Moving ahead towards cancelling the controversial chopper deal, the Defence Ministry on Wednesday said it has issued a final show cause notice to AgustaWestland for "violating" the terms of the Rs 3,600 crore contract for supplying 12 VVIP choppers to the Air Force.
Defence Minister A K Antony, who has been briefing the Congress high command about the steps to be taken to create the state of Telangana, has stated that the party needs to make its intentions clear for the people of Andhra Pradesh.
The ship, commissioned on November 16, 2013, celebrated her third anniversary on Friday.
Pakistani troops violated the ceasefire thrice on Saturday along the Line of Control when they opened indiscriminate firing in Poonch and Rajouri sectors, leaving a child injured.
The defence minister told the Rajya Sabha that at the moment, "We cannot say conclusively about the exact cause of the incident. Our armed forces work on a war footing on these aspects and they are also anxious over this issue."
Under attack from opposition parties over his response on the killing of Indian soldiers, Defence Minister A K Antony on Monday said the armed forces have the freedom to respond appropriately to a developing situation along the Line of Control with Pakistan.
After incidents of clashes between officers and jawans, commanders have been told to have zero tolerance in such cases and exemplary punishments are promulgated in open forum to give "necessary preventive lessons" to the personnel, the government on Wednesday said.
The Indian Air force has asked the government to procure the Swiss Pilatus basic trainer aircraft to train its rookie pilots instead of a similar aircraft being indigenously developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.
The woman, whose complaint of wife swapping rocked the naval base in Kochi in April, was on Saturday arrested by Delhi police for allegedly committing a forgery by procuring a credit card in the name of her estranged husband.
The over Rs 50,000-crore deal for supplying 126 Rafale combat aircraft and the security situation in the Af-Pak region are understood to have been discussed during the Defence Minister-level talks between India and France in New Delhi on Friday.
The PLA choppers violated Indian airspace in the Chumar sector on July 11 around 0800 hours and returned after flying for some time there, sources said.
The defence ministry has handed over some documents received from an Italian court to the Central Bureau of Investigation to verify if there was any breach of contractual obligations by Anglo-Italian firm AgustaWestland in the Rs 3,600 crore deal for 12 helicopters, official sources said on Tuesday.
He served as Union minister of information and broadcasting in the IK Gujral government and was allotted different portfolios in the Manmohan Singh government.
In his maiden visit to a defence establishment, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will sail on INS Vikramaditya, the largest warship of the Indian Navy, off the coast of Goa on June 14.
Surjewala statement comes after some media reports claimed that investigators questioning the suspected middleman in the 'chopper kickbacks' case were trying to extract a false confession from him that he personally knew Gandhi at the time the AgustaWestland chopper deal was finalised.
The Rafale deal issue and the Kashmir situation also came up during the Congress president's 30-minute-long interaction.
Leaking of official secrets of military operations is treason and those involved in it must be punished, the Congress said on Wednesday on the purported WhatsApp chats of Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami and demanded that the prime minister must come clean.
A day after resigning as the navy chief, Admiral D K Joshi on Thursday wrote to his colleagues, saying he was "firm" on taking responsibility for the mishaps that have taken place.
Defence Minister A K Antony on Thursday said he had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and consulted "everybody" before accepting the resignation of an "upset" Admiral D K Joshi as Navy Chief in the wake of Wednesday's submarine mishap.
A fresh probe into the Pathribal encounter case is not ruled out in view of the major controversy that has erupted after the Army gave a clean chit to its personnel in the infamous incident which took place in Kashmir in 2000.
Around 20 Chinese soldiers last week entered Indian territory near the Line of Actual Control and pitched their tents in Chepzi area in Ladakh, sources said on Sunday. Around 20-22 Chinese People's Liberation Army soldiers had last week pitched around 8-10 tents in the west of Chepzi in Ladakh area, the sources said.
Congress said it expects the truth to prevail after the report on the Rafale deal is made public.
"Don't expect miracles in resolving the issue. What we are trying is that till a satisfactory solution on boundary issue is found, whenever incidents take place on border, through discussions and official mechanism, resolve those issues. Of late, we have been able to resolve the issues without much delay. That is an improvement," Defence Minister AK Antony said.
The indigenously developed light combat aircraft 'Tejas' would officially replace the MiG-21 FL fighter jet, Chief of Air Staff of the Indian Air Force, Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne said on Thursday.
"Our party has decided not to attend the meeting with the GoM. Our main demand is that the GoM engage all stakeholders, including the Joint Action Committees, from different regions of the state in talks on the issue and address all concerns," TDP senior leader Gali Muddukrishnama Naidu said in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
Facing the prospect of cancellation of its Rs 3,600 crore deal to supply 12 VVIP choppers to the IAF, AgustaWestland has sought a meeting with the defence ministry to explain its stand on the issue.
Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh was on Monday suddenly called in by Defence Minister A K Antony to brief him about the ceasefire violations by Pakistan on the Line of Control, days after the prime minister voiced concern over the handling of Keran operations.
The Group of Ministers on Telangana is set to discuss the draft bill for the creation of Telangana on Saturday.
On August 4, the UFO was sighted by Army troops in Lagan Khel area in Demchok in Ladakh area in the evening and a report has been sent to the Army headquarters by the local formation, sources said in New Delhi.
Ceasefire violations by Pakistan continued as intermittent small arm fire was on through Thursday night in Balakota and Sabzian area in Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir. The firing started at 9:30 pm and continued till the morning.
As a political storm brewed over Defence Minister A K Antony's statement on the killing of five Indian soldiers in Poonch, Congress today maintained he did not give a clean chit to Pakistani Army in connection with the incident.
In the wake of killing of five Indian jawans at the LoC on Tuesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party has suggested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should not hold bilateral talks with his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif during his forthcoming visit to the United States for United Nations General Assembly meeting.
The government on Tuesday said the attack and killing of five Indian soldiers was carried out by "terrorists along with persons dressed in Pakistan Army uniform" and India will take all necessary steps to uphold the sanctity of the Line of Control.
Government is awaiting a report from its embassy and team in Italy to get a final picture on whether Defence Minister A K Antony has been listed as a witness in the VVIP chopper scam trial by a court there.
China has reacted cautiously to India's proposal for the establishment of mountain strike corps along the Sino-Indian border, while the official media in Beijing ignored the development.
The Indian army is planning to put back a surveillance camera in the Chumar area along the Line of Actual Control to keep an eye on the movement of the Chinese troops, which had reportedly taken away a similar device last month.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday constituted a Cabinet committee to oversee reconstruction and rehabilitation in flood-ravaged Uttarakhand.
Calling for closer military ties between India and China, Defence Minister A K Antony on Saturday said that it would be easy to maintain peace along the borders if both the forces have trust, mutual respect and confidence.
Defence Minister A K Antony has shot down Commerce Ministry's proposal to raise Foreign Direct Investment in defence from 26 per cent to 49 per cent, saying it will be a "retrograde" step and "stymie" the growth of the domestic industry while increasing dependence on foreign manufacturers.
The former defence minister said that all formalities were completed and all orders issued on OROP but its implementation is not being done by the Modi government.
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