The Supreme Court on Monday came down heavily on the ministry of defence over its January 20 communication regarding payment of arrears of One Rank-One Pension (OROP) in installments to eligible pensioners of the armed forces.
The attack occurred hours after Home Affairs Adviser, retired Lieutenant General M Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, in a pre-dawn press conference reiterated the government's commitment to maintaining law and order.
Ahead of Republic Day, the Indian Army announced on Thursday the addition of two new features to this year's parade: battlefield surveillance systems and a Defebce Research and Development Organisation tableau showcasing Pralay, short-range ballistic missiles.
The Indian Navy has received a replacement MQ-9B Sea Guardian drone from General Atomics after one of its leased drones crashed into the Bay of Bengal in September 2023. The new drone replaces the one lost in a "controlled ditching" due to a technical snag. The Indian Navy has also leased two MQ-9B drones from General Atomics in 2020, and India has signed a deal to procure 31 Predator drones from General Atomics for USD 4 billion. The supply of these drones will begin in January 2029. The Navy is also pushing for another indigenously-built aircraft carrier to replace INS Vikramaditya, which is expected to have a lifespan of another 10 years.
Seventy-two women officers from the Indian Army have issued a legal notice to the defence ministry over strict compliance with the Supreme Court order on granting permanent commission to females in the force. "The notice has been sent on behalf of 72 women officers who are fully entitled to be granted permanent commission on the basis of a clear and unambiguous order of the Supreme Court on 25 March this year," counsel of the women officers Major Sudhanshu Pandey said.
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has been awarded the highest number of police gallantry medals, 21, including two Shaurya Chakras, on the eve of Republic Day. A total of 95 bravery medals were awarded to personnel from state and central police forces, fire service, home guard, civil defence, and correctional services. The CRPF's medals included 11 for operations in Jammu and Kashmir, seven for anti-Maoist operations, and one for an operation in the northeast. The second-highest number of medals went to Uttar Pradesh (17), followed by Jammu and Kashmir (15), Chhattisgarh (11), and the Border Security Force (5).
The indigenously designed and developed Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH-Dhruv) and the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas will not be part of the upcoming Republic Day flypast in India due to the grounding of the entire fleet of ALH-Dhruv helicopters following a crash earlier this month. The grounding of the helicopters is a result of a Coast Guard ALH crash in Porbandar, Gujarat on January 5, which claimed the lives of two pilots and an aircrew diver. The decision to exclude the ALH-Dhruv and Tejas from the flypast comes as a high-level probe panel investigates the cause of the crash.
An internal audit report ordered by the defence ministry has raised questions over the functioning of the DRDO and the grant of Rs 2.8 crore by its chief V K Saraswat to a society under him.
Warship building projects worth at least Rs 630 billion have ground to a standstill. The defence ministry has halted tendering in wait for a government decision on whether to allow, or to exclude, Anil Ambani's shipbuilding firm from those contracts.
A parliamentary panel report has attributed the December 8, 2021, helicopter crash that killed India's first Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Bipin Rawat, and his wife, to "human error." The report, tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, also revealed that 34 Indian Air Force aircraft accidents occurred during the 13th Defence Plan period, including nine in 2021-22 and 11 in 2018-19.
He said that in recent times, based on the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, China and India have maintained close communication on the border situation through diplomatic and military channels and achieved great progress.
India and the US have agreed to work together to draft a comprehensive framework on defence cooperation, aimed at structuring the bilateral collaboration for the 2025-2035 period. The framework will cover multiple domains in land, air, maritime and space, and will focus on intelligence, logistics, operational and industrial engagement. The agreement comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's planned trip to Washington, where he is expected to meet with US President Donald Trump to discuss boosting India-US cooperation in the areas of trade, energy and defence.
The head of Syria's main opposition group abroad Hadi al-Bahra Syrian said that Damascus is now "without Bashar al-Assad" according to Reuters.
Glimpses of lady soldiers from the Indian and the US armies during the joint exercise Yudh Abhyas 2024 at the Mahajan field firing ranges in Rajasthan.
The ministry said "local designations" assigned to both service and civilian officers in Service Headquarters/ Inter Service Organisations is also withdrawn.
DRDO conducted the maiden flight test of the Long Range Land Attack Cruise Missile from a mobile articulated launcher.
The defence ministry was on Tuesday dismissive about a media report that the Army moved two units towards Delhi in January without informing the government, saying such exercises are conducted from time to time. "The points raised in the report have already been clarified by the Army. Such exercises are conducted by the Army from time to time," defence ministry spokesperson Sitanshu Kar said in a statement. He also dubbed the report as "baseless and incorrect".
