Although the BJP has never been ballistic about the BJD and Narendra Modi has avoided being critical of Naveen Patnaik, the BJP is optimistic that the party can improve its electoral fortunes in Odisha on its own, notes Rup Narayan Das.
The govt hiked defence budget by 7.81 per cent over last year's Rs 2.74 lakh crore.
Times have changed, situations have changed, but the basic nature of superpower geo-politics remains the same and so also India's diplomacy -- call it non-alignment, strategic autonomy or neutrality; it all depends on the time scale, notes Rup Narayan Das.
Whether Rajeev Chandrasekhar wins or not, Thiruvananthapuram will likely never see such an interesting contest again.
'At this moment you cannot give her asylum because if you do, then you are directing public anger against India.'
The $10.5 billion arms and equipment deal helped to arrest the recent drift in the 'special and privileged' strategic partnership, observes Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
The finance minister continues to be backed by the same policy team in charting out the broad strategy as in the few earlier Budgets.
There will be always new areas for India and China to cooperate and collaborate, since they facing similar challengers, says China expert Dr Hu Shisheng.
India has been rejecting China renaming places in Arunachal Pradesh, asserting that the state is an integral part of the country and assigning "invented" names does not alter this reality.
At a dialogue between the Ministry of External Affairs, International Institute for Strategic Studies, London and IDSA, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai spoke extensively on the topic of 'Forging Stability in Asia'. He talked about the challenges and goals that India faces while trying to strengthen its ties across the Asian continent.
Although the credit for acquiring the technological skill must be given to India's outstanding nuclear scientists, the decision to go nuclear was a political one that entailed clarity of vision, courage and resolve, points out Rup Narayan Das.
China should deepen its defence ties with India, as the agreement reached by the two countries to resume joint military exercises still represented a 'low level of cooperation', the official media said on Wednesday.
Officials hint the visit could finally see a formal defence industrial road map being adopted by both nations.
Transcript of the chat on China by Srikanth Kondapalli.
Naxals are possibly receiving foreign funds but the chunk of their money comes from extortion of corporate houses and 'levy' imposed by them on mining, the government said on Wednesday.
A retired Indian colonel working with the United Nations was killed in Gaza when the vehicle he was travelling in came under attack in strife-torn Rafah, the 'first international' casualty for the world body since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Chinese Ambassador Sun Weidong has said peace and tranquility in the border areas with India is important but it is not the "whole story" of the bilateral relations and that the current status of the ties is obviously not in the fundamental interest of either side, remarks that came amid the Ladakh military standoff.
'Israel is counting on the United States to enter the fray on their behalf and perform destructive strikes against these targets that are beyond Israel's conventional capabilities.' 'They may well get their way if they start a war, because the United States is still committed to Israel's security, and it won't matter whether it is Trump or Harris in the White House.'
The government order saying the assistance under the scheme cannot exceed Rs 10,000 per month had triggered widespread discontent among all the three services.
Esper also highlighted the 'increased' military cooperation with India and called it as 'one of the most important defence relationships of the 21th century'.
In a relief to FMCG major Dabur, two of its foreign subsidiaries, Dabur International and Dermoviva Skin Essentials, have been removed as a defendant in multiple lawsuits filed in a US court over allegations that their hair-relaxer products caused ovarian cancer, uterine cancer and other related health issues. However, lawsuits filed against its third international subsidiary Namaste Laboratories LLC, would continue before the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, according to a statement from Dabur on Wednesday. Dabur International and Dermoviva were removed and got relief in the multiple suits due to lack of jurisdiction as they have not either manufactured, marketed, distributed or sold hair relaxer products in the US, it added.
'India needs to formulate a comprehensive space security policy for defence and development,' the point was suggested by a group constituted by the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses.
The Internal and external security agencies, Intelligence Bureau and Research and Analysis Wing, should have professional and democratic framework that would enable the bodies to work more effectively, a draft report prepared by experts said.
The Kiev-class warship, for which India signed a contract with Russia in 2004 for $974 million, was originally scheduled for delivery in 2008.
The equation between the army and its countrymen in a democratic country should be one of mutual pride and implicit trust. Protracted deployment of the army on the home-turf tends to skew the equation. The people tend to perceive it as the occupation-army, says R N Ravi.
In a worrisome trend, researchers have found that candidates with less or poor general aptitude are getting attracted to jobs in the Intelligence Bureau and the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) among other agencies and suggested changes in selection procedures.
Professor Zha Daojiong speaks of the complex issues related to energy security, diplomacy and economics of the region.
'China will continue to play Pakistan against India to achieve complete superiority. But China at best is a regional power, we must not exaggerate its capabilities,' says nuclear analyst Dr R R Subramanian.
The 156-page report titled 'Whither Pakistan? Growing Instability And Implications for India' said: "it is very much likely that agencies in Pakistan will continue with their present strategy of using terror as a tool of pressure against India."
Shanthie Mariet D'Souza, an associate fellow with the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi, traces the future of India-Afghanistan relations. The October 8 attack on the Indian embassy in Afghanistan, a grim reminder of a similar attack on July 7, 2008, has yet again highlighted the challenges of India's involvement in Afghanistan.
Interview with K Subrahmanyam. He used to chair the Joint Intelligence Committee and headed the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses for 15 years, is one of India's foremost strategic experts
What would serve New Delhi best is a relatively peaceful election that places in office a legitimate government committed to bringing stability and development to conflict ridden Afghanistan.
Wing Commander Ajey Lele says it does not matter how superior our technology is, but what we do with the intelligence gathered from it.
According to various global media reports, China is creating Covid-like pathogens in Pakistan that have the potential of causing virus contamination on a scale far higher than Covid.
The nation has the fifth largest defence budget in the world, at $52.5 billion in 2017 ($51.1 billion in 2016), overtaking the UK whose defence budget fell from $52.5 billion in 2016 to $50.7 billion in 2017.
There are contradictions in that relationship too.
'India should be a partner, not a target'\n
\n'The US is looking upon India as a great factor of stability,' says Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran.
'There is a view that there is a Pakistan angle to this.' 'Pakistan has a large presence in Qatar and would want India to be blacklisted.'
