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Defence projects worth a whopping Rs 80,000 crore were on Saturday cleared by the government which decided that six submarines will be made indigenously and over 8,000 Israeli anti-tank guided missiles and 12 upgraded Dornier surveillance aircraft will be purchased.
Here's the full text of President's Ram Nath Kovind's address to the joint sitting of both houses of Parliament on the first of Budget Session 2022.
'We are looking at a joint venture between ISRO and a few companies to assemble the PSLV and launch it from Sriharikota.' 'In a month or two, the vehicle assembly building will be ready.' 'After that, we could see 13, 14 launches a year.'
Defence Minister A K Antony is flying down to Bangalore to award the Tejas its initial operational certificate on Friday. The Sitara's success in intensive flight-testing this year means that he could soon be making another trip to award an identical certification to the Sitara.
'At 1.58% of GDP, the defence budget is one of the lowest since the Chinese aggression of 1962.' 'The government of the day has lost sight of the fact that defence of the country is as important as its growth,' says Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
'Till date there have been 482 accidents on account of failure of this aircraft and 171 IAF pilots have lost their lives.'
'In the case of an India-Pakistan confrontation, the Chinese may undertake more than just posturing, thereby constraining us from deploying adequate forces for decisive results,' warns Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
Delivery of a great operational machine must not get affected to settle political scores, says Air Marshal Anil Chopra (retd).
'Some Indians take the extreme view that everything was known to our ancients, but others go to the opposite extreme and consider everything Indian was superstition and rubbish.' 'Indian science was perhaps more rational than the European science of the time.'
Taking on the Congress over the Rafale deal, the defence minister asserted that 'there is something different between defence deal and deal in defence.'
The defence ministry has put on hold all existing and future deals with Rolls Royce pending a CBI probe ordered into allegations of bribery and engaging middlemen in contracts worth Rs 10,000 crore for supply of aircraft engines to state-owned HAL.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar says global aircraft makers will have to get approval from their own governments to transfer technology and build jets in India.
The Rafale will surely be flying in Indian skies next year. But the way the BJP government has botched this will cast a shadow on defence acquisitions in the years to come.
The Indian Air Force argued that Hindustan Aeronautics Limited's HTT-40 trainer jet would be costlier than the Swiss Pilatus trainer over its 30-year service life. When HAL challenged this contention, the IAF was not able to back it with figures.
The IAF chief stressed on the ongoing development of advanced landing ground along the Himalayas.
The nexus between middlemen, arms agents and government officials has been broken, according to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.
He accused the BJP of creating friction between communities and 'igniting' fire and ramped up his attack on the PM.
With an aim of boosting manufacturing and exports amid sharp fall in the rupee, the government has decided to take a slew of steps, including enhancing steel production capacity to 300 million tonnes and raising textile exports by 30 per cent this year.
'It is hard to justify $225 million a plane for an increasingly obsolete mission.' The purchase of the 36 Rafales has changed little for the IAF.
Marking a breakthrough in the protracted talks in the French Rafale jet deal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Friday that India will purchase 36 of these fighter planes that are ready to fly, citing critical operational requirement of the Indian Air Force.
Pakistan's 'approach is one of getting even, an eye for an eye, or death by a thousand cuts.' 'The entire effort is to be the equal of India. Unfortunately, the reality is that this can never be the case.' 'India will always be the bigger, economically stronger, technologically more self-reliant country.' 'Therein, lies the dilemma Pakistan faces which leads it to perennial enmity with India,' notes Ambassador Gautam Bambawale in the Air Marshal Y V Malse Memorial Lecture 2019.
The integration of the Rafale jets will allow the IAF to hit targets inside both Pakistan and across the northern and eastern borders while still staying within India's territory.
'There is no secrecy clause to the price (of the aircraft).' 'There can be secrecy on the capability of the nuclear payload of aircraft and things like that, but the price is hardly a secret.'
'Let us remember that Make in India for defence must not be our goal.' 'The goal is to have a strong military to help the nation protect its identity and assert its will.'
On the pricing issue, Eric Trappier said that the present aircraft are cheaper by 9 per cent.
'This is fake. Tyagi was made to sign on a blank paper of the register for media entry and later the names of Rahul Gandhi and others were added in the register,' Congress said.
'Over the last two decades, the India-French relationship has grown steadily, no major political difference having darkened the sky between Paris and Delhi,' says Claude Arpi.
The National Democratic Alliance government has adopted half measures instead of moving decisively on defence.
'Despite frequent high-level interactions there has been little traction on substantive issues between India and France,' says Mohan Guruswamy.
Thirty-four years after he traveled to space, Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih that he looks forward to Gaganyan, India's first manned space mission in 2022.
'As the tanks roll down Delhi's Rajpath and the C-17s fly overhead, there could be a lot brewing in Hyderabad House,' says Surya Gangadharan.
The attorney general admitted that there is no sovereign guarantee, but asserted that there is a letter of comfort by France which would be as good as a governmental guarantee.
'If a drone can't fly airspace without the DGCA knowing about it, how did such a big plane get airborne?' 'The DGCA knows this aircraft had undergone major repairs. Now, the question is who allowed it.' 'The DGCA cannot come out of this.'
'The defence minister needs to focus on human resources-related issues at the same pace in 2017 as he did on acquisitions in 2016,' says Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
While the Rafale deal seems to be the main order of business during French President Francois Hollande's visit, other aspects could help sweeten the deal, says Claude Arpi.
Rahul Bedi explains how 'miscellaneous' factors have posed a major hurdle in negotiating the Rafale deal.
'The India-France relationship has been that of the elites of two countries, who appreciate each other's philosophical traditions -- whether it is ancient Indian civilisation and Sanskrit texts or the French tradition of Rene Descartes, Albert Camus, (Jean-Paul) Sartre... This is a drawback. It doesn't create the buzz, the excitement necessary for a relationship. We need more people-to-people contact, especially among students,' says former Ambassador to Paris, Rakesh Sood.
The remarkable story of Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian in space, will be seen in a film featuring Aamir Khan.
The OrcaPod is a prototype of what comes after boats, cars, trains and planes. It's India's foray into what Tesla founder Elon Musk calls the 'fifth form of transportation' and India's only entry at the ongoing Hyperloop competition by Elon Musk's SpaceX.
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