The US drone strike that killed Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri on the balcony of a safe house in downtown Kabul points to the use of secret Hellfire missiles by the CIA as there was no explosion and, according to American President Joe Biden, "no civilian casualties" either.
The blast took place as a bomb placed inside the bus exploded when the vehicle packed with government employees reached Peshawar from Mardan.
Pradhan said a team of officials of state-run Indian Oil Corporation had visited Vietnam and explored some business ventures
The defence ministry has signed off on a national security plan that it cannot fund. Ajai Shukla reports
Whenever Pak carries out such violations, we also retaliate effectively, the Indian army said.
'India and China are already in a warlike situation.'
'After Uri, the current government took public ownership of surgical strikes.' 'The question they need to ask themselves is did this bring about a change in Pakistan's behaviour towards us? The answer is no.' 'If there had been a change, then Pulwama would not have happened.'
In an army that favours officers who have spent the bulk of their service years doing counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir, General Anil Chauhan is that rarity: A China specialist who has logged plenty of service years along the Line of Actual Control and the McMahon Line with China.
Gen Soleimani was killed in a US airstrike on Friday. Trump alleged that Soleimani has been perpetrating acts of terror to destabilise the Middle East for the last 20 yrs.
India's plan to buy futuristic tanks and infantry combat vehicles -- estimated to be worth Rs 80,000 crore to Rs 100,000 crore each -- will certainly intimidate Pakistan which already feels threatened by our vast tank strength.
"Our worry is that a small mistake, an accidental exchange of fire at night, might lead to an unintended escalation," a senior officer confessed
The broader Nifty closed at 11,993.05, falling by 233.60 points, or 1.91 per cent. On the Sensex chart, Bajaj Finance was the top loser, dropping 4.63 per cent, followed by SBI, IndusInd Bank, Maruti, HDFC, Hero MotoCorp, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and RIL
'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).
The government has given its final go ahead to the army for raising a corps along the China border which will include the deployment of 50,000 additional troops there at a cost of nearly Rs 65,000 crore.
The government has given its final go ahead to the army for raising a corps along the China border which will include the deployment of 50,000 additional troops there at a cost of nearly Rs 65,000 crore.
Last week, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said buying 90 less Rafale fighter jets than the 126 planned earlier would save him money to buy more Tejas Light Combat Aircraft for the India Air Force.
ONGCt has made another significant oil and gas discovery in its Krishna Godavari basin.
'So you have welfare programmes, you reach out to the poor, you cut out the middlemen, you cut out the leakages and you try to raise the standard of living.'
'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).
'A great General who had become a legend in his lifetime.' 'India will not see the likes of Sagat Singh again.'
'We are ready to surrender,' Lieutenant General A A K Niazi said over the phone from Dhaka.
General Soleimani headed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps's Quds Force and also served as Iran's pointman on Iraq.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday handed over to the armed forces indigenously-developed light combat helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles and electronic warfare systems for the warships, in reflection of India's focus to boost its domestic defence industry.
The Biden administration expects the Modi government to continue to remain as its loyal camp follower even as Washington continues to act in self-interests, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'If you behave like a nail, the adversary will behave like a hammer.'
In the Sensex kitty, Ultratech Cement was the top gainer, rising 2.10 per cent, followed by HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries Sun Pharma, NTPC and Asian Paints.
The SJB has begun to collect signatures from MPs for the no-confidence motion, according to media reports.
With Pakistan's powerful army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani's term coming to an end in November, names of top generals who are likely to succeed him are being discussed in the political circles and in the corridors of power.
Thousands of mourners on Saturday joined the formal funeral procession for Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, the head of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, who was killed a day before near Baghdad's international airport in an air strike ordered by United States President Donald Trump.
'The Chinese are only about 160-170 km behind.' 'It will not take much time for them to bring their troops back, considering that they have better infrastructure -- and the weather is now favourable.' 'They can move in much faster as the terrain favours them.'
It would perhaps have been better for Lieutenant General Dalbir Singh to have been elevated to the top post by the new government, notes R S Chauhan.
'A conventional war is not in fashion today and not seen as being able to deliver the objective.' 'Perhaps surgical strikes that are deeper, this time not on Pakistan's terrorist facilities, but on Pakistan army facilities.' 'The nation has to be prepared for losses.' 'War is not something that can be pussyfooted around.' 'If we go for limited number of posts in Kashmir, these are very difficult posts to capture and very difficult operations.' 'Be prepared for 200 to 300 killed.'
'New Delhi showed itself willing -- at least for a period -- to tolerate the risk of conflict and to withstand Beijing's implicit and explicit threats.' 'But it also continued to try to cut some kind of deal with China to reduce tensions.'
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).
Outgoing Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh on Thursday said that India had given a befitting reply to Pakistan after the beheading of an Indian soldier by Pakistani troops in 2013 along the Line of Control even as he did not rule out the possibility of skirmishes on the western front in future.
'Landmark developments herald the end of two decades of stagnation in the army's modernisation plans,' notes Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
Workers at Satyam Auto and Rockman Industries, two leading auto parts suppliers to India's largest two-wheeler company, Hero MotoCorp, have been on strike for the past two weeks. They have come together to press for better wages and a workers' union.
'In one instance of the Pakistani army's violation of the Ceasefire, I ordered a far tougher response designed to deter the enemy.' 'I warned that 'unexpected damage' to their forces will be inflicted if they continued with such ceasefire violations.' A fascinating excerpt from Lieutenant General K Himalay Singh's Making of a General: A Himalayan Echo.
'It is a game of patience. We have to stand firm and tire them out, which we are doing.'
The Indo-Japanese nuclear deal may not come easy considering India's Civil Nuclear Liability Act provisions which had earlier put off suppliers like General Electric, says Debalina Ghoshal.
