The government has sanctioned a dozen fresh SSB battalions, comprising over 13,000 personnel for the Nepal and Bhutan borders guarding force, to "fortify" defences along these fronts including the tri-junction area in Sikkim that adjoins Bhutan and Tibet, officials said.
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The nomination of cluster heads for defence, infrastructure and finance business is awaited.
Road and rail traffic was partially affected in some regions on Monday during a 'Bharat bandh' called against the Agnipath military recruitment scheme, while protests appeared to taper off in many states, with authorities stepping up security and imposing curbs after days of unrest.
The government on Wednesday asserted that the appointment of Lieutenant General Dalbir Singh Suhag as the next Army Chief is final as the Congress raked up a controversy involving minister and former Army chief Gen V K Singh and demanded his resignation.
He also held another meeting with a delegation of civil society organisations as part of his outreach and they expressed their commitment to peace and assured that they would work for restoring normalcy in Manipur.
After the defence ministry termed as "illegal" his decision to put a ban on promotion of Army Chief designate Dalbir Suhag, Gen (retd)V K Singh, now a Union minister, justified his action on Tuesday.
Instead of ramming through change, Mr Parrikar has tied his own hands by placing reform at the mercy of numerous committees, says Ajai Shukla.
'No one needs to lose sleep if a person with better operational credentials supersedes lesser endowed peers,' says Group Captain Murli Menon (retd).
In 28 months, Manohar Parrikar as defence minister developed easy relationships with the top brass of the three Services as was rarely ever witnessed before. He threw caution to the winds and managed to pull the forces out of a downward spiral in operational capabilities.
The 7th Pay Commission has recommended more than doubling the 'Military Service Pay' to defence personnel, and suggested that Short Service Commissioned Officers should be allowed to exit the Armed Forces at any point in time between 7 and 10 years of service.
The capability of drones to evade radar, wreak devastation at strategic installations and transport weapons to terrorists has been a continuous concern for the country's security establishment, and in a maiden incident, these unmanned vehicles were used to strike an Indian Air Force base in Jammu on Sunday, officials said.
The meeting will take place in Chushul sector on the Indian side of Line of Actual Control.
'India has seen that whenever dynastic politics has been powerful, institutions have taken a severe beating'
'We owe our existence to the men in uniform, and we owe it to them to cleanse the armed forces by driving away every bit of corruption that eats into it,' argues Sudhir Bisht.
Operationalisation of a new border defence agreement to deal with recurring troop incursions along the LAC besides improving defence ties, is expected to top the agenda of General Bikram Singh as he starts a rare visit by an Indian army chief to China from Wednesday.
'My belief that I could protect the Himalayas was shattered.'
The home ministry has asked the defence ministry to take action against IAF men who had abandoned an injured policeman and an armed helicopter in Chhattisgarh, saying the incident was extremely disturbing.
General Officer in Command of the strategically located XV Corps Lt Gen B S Raju said the Summary of Evidence has been completed but refused to give away any details of the outcome.
'There were tears in my eyes when I parted with my medals. I thought was it for this moment did I become a soldier?' In 2008, Captain H Balakrishnan (retd) of the Indian Navy returned all his medals to the President of India to protest the government's failure to implement the One Rank One Pension scheme.
Israel needs to come terms with the new reality that they are no longer invincible or the dominant power in the West Asian region, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'The Chinese media was beside itself with rage that how can a country with one-fifth of its economic power and maybe one-third of its military power stand up to them.'
Leading the Opposition attack over the Adani-Hindenburg issue in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday linked Gautam Adani's meteoric rise to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's coming to power and said "magic" happened after 2014 that propelled the businessman from the 609th to the second spot on the global rich list.
Expressing grave concern over a US nuclear-powered submarine sustaining damage in the disputed South China Sea, China on Friday demanded Washington to reveal the details and the location of the accident and blamed America's frequent air and naval sorties in the Indo-Pacific to assert the "freedom of navigation" as the "root cause" of the incident.
A parliamentary panel has rapped the Defence ministry and the Maharashtra government for "monumental failure" at all levels of governance with certain officials abusing their position leading to the Adarsh Housing Society scam.
Agitating ex-servicemen on Monday continued with their relay hunger strike over the 'One Rank One Pension' issue at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi as they prepared for a mega rally this weekend to press for removal of "anomalies" in the OROP announced by the government.
The move is part of recommendations made by a task force on the use of space technology in improving border management which have been accepted by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
Building 6 conventional submarines is one of the Indian Navy's most important weapon construction programmes.
New Delhi sought a sovereign guarantee to prevent Paris from ever citing the Arms Trade Treaty to interrupt, modify or cease delivery of the Rafale fighter at any stage.
There is only one perpetrator, Hamas. It is a terrorist organisation. It is obscene to argue that until the Palestinian question is solved, anybody has the right to use terrorism as an instrument of policy, argues Shekhar Gupta.
External affairs ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay, however, refused to comment whether there was reduction of Indian troops at the tri-junction between India-China-Bhuta.
The allocation in the defence budget is inadequate to meet India's long-term threats, especially from China and Pakistan, says Gurmeet Kanwal.
External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said India is committed to resolve all issues through dialogue, noting the way ahead to address the issue is negotiations.
With the globe marking International Women's Day on Tuesday, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha announced that the nation will see its first batch of female fighter pilots on June 18.
Police shot dead a man near the venue as he tried to flee a checkpoint in a car which was later found to contain drugs.
The Delhi high court had directed the Centre on Tuesday to show cause as to why contempt should not be initiated against it for failing to comply with its order.
The road network will stretch from Gujarat to Mizoram.
As part of a new rotation policy of paramilitary forces' squads at the Republic Day parade, the contingents of two other forces -- the Central Reserve Police Force and Central Industrial Security Force -- have been taken out of the event this time, officials said.
The terror infrastructure across the Line of Control has the potential to vitiate the security environment in Jammu and Kashmir and Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act should not be withdrawn as it is a "strategic imperative" until the US' pullout from Afghanistan in 2014, Army Chief, Gen Bikram Singh, has said.
After India scrapped its Rs 3,600 crore deal for supplying VVIP choppers, Anglo-Italian firm AgustaWestland on Friday said that the contract termination notice sent to it does not offer any firm basis for taking any action against it.
The Indian delegation at Thursday's talks is likely to be led by Naveen Srivastava, Joint Secretary (East Asia) in the external affairs ministry, they said.
