The key airbase at Panagarh in West Bengal has been renamed as 'Air Force Station Arjan Singh' in honour of the Marshal of the Air Force, who turned 97 on Friday.
Lt Gen S Pattabhiraman was named as the new vice chief of the army staff on Thursday.
This was the observation of the elite Marcos Naval Commandos which had the first confrontation with the terrorists at the city's landmark Taj Hotel.
The sources said the exercise was a routine military drill by China.
At any time, there is a need to operationally deploy two aircraft carriers in the vast Indian Ocean, asserts Vice Admiral Premvir Das (retd).
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.'
"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 issue will comprise a secondary share sale worth Rs 600 crore by private equity major Everstone Capital and fresh fundraising worth Rs 400 crore.
Any defeat for the BJP now would imply that anti-incumbency against Modi has set in, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
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
Defence ministry says the focus was on suitability and merit for the selection of the new Army chief.
'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.
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.
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."
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.
In New Delhi's corridors of power, debate continues on whether the navy even needs a third aircraft carrier.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Statesmanship requires that the prime minister himself reaches out to those amassed at the Singhu and Ghazipur borders. Modi should be able to win over this domestic front with sheer compassion, observes Virendra Kapoor.
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.
Everyone at the camp was sleeping and Pakistani defence establishment had no clue that the attack was coming so deep into their country.
Xi arrived at the Nyingchi Mainling Airport on Wednesday and was warmly welcomed by local people and officials of various ethnic groups, Xinhua news agency reported.
'Till date there have been 482 accidents on account of failure of this aircraft and 171 IAF pilots have lost their lives.'
Air Marshal S P Tyagi has been named the next Chief of the Indian Air Force.
"We are the government. The Navy and the Defence Ministry are not the government," he added.
The J-K top cops also said less than 200 militants are currently active in Jammu and Kashmir.
At an online media briefing, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava gave a run down of the events along the LAC in the eastern Ladakh region and held China responsible for the Galwan Valley clashes off June 15.
In the unlikely event of the BJP-NDA losing all five states going to the polls in February-March, the Presidential electoral college numbers could be significantly altered, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
