With the United Progressive Alliance-II's tenure coming to an end, France had wanted India to sign a pact to provide government guarantee for completion of negotiation for 126 fighter aircraft with Dassault company but Defence Minister A K Antony has refused to do so.
An Italian court has barred India from encashing bank guarantees worth over Rs 2,360 crore of AgustaWestland as part of the penalties imposed on it after scrapping of the Rs 3,600 crore VVIP chopper deal.
Pakistani troops on Friday resorted to mortar shelling and firing on the Line of Control in Jammu district, the second ceasefire violation in two days ahead of a crucial meeting of the Directors General of Military Operations of the two sides aimed at easing tensions along the ceasefire line.
Targeting forward posts and civilian areas along the Indo-Pak border, Pakistan has violated the ceasefire 96 times this year, the highest in the last eight years.
Blaming Pakistan for killing of its five soldiers on August 6 in Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir, India on Monday said its restraint should not be taken for granted and that the incident will have consequence on the relationship with the neighbouring country.
In a politically-significant move, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reconstituted a government committee on commemoration of the 125th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru which will be headed by him, replacing his predecessor Manmohan Singh.
Efforts by divers on Thursday to ascertain the fate of 18 trapped Naval officers and men in submarine INS Sindhurakshak that exploded after a fire were hampered by poor visibility inside the submerged warship as heat generated by the blasts had melted parts of the internal hull preventing access to compartments.
Defending Defence Minister A K Antony on the Poonch killings issue, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Thursday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of politicising an issue concerning national security.
Taken by surprise by the decision of an Italian judge to include Defence Minister A K Antony as a possible witness in a trial relating to corruption in the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland chopper deal, India on Monday night ruled out his appearance in the court.
Three months after the 21-day stand-off in Depsang valley in Ladakh, Chinese troops again came deep inside the Indian territory in that area last week to reach upto 2 kms close to Indian posts, in one of five such incursions in the recent past.
Border incursion, the finalisation of the Border Defence Coordination Agreement (BDCA), a new mechanism suggested by China last year for improving security at the borders, pending the final settlement of the territorial dispute, top Antony's agenda for talks.
Replying to clarifications sought by MPs in Rajya Sabha on his statement on the border row, the minister said skirmishes and face-off with China in the last few months have been primarily over the issue of patrolling the Ladakh border.
The party also made it clear that no one will be permitted to undermine or weaken the party and its leadership. The CWC also resolved that inner-party issues cannot be deliberated through the media or in public fora and all such issues must be raised within the party 'in the interest of propriety and discipline'.
Its advanced Longbow radar picks up enemy armoured vehicles and then destroys them with anti-tank missiles, air-to-surface rockets or a chain gun that sends 625 rounds per minute ripping into the targets.
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Rahul met the prime minister for about 30 minutes before the party group chaired by Congress President Sonia Gandhi with the prime minister by her side began deliberations at Dr Singh's residence.
India on Wednesday cancelled its Rs 3,600 crore deal with Anglo-Italian firm AgustaWestland for the supply of 12 VVIP choppers to the Air Force in view of charges that kickbacks to the tune of Rs 360 crore had been paid in it.
In a major milestone in the country's military aviation, indigenous supersonic fighter aircraft LCA-Tejas on Friday received the Initial Operational Clearance, that takes it a step closer to its induction into the Indian Air Force squadron.
Armed with fresh details on the alleged kickbacks, India has initiated steps to cancel the Rs 3,600 crore-chopper deal with Anglo-Italian firm AgustaWestland by issuing a show cause notice to it in this regard.
The demand for turning Hyderabad into a UnionTerritory on the lines of Chandigarh and make it the joint capital of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana may be considered by the government.
Pakistani troops violated the ceasefire twice on Sunday by firing mortar shells, rockets and automatic weapons on forward Indian posts along the LoC in Poonch district, drawing retaliation from the Indian side.
M I Khan speaks to the bereaved families of soldiers killed along the Line of Control. They demand India though action against the neighbours and NOT compensation.
The Delhi high court on Tuesday sought a response from the Central Bureau of Investigation on a bail plea of Lt Gen (retd) Tejinder Singh who was arrested for allegedly offering Rs 14 crore bribe to the then army chief General V K Singh for clearing file pertaining to procurement of Tatra all-terrain vehicles.
Controversial Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, who was a key figure in the Bofors payoffs scandal, has died in Milan following a stroke.
China on Monday said Defence Minister A K Antony's visit Beijing has given both countries an opportunity to enhance their "strategic cooperative partnership" and jointly maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas through increased military-to-military coordination.
Former Defence Minister A K Antony tells Amit Agnihotri that Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's statement is an insult not only to the Indian Army but also the previous National Democratic Alliance government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee
The army is planning to procure 100 self-propelled artillery howitzers and three Indian vendors, including two private companies, have been selected for trial of their equipment, Defence Minister A K Antony told the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Robin K Dhowan on Thursday took over as chief of the Indian Navy nearly two months after D K Joshi quit the post in the wake of a series of mishaps.
Indian Navy chief Admiral D K Joshi resigned on Wednesday evening after owning moral responsibility for the series of mishaps plaguing submarines in the military.
The government is looking into the complaints about the procedure to determine the winner of the multi-billion dollar combat aircraft deal, Defence Minister A K Antony said on Thursday while admitting that there was no money to sign such a big deal in this fiscal.
'The defence minister is stuck in the trivial and frivolous with a clerical mindset merely to prove his so-called 'honesty" overlooking the primary aim of adding sufficient military muscle and firepower to the defence services,' says Bharat Verma.
He also said that Bharatiya Janata Party MP Subramanian Swamy has not lied about the deal but it seems he has been misled.
Pranabda hasn't given us any indication of the tough period when he realised Sonia Gandhi had decided to give the presidency not to him, but to then vice-president Hamid Ansari. He wrested the presidency from her, and handed her the biggest defeat of her UPA years, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Congress leader Veerappa Moily stated that the negotiation for Agusta began during former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's regime and all his advisors and defence ministers were involved.
Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party were on Saturday engaged in a bitter war of words over government's announcement of 'One Rank One Pension' with the opposition party calling its provisions "betrayal" of ex-servicemen while the ruling outfit accused Congress of playing a "joke" on veterans when in power.
The long-delayed and much-awaited $2.3 billion aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya was on Saturday inducted into the Indian Navy in Severodvinsk, Russia, in a strategic boost to India's maritime warfare capabilities.
China is now the most significant strategic concern in Washington, as in most of the world's capitals, especially the democracies. Today, strategic autonomy has acquired a sharper definition: To ward off the Chinese challenge to India's territorial integrity, sovereignty and regional stature, observes Shekhar Gupta.
'It was Parrikar's sharp insights into finance and international systems that stood out when India --at his suggestion -- decided to procure the Rafale combat jets from France.'
With no let up in ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has said that India should "respond in kind" if these persist and BSF asked its men to retaliate strongly while Army said it is prepared to deal with any situation.
'Some people chose to describe it as the Pakistan army's permanent presence, as if it's another Kargil. The reports were highly exaggerated.' Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt, who is travelling with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on his two-nation trip to Brunei and Indonesia, reports.
The deal is estimated to be worth Rs 12,000 crore.
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