A militant commander said five people were killed in the firefight and several were injured "including Mullah Mansoor."
India's national security strategy needs to be revised periodically since the global and regional geopolitical situation is dynamic, points out Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
With tensions between China and Taiwan rapidly increasing, the tone of China's official media has also become progressively more strident, observes former senior RA&W officer and China expert Jayadeva Ranade.
When China protested strongly over the August decision on J&K -- not once but twice -- we ignored it. And to compound matters, we simply turned our back and walked over to the 'Quad' alliance with the US, upgrading it to ministerial level, and thereafter began following the American footfalls on Taiwan and COVID-19 to taunt and humiliate Beijing, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
MH-60 Romeo Seahawks would add lethal capabilities of the Indian Navy, which experts say is the need of the hour given the aggressive behaviour of China in the Indian Ocean region.
Official sources said withdrawal of tanks and other armoured elements from certain friction points is nearing completion while pulling back of troops from the North bank areas is being undertaken.
Five Pakistani soldiers and at least 27 militants, including some foreigners, were killed On Sunday in clashes and air strikes in the restive northwestern tribal belt, where the military has launched a major offensive against the Taliban.
Indian policymakers must incorporate in their nuclear doctrine a realistic response to tactical nuclear warheads, says Ajai Shukla.
As India's international role expands, so must our capabilities, says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
'For Pakistan, the comfortable old calculations and certainties are no longer valid.' 'Strikes on Indian targets now carry a high risk of retaliation and escalation,' notes Ajai Shukla.
'The government will ensure that India's pride is not affected as far as the situation along Indo-China border is concerned'
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and her American counterpart James Mattis reviewed ongoing initiatives to further strengthen bilateral defence cooperation.
'I want to assure this House that in these talks we have not conceded anything.' Full text of what Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told Parliament on the Chinese pullback in eastern Ladakh.
The award has earlier been bestowed on several world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The use of firearms along the LAC marks a serious escalation in border tensions as the previous instance of shots being fired at the de-facto border was in 1975.
Navy chief Adm. Sunil Lanba said that by 2050, India will have 200 ships, 500 aircraft.
'In the Balakot operation, we had technology on our side, and we could launch precision stand of weapons with great accuracy.'
Third time lucky is an apt phrase to describe the remarkable rise of Joe Biden, a veteran in US politics for around five decades, from being one of the youngest senators in history to the oldest American president-to-be.
'This is a historic juncture when the US is in great need of an alliance with India to strengthen its hands in the fierce struggle with China in the Asian theatre,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
In fact, given the current tensions and massed troops on both sides, there is a danger that the LAC will become more like the Line of Control with Pakistan, a heavily fortified and strongly defended border where weapon fire exchanges regularly occur. Indeed, Stratfor Worldview research has listed a sharp increase in new Chinese facilities along the LAC in 2019-20.
Through the past 18-month period, peace has prevailed in the disputed border regions, which was immensely helpful in the difficult situation that the country was passing through, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Army Spokesperson Colonel Aman Anand said troops from China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) 'violated' the consensus arrived at during military and diplomatic engagements on the ongoing standoff in eastern Ladakh, and carried out provocative military movements to change the status quo.
A Naik Subedar with Army was on Wednesday arrested by the Hyderabad police on the charge of sharing information about strategic locations of Army bases and deployment of units with a woman, suspected to be a Pakistani national, through the Internet.
Ordering more Akash systems is essential for the Indian defence industry.
Xi ordered country's 2.3 million-strong military to be absolutely loyal to the party, to focus on how to win in wars, to pioneer reforms and innovation, to scientifically manage commanding a unit, to lead troops in accordance with the strictest standards and to take the forefront in complying with laws and regulations.
'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).
Indian Army officers are convinced China is maintaining the pretence of dialogue and negotiations in order to create the opportunity to occupy more Indian territory. Senior Indian planners apprehend this might be a Chinese ploy to divert attention from Depsang, in Northern Ladakh, which might be China's actual target.
5 planes and 13 ships are out trying to track the aircraft, which was carrying 29 people on board.
Once Mazar-i-Sharif falls, some isolate pockets of resistance may remain, which the Taliban would tackle through political work or coercion, asserts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The Indian Army has shown it can face down the PLA, but is too often held back by a political leadership that lacks boldness, asserts Ajai Shukla.
The government must figure out what the Chinese game plan is and thwart the endgame before it is upon us, possibly in early winter, advises David Devadas.
This will be the fifth time that Prime Minister Sharif will pick the top commander of the country's nearly 550,000 ground troops.
In an apparent snub to India, a Russian ground forces contingent on Friday arrived in Pakistan to participate in the first-ever joint military exercises starting from Saturday.
The MEA spokesperson further said the actions and behaviour of the Chinese side since earlier this year along the LAC have been in "clear violation" of the bilateral agreements and protocols concluded between the two countries to ensure peace and tranquility on the border.
The field intelligence units of the Army coupled with inputs comprising HUMINT (human intelligence) and TECHINT (technical intelligence) indicate that around 300 terrorists, mainly of the banned Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT), are waiting across the border to sneak in, officials said, citing reports from Srinagar collated in the national capital.
The paper also includes musing that SARS -- which hit China in 2003 -- could have been a man-made bioweapon deliberately unleashed by "terrorists".
'Notwithstanding the realisation among the Indian leadership to build up its navy for the force's expanding role, the Indian Navy was allocated only 15% of the interim defence budget presented in Parliament in February 2019.' 'The outlay for the navy's capital acquisition is not even adequate to meet its committed liabilities,' points out Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
'We should build a military with the capability to fight today's war on priority -- balancing it with the requirements of the future,' says Lieutenant General Anil Chait, one of the Indian Army's most cerebral thinkers who recently retired as chief of the Integrated Defence Staff, in his agenda for the new defence minister.
President Kovind, who arrived in Dhaka earlier in the day on his maiden State visit at the invitation of his counterpart M Abdul Hamid to attend the golden jubilee celebrations of Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan in 1971, held delegation-level talks with him which was followed by a banquet.
The US has all along interfered in India-China issues. The objective is clear: Bring the Sino-Indian standoff to a flashpoint that would compel Modi government to take shelter under an American umbrella, argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
