A visit to Tibet appears to have become the new touchstone for expressing fealty to Xi Jinping, observes Jayadeva Ranade, the retired senior RA&W officer and distinguished China expert.
When Home Minister Amit Shah, who was in Gujarat to cast his vote in the urban body polls, learnt of the poor voter, instead of heading home he went to the Motera stadium, organised a control room, and was on the phone with practically everybody assigned duty on the ground: MPs, MLAs and BJP office-bearers. His single commandment was to check the voter list and phone or personally get people to the booths, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
The fleet landed at Al Dhafra airbase on Monday in the United Arab Emirates after flying for over seven hours from the Merignac airbase. It was the only stopover by the jets while flying from France to India.
'My brave JCO managed to get to the gun, sit on top of the dead man and fired away at the attacking aircraft till they melted away into the darkness.'
The sources said the exercise was a routine military drill by China.
As a tense stand-off continues on the Sino-Indian border in Ladakh, where a Chinese patrol has apparently established a camp eight km inside India, the ministry of defence is confronted with a difficult decision -- an inexplicable army proposal to shift top generals, which would see key hotspots being placed under new commanders, unfamiliar with the situation.
'The Ladakh clashes are mere warning signals of the storm to come on May 22 when the Chinese parliament meets,' observes Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
For the Congress to be taken seriously, it has to convince those around it that it could actually double its Lok Sabha seat share from the existing 52, and vote-share by a third more from the stagnating 20 per cent in 2014 and 2019, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
If the initial analysis of this YJ-21 is correct, then China becomes the first country in the world to operationally field such a missile from a naval vessel.
A summary of Day 2 action in the Ranji Trophy matches, played at various venues across the country.
The Indian Navy and Coast Guard on Thursday pressed into service warships and surveillance aircraft to scour the high seas in and around Mumbai to look for 'Mother Ship' which could have ferried the terrorists who carried out attacks in this metropolis. "The naval and Coast Guards ships have since this morning intercepted and checked antecedents of all the vessels operating or moored around the metropolis," Vice-admiral J S Bedi said.
Refuting reports that unidentified ships have dumped arms at the Kerala coast, the Coast Guard today said the west coast faced no serious threat from militant outfits including the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. "The country's western coast is not facing any serious threat from militant outfits like LTTE," said Coast Guard Western Regional Commandant A Rajasekhar, aboard the Coast Guard ship 'Savitribhai Bhule.'
So far, the Central Sector has never seen active hostilities, remaining peaceful even through the 1962 war. A reason for the Central Sector having remained peaceful is the towering Himalayan watershed that defines the border.
At any time, there is a need to operationally deploy two aircraft carriers in the vast Indian Ocean, asserts Vice Admiral Premvir Das (retd).
"In case of a misadventure of Pakistan triggered by major terrorist attack or the attack like the one we had on Parliament, attack on our leader, a major city, public or hijacking an aircraft, any such action by them can obviously lead to a reaction from India, which could be a short intense war," Air Marshal K D Singh, Commander-in-Chief of South-Western Air Command said.
The thanks-giving activities will start with laying of wreaths at the police memorial in Delhi and in several other cities on Sunday morning to honour the police personnel deployed in enforcement of the nationwide lockdown, officials said. It will be followed by fly-pasts by fighter and transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force, covering a sizeable number of cities and towns across the country between 10 am and 11 am, officials said.
China will flood direct flights to India with wholesale takeaways of the authentic stuff; Indian businessmen will fight for the commission and the consumers for the cuisine, predicts Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
Adm R K Dhowan is also likely to take a closer look at the submarine building assembly line at the Naval Dockyard co-located with the Eastern Naval Command, on his maiden visit to a field command since taking over, reports RS Chauhan.
India's second aircraft carrier, INS Viraat, drydocked at Cochin Shipyard Ltd for extensive maintenance work and re-fit, is expected to leave for Mumbai by this month end and hopes to join the fleet around mid-year.
IS executioner known as 'Jihadi John' was revealed to be a university graduate from London
The issue will comprise a secondary share sale worth Rs 600 crore by private equity major Everstone Capital and fresh fundraising worth Rs 400 crore.
Defence ministry says the focus was on suitability and merit for the selection of the new Army chief.
Indian Coast Guard Commander of Western Region A Rajasekhar said, "Though infiltration through sea is possible, the Coast Guard is patrolling the coastline by air and water to thwart any potential threat."
With the unanticipated floods across Tamil Nadu catching the unprepared administration unawares, Stalin finds that some of the early positives that had rubbed on his initiatives have been lost, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Lt General Rawat belongs to the famous 5th Battalion of 11th Gorkha Rifles. He is the current vice chief of army staff of Indian Army.
"While jihadis in Pakistan are now fighting the army in Balochistan, Swat and North Western Frontier Province, the same may be brainwashed and made to infiltrate in India," Lt Gen Noble Thamburaj, general officer commanding-in-chief, southern command, said.
'Clearly, Washington has all but given up hope following US Acting Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells's stormy visit to Colombo last month where she read the riot act to Sri Lankan leaders to sign the pending status of forces agreement allowing American troops to use Sri Lanka as a hub for operations in the Indian Ocean,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha's recent visit to Qatar, home to the US Central Command's regional headquarters, has sparked speculation about an 'intelligence back channel' between Pakistan and the US to reset troubled security cooperation.
Rear Admiral Sinha said that the western fleet is committed to keeping the Indian Ocean stable and free of piracy by cooperating with its maritime neighbours like Oman.
Rourkela and nearby areas in Odisha's Sundargarh district are abuzz with reports about the killing of Anmol, area commander of Chotanagpur Committee Maoists, but a senior police officer said there was no evidence of that so far.
Any defeat for the BJP now would imply that anti-incumbency against Modi has set in, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Defence Ministry on Wednesday announced a major reshuffle in the top echelons of the force, naming Lieutenant General Milan Lalitkumar Naidu as the new Vice Chief of Army Staff.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian expressed this hope hours after India and China accused each other of firing in the air near the Pangong lake at the Line of Actual Control(LAC) in eastern Ladakh on Monday.
The Indian Air Force on Saturday reopened an old air base in the mountainous Ladakh region in Jammu and Kashmir that was closed 43 years ago.An AN-32 transporter plane carrying Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (Western Air Command) P K Barbora landed at the Dawaltbaigh Oldi air strip around 8.50 am after flying from Chandigarh.Barbora had last week said that the operationalisation of the base would demonstrate to the world that India is capable of manning such an airfield.
Air Marshal S P Tyagi has been named the next Chief of the Indian Air Force.
In a joint statement, the two armies said it was agreed to earnestly implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries and ensure that the frontline troops exercise restraint and avoid misunderstanding and miscalculation.
In New Delhi's corridors of power, debate continues on whether the navy even needs a third aircraft carrier.
Everyone at the camp was sleeping and Pakistani defence establishment had no clue that the attack was coming so deep into their country.
'Till date there have been 482 accidents on account of failure of this aircraft and 171 IAF pilots have lost their lives.'
