Three countries share a common interest in warding off cyber attacks from various agencies PLA is developing and training in China.
Lt Gen Anil Chauhan (retired) will assume charge as India's new Chief of Defence Staff on Friday, an appointment that is expected to bring the focus back on the implementation of the ambitious theaterisation drive to bring synergy among the three services.
The Indian and Chinese troops are engaged in a five-month bitter standoff in eastern Ladakh.
India is increasingly a willing participant in the evolving US' Indo-Pacific strategy. While these developments are related to the perception of a growing Chinese security challenge, their implications for India's much-vaunted strategic autonomy should be a matter of deeper and closer reflection, asserts former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
As per the plan, each of the theatre commands will have units of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, and all of them will work as a single entity looking after security challenges in a specified geographical territory under an operational commander.
Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said the government has started on a wrong foot on the appointment and only time will unfortunately reveal the implications. Tewari wondered if the CDS as Permanent Chairperson of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee outrank the three service Chiefs.
At this poignant historic moment one can only wish that institutions are not built by bricks and mortars, but also by the rich Parliamentary traditions which have stood the test of time which needs to be strengthened by all stakeholders, notes Rup Narayan Das, a former joint secretary of the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
Speculation about the missing Chinese Defence Minister General Li Shangfu may have been removed and detained became rife after he was conspicuously absent at the meeting of the Central Military Commission (CMC) in Beijing on Friday.
Besides launching initiatives for technological, administrative and infrastructural improvement, Chandrachud, like his illustrious father Y V Chandrachud, who was the Chief Justice of India for the longest time from February 22, 1978 to July 11, 1985, kept delivering significant verdicts in the last one year.
Any serving or retired lieutenant general, air marshal and vice admiral under the age of 62 years will be eligible for the post of Chief of Defence Staff, according to notifications issued by the government.
Military affairs experts said his key challenge will be to build consensus among the three services for the theaterisation plan as the Indian Air Force has some apprehensions about its roll-out.
United States Chief of Army Staff General Raymond T Odierno, who recently returned from India, has denied that growing military ties and joint exercises between Washington and New Delhi were an attempt by the US to co-opt India to 'triangulate' or 'contain' China, reports Aziz Haniffa.
That does not mean it cannot and will not happen, General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Friday.
A Pakistani journalist has petitioned the Supreme Court to bar the civilian government and the military from making any contacts or conducting negotiations with the Taliban, saying such an act is forbidden by the Constitution.
The tearing hurry to form theatre commands has to be replaced by a balanced and deliberate approach. We need to accept that this process will take time if executed correctly and in the best interests of the Indian armed forces, argues Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
'On October 12-13, he started shivering from fear in his tent.' 'That was the time he wrote a letter to my mother to conduct Ganeshji's Atharvashirsha.' 'The moment he finished writing that letter, he told us, he felt serene calmness.'
He is only the agent that can bring them that change for they are quite aware that he has articulated no vision on how to set Pakistan back on the rails, notes Lieutenant General Gautam Moorthy (retd).
North Korea on Friday launched an ICBM for the second time in a month.
The black box, comprising the flight data recorder (FDR) and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR), of the ill-fated Mi-17V5 helicopter of the Indian Air Force was recovered from the crash site on Thursday.
'Already, there is talk of a possible extension for Raheel Sharif in the context of his perceived sterling, but incomplete work in the war against terror, as also the cleansing of crime and extortion networks in Karachi,' says Rana Banerji.
The United Kingdom on Friday announced a joint investment package with Tata Steel worth 1.25 billion pounds, including a government grant of 500 million pounds, for the country's largest steelworks in Wales that will help protect thousands of jobs and boost the British economy. The government's grant has been dubbed as one of the largest British government support packages in history and a "defining moment" for the country's steel industry.
Mere shuffling of resources or cosmetic changes to prove a point would be counterproductive in the long run, observes Commodore Venugoptal Menon (retd).
Huge crowds of mourners gathered outside as armed forces personnel took the mortal remains of Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and his wife Madhulika Rawat inside the Brar Square crematorium in the Delhi Cantonment on Friday.
Gen Bipin Rawat's appointment, first as army chief superseding two other army commanders, and then as CDS, was the consequence of his close personal rapport with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. Now, with General Rawat gone and nobody named to replace him as CDS, it is evident that no other top military officer enjoys that relationship with Doval, observes Ajai Shukla.
Full service carrier Vistara expects to add a total of 10 planes as well as hire more than 1,000 people in the current financial year and has shelved plans to fly to the US, according to a top executive. Currently, Vistara, which is set to be merged with Air India, has a fleet of 61 aircraft and a staff strength of over 5,200. During an interaction in Istanbul this week, Vistara CEO Vinod Kannan said there has been a ready pool of talent, especially pilots and cabin crew members, with the collapse of Go First.
India and Saudi Arabia on Monday called on states to reject the use of terrorism against other countries and prevent access to weapons, including missiles and drones, to commit acts of terror.
The prime minister was briefed by Chief of Defence Staff Gen Anil Chauhan about the various discussions conducted at this year's Combined Commanders' conference.
The army chief also appealed the cadets to keep abreast with new technology to counter the contemporary challenges.
Three weeks after India handed over a coastal radar system to the Maldives, Admiral Radhakrishnan Hari Kumar, chief of the naval staff, met Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and other senior leaders of the island nation in its capital Male with a focus on further boosting the bilateral defence ties.
An "emotional" Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari expressed happiness while his powerful army chief Ashfaq Pervez Kayani was left "shocked" and demanded a public explanation from American President Barack Obama when the United States told them about Osama Bin Laden's killing in Abbottabad.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will arrive in the Pakistani capital on Thursday for talks aimed at pressing the country's leadership to crack down on the Haqqani network to facilitate the process of reconciliation in neighbouring Afghanistan.
General Asad Durrani's disclosures could leave considerable egg on the face of those currently wielding the stick in Pakistan, notes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace heads a high-level tri-service now in India.
General Naravane's UAE and Saudi Arabia visits communicate India's long awaited arrival in the domain of integrated foreign policy where the diplomatic and the military domains both complement each other much more substantially, observes Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd).
This is the first time that a retired officer has been appointed at this position for which a gazette notification was issued to announce the change in rules for the appointment.
Before migrating into the theatre command concept, it would be worthwhile to study the shortfalls experienced by the Tri Services Command in the Andaman and Nicobar islands and make good the deficiencies, suggests Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika Rawat and 11 others were killed when an Indian Air Force helicopter carrying them crashed on Wednesday near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu in apparently foggy conditions, killing 13 people on board, the IAF and other officials said.
The government is set to begin the process soon to appoint the next Chief of Defence Staff with Army Chief Gen MM Naravane emerging as the front-runner for the top post that fell vacant following the demise of Gen Bipin Rawat in a helicopter crash.
Asserting that the United States is ready with all its contingency plans to defend itself and its allies from any misadventure from North Korea, Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel has warned that the isolated nation was "skating very close to a dangerous line"."North Korea has been, with its bellicose rhetoric, with its actions, skating very close to a dangerous line," said Hagel with Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in Islamabad to hold consultations with in Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