In a year bookended by intractable conflicts and geopolitical fragmentation, India focused on ramping up military prowess by broadly firming up defence procurement worth Rs 4.22 lakh crore even as Indian and Chinese militaries completed pulling back their troops from border face-off points in eastern Ladakh.
Wu said both the countries are also in consultations to work on a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the defence ministries.
The defence ministry has been hit by a fresh land scam with an in-house inquiry finding that about 70 'adhoc NoCs' were issued to private realtors flouting norms for defence land which included the Srinagar air base.
China's Defence Ministry says the militaries of China and India are making "great progress" in implementing the disengagement agreement to end over four-year-long standoff in eastern Ladakh. Spokesman Sr Col Wu Qian said Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Chinese counterpart Admiral Dong Jun had a positive meeting in Vientiane, Laos, last week, and the two sides are implementing the settlement reached between the two counties. The two ministers agreed to implement the important consensus reached between the top leaders and promote stable relations between the two countries, the spokesman said.
This is the first time in decades that China has made its flight test of an intercontinental ballistic missile public in an apparent show of strategic deterrence, State-run China Daily reported.
The ministry holds about 1.73 million acre of land.
India's second nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine was commissioned into the Navy on Thursday in the presence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh who said this will further strengthen the country's nuclear triad and enhance nuclear deterrence.
Jaitley can make his innings -- notwithstanding its likely length -- to be a watershed tenure, or just add to the image of the MoD drifting rudderless, says Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
The Central Bureau of Investigation has sought from the defence ministry documents related to the AgustaWestland helicopter deal as it prepares to question suspected beneficiaries about alleged kickbacks received in the Rs 3600 crore deal.
The Union home ministry has alerted the defence ministry about an alleged spy ring being run by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, which is trying to use ex-servicemen in the garb of providing job opportunities and financial aid.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case against the owners of a UK-based company and officials of defence ministry and army to inquire into alleged irregularities committed in procurement of Tatra trucks for the Indian Army, government told the Lok Sabha.
India has successfully test-fired a long range hypersonic missile from the APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of Odisha, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Sunday.
BEML Chief V R S Natarajan was on Monday suspended by the defence ministry in connection with the Tatra case on a Central Bureau of Investigation recommendation after former army chief General V K Singh levelled allegations that he was offered Rs 14 crore bribe to clear a deal for 600 trucks.
Slamming the Defence Ministry over the nine-year delay in awarding contract to French firm Thales to build six Scorpene submarines in Mumbai, a Parliamentary Committee on Wednesday said the indecisiveness resulted in cost overruns and undue favour to the vendor, besides adversely impacting Navy's operational preparedness.
Yoon's decision caused political upheavel in South Korea, including an Opposition-led attempt to impeach South Korea President and protests.
The BJP has accused the Congress of politicising the death of former prime minister Manmohan Singh and levelling "baseless allegations" of disrespect and mismanagement at his State funeral. The Congress has countered by alleging that the government's arrangements for the funeral were a "shocking display" of disrespect. The row comes as the Congress alleges that the Centre did not allow news agencies except for DD (Doordarshan) to cover the funeral, did not provide enough space for Singh's family around the pyre, and did not stand up for the national flag during the gun salute. The BJP has refuted all of these charges.
The Indian side is in "very close touch" with interlocutors in the foreign and defence ministries of Russia on the issue of Indians "who were, illegally or otherwise, contracted into fighting in the Russian Army", Misri said at a media briefing on Modi's visit to Russia for the BRICS Summit.
We sought Rs 2,000 crore from government to revamp security infrastructure at bases and installations. But it is yet to give a single rupee: Armed forces. The armed forces will have to spend money on revamping security infrastructure from funds allocated in defence budget: Defence ministry.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
The report took offence to the Defence Ministry playing down the phenomena by claiming that 'the overall psychiatric mortality in the Armed Forces has been less than the national figures' and that there was a rising trend of psychiatric illness in India over the last few decades and 'Armed Force personnel drawn from the same society are not immune to these influences'.
The defence ministry has got the 'contract' between AgustaWestland and alleged middleman Christian Michel regarding the controversial VVIP helicopter Rs 3600-crore deal with India.
Government sources said that since the allegations were of a serious nature, the CBI has been asked to probe.
A Parliamentary panel on Monday rapped the defence ministry and the Maharashtra government on the Adarsh Housing Society scam, saying there was "monumental failure" at all levels of governance with certain officials abusing their position.
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