Should we be exposing our women volunteers to the barbarity of actual combat?
'My biggest contribution is the creation of the first 'modern Indian law firm',' Cyril Shroff tells Sudipto Dey.
There are signs of China's external behaviour becoming more aggressive in the coming years. If that happens, strategic implications for neighbours having territorial disputes with China can become deeper and imperatives can rise for the former to counteract, says D S Rajan
'The scope of cordon and search operations has changed drastically.' 'Operations are now more focused, intelligence driven and involve very small cordons with minimum inconvenience to the people.' 'This has been the humanisation of conflict.' 'It has come to be institutionalised in the army's concept.' 'General Rawat has been schooled in this thinking and when he makes a statement it is with full consciousness of the institutionalised concept,' says Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd), the former GOC 15 Corps in Srinagar and the officer acclaimed as the 'People's General'.
'Kashmir is complex, conflicted and unpredictable.' 'Take the instance of Handwara and the killings there.' 'The need of the hour is more one of restraint in the violent reactions of the armed forces.' 'But restraint is wanting in Kashmir for a quarter of a century now.'
To be sure, Modi is no Vajpayee; at least that is the impression he gives. However, this doesn't mean that he will be looking for a fight. All it means is that if Pakistan seeks a fight, he will not back down. What it also means is that the pusillanimous approach of the previous governments to ceaseless provocations from Pakistan will probably change, says Sushant Sareen.
'Ensuring through diplomatic means and in conjunction with strategic partners that India will not be required to fight a simultaneous two-front war with China and Pakistan.' Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd) lists what India must have in its national security strategy.
'Given the present force levels, India cannot fight and win.' 'India can't hope to terminate the conflict on India's terms and impose the nation's will upon the adversaries,' says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
The 84-year old veteran Congressman, who died from post-COVID complications on Monday, was a Nehru-Gandhi family loyalist.
'We're paying them nothing because that's what they've done to help us. Nothing'
Modi's tweets talk about the celebration of democracy and also puts emphasis on the education of girls, says Mayank Mishra
The two Koreas agreed during rare talks on Wednesday to form a combined women's ice hockey team to take part in next month's Winter Olympics in the South.
'The military aim in a future conflict, if it can't be avoided, should be to cause maximum damage to the adversary's war waging capability and capture limited amount of territory as a bargaining counter,' says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
Continued uncertainty or confrontation in the Asia-Pacific is clearly in no one's interest as it will affect major powers' attempts to restructure their economies and revive growth. Conflict would roll back the gains to each of our countries of 40 years of stability and peace, says Shivshankar Menon.
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).
Claude Arpi salutes Lieutenant General Zorawar Chand Bakshi, India's most decorated general, who passed into the ages recently.
If the chemistry between Modi and Xi Jinping goes well, it will herald a new future not just for the region but for the world, says Tarun Vijay.
'If Indian armed forces entered Pakistan and succeeded in inflicting major damage on the Pakistani army and occupied territory in the Pakistani heartland, there is reason to think the Pakistani military would use some nuclear weapons against the incoming Indian forces to compel India to stop.'
Dr Manmohan Singh would be faced with very few choices in Beijing given the Chinese conceived notions of the world today and India's low place in their calculus, says Srikanth Kondapalli.
Here's the full text of President's Ram Nath Kovind's address to the joint sitting of both houses of Parliament on the first of Budget Session 2022.
'Burhan Wani's killing served as a spark for the anti-establishment fire that has been raging in the minds of Kashmiris ever since the Centre stopped engaging them for their political future,' says Air Vice Marshal (retd) Kapil Kak in an interview with Rediff.com
AAP candidates from Mumbai, Medha Patkar and Meera Sanyal, are poised to play a crucial and complementary role. While Patkar gives voice to the suffering of people at the grassroots, Sanyal is articulating the key principles that could build a more just and equitable society or economy, says Rajni Bakshi.
'The origins of the model of planned economic development adopted by independent India was a direct consequence of the war.' 'The war provided an opportunity for groups at the margins of Indian society to find new avenues for mobility.' 'The war also led to the emergence of India as a major Asian power and set the stage for it to play a wider role in international politics.'
Senior officers admit the BJP's revival, and the mainstreaming of the Hindutva narrative that has accompanied this political shift, have complicated communal relations within the army.
Rediff.com present a comprehensive listing of the nuclear nations and their collective and active stockpile.
Harish Kapadia is the only Indian to win mountaineering's most prestigious award.
Vietnam is a key player in India's act east policy under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. From India's perspective, a strategic partnership with Vietnam will only deepen political, economic, and security ties and be a bulwark against China, say Melissa S Hersh and Dr Ajey Lele
The current trans-LoC operations is a trailer projected to the Deep State that India can throw caution to the winds and calibrate its response.
'Healthcare is so expensive that while it saves lives, it destroys more lives socially and financially.' 'While the poor gets wiped out, a middle-class man goes to a corporate hospital and after the treatment, he ends up below the poverty line.' 'Generally, hospitals would like to have patients who need procedures and operations.' 'They are not so fond of palliative care.' 'How much can be made from one hour of counselling? And how much can be made from one hour of an operation?'
Srikanth Kondapalli on what to expect from the seventh BRICS summit meeting to be held in Russia in July.
China wants a code of conduct for troops on the India-China border areas. While the Indian side has reacted cautiously, it is not clear what effective additional protocols that the current proposed code will bring forth to usher stability in the border areas, says Srikanth Kondapalli.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye's visit to India will enhance economic and military ties between the two countries and give the relationship a strategic dimension, says Jiye Kim.
'By beheading an Indian soldier, the Pakistan army has demonstrated its proclivity for barbaric medievalism.' 'The strategies adopted and the punishment inflicted by India must be made progressively more stringent with every new act of terrorism till the cost becomes prohibitive for Pakistan,' says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
'The darkest days of Indian democracy were (during) the Emergency when basic democratic rights were suspended. For a time it seemed as though India would move along the East Asian model -- everybody works hard, nobody asks questions, certainly not of the government.' 'There are people who say we are headed that way, but I am not persuaded by the evidence,' says Mahesh Rangarajan who recently resigned as director of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi.
'A top Russian diplomat, Ambassador Alexander Aksenyonok told me in Sochi, Moscow is keen on a political settlement in Syria "as early as possible -- which is also our exit strategy",' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'China's excessive military aid to Pakistan is the real elephant in the room as far as Sino-Indian relations are concerned. India should be confident enough to accept a degree of closeness between China and Pakistan, since China may wish to use this link for its foray into the Muslim world.' 'But the Chinese must be realistic enough to know that as time passes, the tactic of using Pakistan as a proxy to check India will yield diminishing returns. The US tried it for 60 years but failed, so will China,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
This is the joint statement issued by the ministry of external affairs on the visit of US President Barack Obama to India.
An array of Olympians and stars of sports niche and new arrive in the South Korean city of Incheon for the 17th Asian Games this month, bringing together some 10,000 athletes for a 16-day multi-sport spectacular second only in scale to the Summer Olympics.
