Henry Kissinger once said, 'It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal.' India will have to wait and see, observes Rajeev Srinivasan.
What India has failed to acknowledge is that sub-conventional war is the name of the game and irregular forces have emerged with greater strategic value over conventional and even nuclear forces, and reliance purely on conventional force and diplomacy is grossly inadequate, says Lt Gen Prakash Katoch (retired).
Modi government's story of five years with regard to equity allocation for PSUs shows that it may have allowed a large part of its resources to be wasted. This is also a worrying reflection of the government's inability to take hard decisions - whether they pertain to privatisation or forcing weak public-sector banks to wind down their operations, says A K Bhattacharya.
Attlee said Great Britain had concluded that the Indian element of the army was no longer reliable and that Netaji's Indian National Army had demonstrated that. That had shaken the foundation on which Britain's Indian empire rested, argues Lieutenant General Ashok Joshi (retd).
'The Chinese navy is large and expanding both in numbers and capability by the day.' 'India too must take measures to safeguard its own interests, now and in the future.'
Agni-V is a three stage missile, 17 metres tall, two metres wide and capable of carrying 1.5 tonne of nuclear warheads.
The Haqqani network is planning to target the United States-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces in Afghanistan from its new bases in the Kurram agency.
The special NIA judge charged him with being a member of a terror group, raising funds for them as well as aiding an outfit.
For both India and China, the most likely option -- and the most challenging -- appears to be a freezing of the status quo.
'India appears to have stood its ground on strategic autonomy by resisting US pressure on Russia, China and Iran, but succumbed to the temptation to walk into a tighter embrace in defence cooperation, a high priority of the Trump administration,' notes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
India and Japan on Friday sought a peaceful solution to the territorial disputes in the strategic South China Sea, saying parties involved in the matter must not resort to "threat or use of force", in remarks that could anger China which is opposed to any outside interference.
The defence minister said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping had an informal summit meeting at Wuhan where it was decided that peace and tranquillity will be maintained at the border.
The time is ripe to extend the confrontation with the Chinese to the maritime domain, says former RA&W officer Krishan Varma.
India on Monday successfully test-fired its nuclear-capable Agni-II missile intermediate range ballistic missile, with a range of 2000 kms, from the Wheelers Island off Orissa coast.
India cannot choose its geography and devise regional strategies to dovetail into the Western Indian Ocean hypothesis conceived in the Pentagon, argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'Many said his visit was very risky. But mercifully, Air Force One has taken off from Delhi without Mr Trump stepping on anybody's toes,' notes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
'Unlike the Chinese army that has been largely a peace time force, the Indian Army is a battle hardened force,' explains Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Masks were required and high-fives banned, with signs reminding those in attendance to maintain proper social distancing.
Situated at a height of 15,200 feet above sea level, the pass sits on the top of a craggily formed Himalayan range that separates the Tibetan plateau from the Indian sub-continent.
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).
Confronting a slowdown in growth, China says it will only increase its defence budget by 7.6% this year, against the anticipated rise of between 20% and 30%. 'It is difficult to explain the reduction in the Chinese defence budget,' says Claude Arpi. 'Is there a hidden budget? Possibly!'
'Fearful of losing strategic advantage, the only option for Pakistan is to rattle its nuclear sabre!' 'Pakistan thereby hopes to play on the worldwide fear of an outbreak of nuclear war in South Asia,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The navy wants to spend Rs 40,000 crore on INS Vishal, a choice the army and air force oppose. This is as much about turf as about funding. explains Ajai Shukla.
At any time, there is a need to operationally deploy two aircraft carriers in the vast Indian Ocean, asserts Vice Admiral Premvir Das (retd).
The defence minister also said that India attaches importance to peaceful resolution of differences through dialogue and is committed to respect various agreements inked for maintenance of peace along the borders.
The air defence command is to be rolled out by the beginning of next year and the Peninsula command by the end of 2021, Gen Rawat told a select group of journalists. The Indian Air Force will helm the air defence command and all-long range missiles as well as air defence assets will come under it, he said.
The Indian Army, placing traditional weapons above high-technology, says that equipping the army's 800-plus combat units with a Battlefield Management System would cost an unaffordable Rs 500 billion to Rs 600 billion, reveals Ajai Shukla.
The Union health ministry on Tuesday said that aid received from other countries has been distributed in different states to help deal with the rising number of COVID-19 cases.
In an affidavit filed in the top court, the health ministry told the apex court that the family welfare programme in the country is voluntary in nature, which enables couples to decide the size of their family and adopt family planning methods best suited to them, according to their choice and without any compulsion.
'Those who worked with him or came to know him rated him as one of our best, with a sharp intellect, unfailing courtesy and ready wit.' Ambassador T P Sreenivasan fondly remembers Ambassador B S Prakash, wonderful human being, unusual diplomat and long-time Rediff.com columnist, who passed away into the ages on Monday, October 4, 2021.
On the situation in the Kashmir Valley, the army officials highlighted Wednesday evening's incident when a son of a prominent eatery owner was shot and critically wounded by terrorists at his shop in a high-security area of the city.
'Nobody is going to fight India's war.' 'India has to fight its own war against the rogue State and the evil forces nurtured by it.'
All the terrorist camps and around 15 launch pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir "are full", according to top army commander Lt Gen B S Raju, who anticipates an increase in infiltration attempts from across the border this summer to replenish the diminishing terrorist cadres in Jammu and Kashmir.
'No one needs to lose sleep if a person with better operational credentials supersedes lesser endowed peers,' says Group Captain Murli Menon (retd).
'The one aspect which no Indian military thinker would wish to see emerge is a LoC type of posture at the LAC.' 'The LoC is manned for 750 km and terrorist infiltration has led to the creation of a virtual fortress along its entire length.' 'Something mirroring this at the LAC is going to be expensive although deployment everywhere is not warranted there.' 'However, given the complete trust deficit, there appear few alternatives,' notes Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd).
The CAG said the strategic missile system, which were to be deployed on the China border, procured from the state-run Bharat Electronics Ltd were deficient in quality.
'She's not going to keel over.' 'This is the kind of difficult situation that she thrives in.'
The AH-64E Apache is one of the world's most advanced multi-role combat helicopters, and is flown by the US army.
'Offensive operations to capture objectives across the LoC to eliminate terrorist launch pads and deny the use of the most dangerous routes of infiltration, are likely to be limited to brigade-level attacks.' 'These limited operations are unlikely to escalate to war across the international boundary,' says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
'Tehran senses that the Modi government is inexorably gravitating toward the US-Israeli-Saudi axis, jettisoning India's traditional independent Gulf policies,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
