External affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India will keep the IWT in abeyance until Pakistan "credibly and irrevocably" abjures its support for cross-border terrorism.
India will display its military prowess and cultural heritage at the 76th Republic Day celebrations on Kartavya Path in New Delhi. The parade will feature 16 tableaux from states and Union Territories, 15 from central ministries, and a tri-services tableau showcasing the spirit of "jointness" among the armed forces. The event will also include a flypast featuring 40 IAF aircraft and three Indian Coast Guard Dornier aircraft, as well as a display of cutting-edge defense platforms including BrahMos, Pinaka and Akash.
The state government was informed about the Rs 500 crore bill by the Union home ministry through a letter dated February 6.
India is acquiring the drones primarily to crank up the surveillance apparatus of the armed forces, especially along the contested frontier with China.
The Chinese military on Monday denied reports that its largest military cargo plane has carried arms supplies to Pakistan and warned legal action against those spreading such rumours.
Amid concerns of espionage, the Rajasthan administration has intensified security measures along the India-Pakistan border, with authorities in Jaisalmer and Sri Ganganagar banning the use of Pakistani SIM cards.
Five Army personnel were killed and as many injured on Monday when a group of heavily-armed terrorists ambushed a patrolling party in Badnota area in Kathua.
Ukrainian forces conducted large-scale drone strikes on several air bases deep inside Russia, destroying multiple combat planes, Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said on Sunday.
The indigenously designed and developed Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH-Dhruv) and the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas will not be part of the upcoming Republic Day flypast in India due to the grounding of the entire fleet of ALH-Dhruv helicopters following a crash earlier this month. The grounding of the helicopters is a result of a Coast Guard ALH crash in Porbandar, Gujarat on January 5, which claimed the lives of two pilots and an aircrew diver. The decision to exclude the ALH-Dhruv and Tejas from the flypast comes as a high-level probe panel investigates the cause of the crash.
Neither the BJP, nor the Congress before it, made any manifesto commitments on defence spending, even though allocations have plummeted from 4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the late 1980s to less than 2 per cent today, points out Ajai Shukla.
The Indian government has refused to accept recommendations for a 10% pension increase for retired regular Army captains under the One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme. The Supreme Court heard an appeal by the government challenging an Armed Forces Tribunal order that mandated a decision on pension for retired captains. The government's decision not to accept the recommendations has led to a delay in resolving pension anomalies for these officers. The case will be heard again on December 12, 2023.
In order to review the security situation and the state of preparedness of the armed forces, Defence Minister A K Antony on Thursday held a meeting with the three service chiefs and senior defence ministry officials. "The minister held a meeting with the chiefs of the three services and the defence secretary to review the overall security situation and to take stock of the state of preparedness of the armed forces," a defence ministry official said.
The nexus between middlemen, arms agents and government officials has been broken, according to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.
Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif will attend the SCO defence ministers' meeting in New Delhi on Friday through virtual mode, according to an official readout.
A Parliamentary panel on Monday rapped the defence ministry and the Maharashtra government on the Adarsh Housing Society scam, saying there was "monumental failure" at all levels of governance with certain officials abusing their position.
The highlight of Tuesday's debate on Operation Sindoor was the speech by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with the rebuttal by Congress's Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi coming a close second.
President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday conferred Distinguished Service Awards, including 52 Ati Vishisht Seva Medals, on 84 serving and retired personnel of the armed forces and the Indian Coast Guard.
"The amended second draft (known as DAP) has since been finalised by the review committee driven by tenets of defence reforms announced as part of the 'Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan' and has been placed in the public domain," the ministry said.
He also asserted that ease of living and ease of doing business were behind the spirit of the work being done under the Central Vista project.
The Indian side is in "very close touch" with interlocutors in the foreign and defence ministries of Russia on the issue of Indians "who were, illegally or otherwise, contracted into fighting in the Russian Army", Misri said at a media briefing on Modi's visit to Russia for the BRICS Summit.
The defence ministry on Friday scrapped a scam-tainted tender worth over Rs 6,000 crore to procure 197 light helicopters from foreign vendors and decided to allow indigenous players to manufacture these choppers for the armed forces.
By threatening to punish India with high tariff, Trump is actually planting a tantalising thought in the Indian mind that the Modi government should suitably 'incentivise' him, explains Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The best marching contingent among the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and other auxiliary forces was the Delhi Police team.
'He consulted widely, both formally and informally and acted quickly on pragmatic suggestions.' 'To his credit, Parrikar took the initiative to reduce excessive litigation against armed forces veterans and widow over small sums of pensionary and disability benefits,' points out says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said that he was proud that a contingent of the Indian Armed Forces was participating in the 75th Anniversary of Victory Day Parade in Moscow.
The outlay for defence sector almost remained unchanged compared to what was allocated in the interim budget on February 1.
The new minister must commit himself to supporting long-term defence plans or else defence modernisation will continue to lag and the growing military capabilities gap with China will assume ominous proportions, warns Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
Since April this year, the ministry of defence of the Russian Federation has stopped recruiting citizens of a number of foreign countries, including India, into the military service, it said.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested freelance journalist Vivek Raghuvanshi and former Navy commander Ashish Pathak for allegedly collecting sensitive information on defence matters and passing them on to foreign intelligence agencies, officials said on Wednesday.
The contracts for the procurement of the platforms and weapons systems were signed in the presence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and defence secretary Giridhar Aramane, under whose guidance these deals fructified, an official readout said.
The compulsion behind India and Japan to deepen security cooperation is in response to China's growing political and economic clout and its assertive behaviour in disputed areas. This has been the key driver for bringing both India and Japan closer in the domain of security cooperation, explains Dr Rajaram Panda.
Besides clearing the proposal to buy assault rifles, the other significant acquisitions approved by the DAC include procurement of smart anti-airfield weapon (SAAW) systems for the navy and the Indian Air Force at an approximate cost of Rs 970, the officials said.
To threaten China and Pakistan, and then to sharply cut back on military funding, bespeaks a remarkable trust in Beijing and Islamabad that is not borne out by anything they say or do, notes Ajai Shukla.
The disengagement process between India and China in eastern Ladakh is in final stages and on the brink of completion, top officials of the country's defence establishment on Thursday told a parliamentary panel during a meeting, which sources said turned 'stormy' amid several questions asked by opposition members including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Coming down hard on the government for meagre increase in allocation for armed forces in the last few years, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence said the outlay cannot even fulfill the basic requirements of the armed forces.
The new law, effective from January 1, weakens the role of the State Council, China's Cabinet headed by Premier Li Keqiang, in formulating military policy, handing decision-making powers to the Central Military Commission (CMC), the overall high-command of the two million-strong People's Liberation Army (PLA) headed by Xi, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Sunday.
The head of Syria's main opposition group abroad Hadi al-Bahra Syrian said that Damascus is now "without Bashar al-Assad" according to Reuters.
She says her priority areas would be military preparedness, defence indigenisation, and the welfare of soldiers.
The govt hiked defence budget by 7.81 per cent over last year's Rs 2.74 lakh crore.
The conclave drew valuable insights from former athletes and Olympians, including celebrated ones such as Anju Bobby George, Mary Kom, and Tarundeep Rai, all of whom shared their personal experiences and perspectives on what it takes to excel at the highest levels of sports.
