defence secretary, told Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com in an exclusive interview.
The department of telecommunication is expecting defence ministry to soon vacate the spectrum for mobile services, including 3G, as discussions with the armed forces are in final stages, a senior ministry official said on Wednesday.
No one really knows what proportion of the nation's wealth and income are available for defence
Two commandos of the special forces were also killed in the rescue operation that was launched after negotiations between the government and the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militants to end the hostage crisis failed.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden condemned Russia's annexation of Ukrainian territory on Friday.
The ministry of defence has cleared the names of eight private companies for the manufacture of spares and parts needed for the combined forces, Joint Secretary of Department of Defence production and supplies, Alok Perti, said.
The government has allowed the Enforcement Directorate to share information about economic offenders with 15 more agencies, including SFIO, CCI and NIA, a move that will expedite nailing of law-breakers. The finance ministry notified changes to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, on November 22. Through the notification, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which deals primarily with cases of money laundering and violations of foreign exchange laws, would be able to share data with a total of 25 agencies, including the 10 specified earlier.
Top pistol shooter Ankait Tomar was removed from the Indian contingent bound for the ISSF World Championships in Baku a week before its departure because of a "minor scuffle with a fellow shooter", said his father on Sunday.
Indo-Pacific region. Senior officials from the ministries of External Affairs and Defence, and the US departments of Defence and State met here for the India-US 2+2 Inter-Sessional meeting.
Uniform Civil Code is aimed at replacing personal laws based on religions, customs, and traditions with one common law for everyone irrespective of religion, caste, creed, sexual orientation, and gender. Personal laws and laws related to inheritance, adoption and succession are likely to be covered by a common code.
Defence forces, who were last month excluded from the list of agencies eligible to procure jammers, have now been included, in addition to central armed police forces like Central Reserve Police Force, Central Industrial Security Force and Indo Tibetan Border Police.
President Droupadi Murmu will lead the nation in celebrating the Republic Day, and Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will be the chief guest at the ceremonial event.
Cyclone Biparjoy made landfall near Jakhau Port in Gujarat on Thursday evening with a wind speed of 115-125 kmph gusting to 140 kmph as heavy rains lashed the coastal region, where several areas plunged into darkness due to power cuts and a large number of trees, electric poles and hoardings got uprooted.
FDI in the defence sector during 2000-2014 has been a meagre $4.94 billion, despite the total FDI flow into the country across sectors standing at $321.81 billion.
In most parts of the landlocked northeastern state, items such as rice, potato, onion and egg besides LPG cylinders and petrol are selling at rates much above the ones fixed by the government.
India is one of the largest defence importers.
A suspected Chinese spy balloon, said to be the size of three buses, was spotted over the United States' airspace, the Pentagon has said, a development that has further strained the already tense bilateral ties as Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday abruptly postponed his key visit to Beijing.
Confronting a slowdown in growth, China says it will only increase its defence budget by 7.6% this year, against the anticipated rise of between 20% and 30%. 'It is difficult to explain the reduction in the Chinese defence budget,' says Claude Arpi. 'Is there a hidden budget? Possibly!'
The defence ministry has signed off on a national security plan that it cannot fund. Ajai Shukla reports
Blinken made these remarks at a joint news conference with Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and their Indian counterparts -- External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh -- after the conclusion of the 2+2 Ministerial on Monday.
He said the country needs to have "zero tolerance" for corruption in the administrative ecosystem and this would work for the idea of a developed India.
Fresh trouble seems to be brewing between the defence ministry and the Department of Telecommunications over spectrum and this could put a question mark on the launch of third generation telephony services in the country by March next year.
Pakistan will explore other options to meet its defence needs if the deal for F-16s did not materialise with the United States, Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif on Tuesday said
Here is a timeline of what happened to the Indian Air Force helicopter carrying Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat and others that crashed near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday:
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said that decision on Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) should have been taken during 1971 war between India and the neighbouring country.
Defence officials contend that the services do not use spectrum for 'commercial purposes' and therefore do not need to pay for it.
The two frontline combat aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed during a training mission in Morena on Saturday, resulting in the death of a wing commander while two other pilots ejected safely.
The Centre received 5.59 lakh public grievances against various government departments in the first half of this year, with the Department of Financial Services (DFS) getting most of such complaints, according to an official report.
It is not much of an issue just now, but it could become one if the idea of caste census captures socio-political imagination, going beyond electoral tags and identities, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
India and the United States have signed an agreement for cooperation in the development of Air-Launched Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (ALUAV), in yet another step to further expand bilateral defence and military cooperation.
Nicholas Pooran's whirlwind 62 from 19 balls powered Lucknow Super Giants to a memorable one-wicket victory off the last ball against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
The defence ministry had demanded the entire spectrum in the area up to 100 km from the international border. The DoT has rejected this, as also a proposal by the ministry asking for prime towns, including state capitals, to be put under the 'defence interest zone'.
The government is open to reviewing all cases of blacklisted defence firms on merit and has partially lifted a ban on Tatra trucks as it prepares a new policy that will allow foreign defence firms to legally hire agents, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar 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.
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