'A crucial role in bolstering the Indian Army's firepower by enabling precise and long-range strikes.'
The Maldives government has set a target of attracting 300,000 Indian tourists in 2025, aiming to regain its position as a top destination for Indian travelers. The country's tourism sector has been impacted by strained relations between Male and New Delhi, which led to a decline in Indian tourist arrivals in 2024. To revive the Indian tourist market, the Maldives is planning a major campaign, including a brand ambassador, cricket summer camps, and expanded flight routes from more Indian cities.
A defence ministry staffer, involved in the corporate espionage case, was remanded to one-day police custody.
A spate of recent orders under the Indigenously Designed Developed and Manufactured (IDDM) category have led to investor focus on defence stocks. Actually, the defence index has been an outperformer for a long while with public sector undertakings (PSUs) like Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL), Bharat Electronics (BEL), Bharat Dynamics (BDL), Garden Reach Shipbuilders Engineers (GRSE), Cochin Shipyard and Goa Shipyard being beneficiaries of the policy.
Main imports from the neighbouring country during April-January 2024-25 included fruits and nuts (USD 0.08 million), certain oil seeds and medicinal plants (USD 0.26 million), and organic chemicals.
Amid fears of delay in the 126 combat aircraft deal, defence ministry and French Dassault Rafale will hold talks on Friday to iron out differences between them over the responsibilities to be given to the state-run HAL in the contract estimated to be worth USD 15 billion.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday held talks with his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu and is learnt to have discussed the lingering border row in eastern Ladakh.
The ministry of external affairs also seemed to reject Trump's forceful comments that Washington brokered the understanding between India and Pakistan on ending their four-day military conflict.
Being a 'fauji' kid, Sofiya Qureshi grew up listening to tales of valour and sacrifice of the army shared by her grandfather, who was a soldier.
The United States has imposed sanctions on 275 individuals and entities, including 15 from India, for allegedly supporting Russia's military-industrial base.
The flight test fully met all the trial objectives validating complete network centric warfare weapon system, the defence ministry said.
People in several districts of Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Gujarat spent an anxious night as authorities enforced blackouts amid heightened tension between India and Pakistan.
'One good outcome of Operation Sindoor -- perhaps, its best outcome -- could be that India has resumed meaningful contact directly with Pakistan at the military-to-military level,' observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Introducing the bill, Rijiju said the consultation process of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) was the largest ever exercise carried out by a parliamentary panel in India's democratic history.
India and China have agreed to work towards a "roadmap" for rebuilding mutual trust following the border standoff in eastern Ladakh, according to a statement from the Indian Defence Ministry. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh met with his Chinese counterpart Dong Jun in Vientiane, Laos, on the sidelines of a regional security conclave. Singh called for drawing lessons from the "unfortunate border clashes" of 2020 and emphasized the need for cooperation rather than conflict. Both sides agreed to work towards a roadmap for rebuilding mutual trust and understanding, and a meeting of the Special Representatives and Secretary-Vice Minister mechanism will also take place soon.
In a year bookended by intractable conflicts and geopolitical fragmentation, India focused on ramping up military prowess by broadly firming up defence procurement worth Rs 4.22 lakh crore even as Indian and Chinese militaries completed pulling back their troops from border face-off points in eastern Ladakh.
The distribution of ministries and parliamentary committees was discussed by top leaders of the PPP and PML-N in Islamabad on Thursday, though the final decision on the government is expected to be announced only on March 17, shortly before the first session of the new National Assembly. Sources said the two parties were yet to decide about key ministries like interior, finance, foreign affairs and defence.
If the fiscal deficit target of 4.9% of GDP has to be met for 2024-2025, which the government must in view of the uncertainties and challenges emerging both domestically and globally, the finance ministry may see in the composition of the current year's capex a sliver of hope, notes A K Bhattacharya.
>The Indian Army still uses old British-era names and recruits soldiers based on caste or region, which hurts national unity, argues Colonel K Thammayya Udupa (retd).
The defence budget was increased to Rs 5.94 lakh crore for 2023-24, up from last year's allocation of Rs 5.25 lakh crore.
Amid escalating tensions between India and Pakistan, the US has said it will not get involved in the conflict, stressing that it is "fundamentally none of our business." While acknowledging concerns about a potential nuclear war, Vice President J D Vance emphasized that the US cannot control India and Pakistan, but can encourage them to de-escalate. The US has also reiterated its support for direct dialogue between the two countries and encouraged efforts to improve communications.
India's second nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine was commissioned into the Navy on Thursday in the presence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh who said this will further strengthen the country's nuclear triad and enhance nuclear deterrence.
Defence sources stated that the disengagement involves removing infrastructure and withdrawing troops from both sides. The process is expected to be completed by Tuesday.
He said that in recent times, based on the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, China and India have maintained close communication on the border situation through diplomatic and military channels and achieved great progress.
The "weaponisation" of economic activity - through tariffs and sanctions - is now a reality, with countries leveraging these tools strategically, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said at the Raisina Dialogue recently.
'It is high time that the 'war on terror' is removed from our diplomatic toolbox.' 'Certainly, our parliamentarians have no role in it,' asserts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The defence ministry has handed over some documents received from an Italian court to the Central Bureau of Investigation to verify if there was any breach of contractual obligations by Anglo-Italian firm AgustaWestland in the Rs 3,600 crore deal for 12 helicopters, official sources said on Tuesday.
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.
With respect and gratitude we honour the memory of soldiers who sacrificed their lives in Operation Sindoor.
The tensions between the two countries continue to remain high as several suspected drones launched from Lebanon were shot down by Israeli air defences on Sunday, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said.
Following Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan's Barmal district of Paktika province, which left 46 dead and six injured, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan on Wednesday summoned the Charge d'Affaires of the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul.
India has successfully test-fired a long range hypersonic missile from the APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of Odisha, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Sunday.
'There's something called deterrence by punishment.' 'That means you hit in a manner calculated to raise costs and consequences for Pakistan, so that the next time it attempts a Pahalgam-like attack, it has to think ten times.'
It would be the prime minister's first bilateral visit to the US after Trump became president for a second term.
China's Defence Ministry says the militaries of China and India are making "great progress" in implementing the disengagement agreement to end over four-year-long standoff in eastern Ladakh. Spokesman Sr Col Wu Qian said Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Chinese counterpart Admiral Dong Jun had a positive meeting in Vientiane, Laos, last week, and the two sides are implementing the settlement reached between the two counties. The two ministers agreed to implement the important consensus reached between the top leaders and promote stable relations between the two countries, the spokesman said.
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.
During the meeting, Gantz emphasised the opportunity to invest further in defence cooperation between the two countries.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday called upon the top military brass to analyse the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza as well as the current situation in Bangladesh to "predict" any future problems and stay prepared to deal with the "unexpected".
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday said India has never attacked any country out of hatred or contempt but if its interests are threatened, 'we will not hesitate to take a big step'.
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.
