As India goes ahead with its plan to modernise the armed forces, US has pitched for India to buy defense equipments from American companies. "We think we have the finest military hardware in the world, and if India is upgrading its defense capabilities, they should buy American," State Department spokesman, P J Crowley told reporters.
South Asia's top air show Aero India 2011 took-off on an impressive note with an exquisite flying display and mid-air manoeuvres by Indian and foreign aircraft.
India will end up with second-rate defence equipment if it depends on foreign vendors for the supply of critical defence technology, warned Defence Minister A K Antony on Monday. He was speaking at the eighth Aero India International seminar in Bengaluru."Do not be under the impression that any country in the world, however friendly, would like to part with their most modern 'A' grade technology," he said.
The decision was taken a meeting held by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi with Mukherjee, Chidambaram and other senior leaders like A K Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Prithviraj Chavan and Saifuddin Soz, party sources said
With the government of India inclining towards Union Defence Minister A K Antony's adamant stand that the controversial and contentious Armed Forces Special Powers Act should neither be diluted nor withdrawn, the issue was not raised by either Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Home Minister P Chidambaram, or even Congress chief Sonia Gandhi during Wednesday's all-party meeting on the Kashmir crisis.
A decision on Kashmir will be taken by the centre after Wednesday's all-party meeting convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Defence Minister A K Antony said on Tuesday.
Seventeen members, including new and re-elected ones, took oath in Rajya Sabha, which reassembled after a month-long break, on Thursday.
India and South Korea have entered into a five-year defence cooperation accord by signing two memorandums of understandings on sharing of military expertise and technology.
While Sonia Gandhi has been avoiding attending public events, Rahul Gandhi left on a short personal visit abroad only on Sunday.
Veena Kohli, mother of Captain Sumit Kohli who died under mysterious circumstances in 2006, on Saturday met Defence Minister A K Antony and demanded an independent probe into her son's death. Kohli, who was accompanied by her daughter Namrata and her advocate Major Guneep Chaudhary, appealed to Antony to provide justice to the family as she believes her son was murdered at the Army residential complex in Jammu and Kashmir by his fellow officers.
In a feat that came a decade after the multi-role LCA took to the skies, Defence Minister A K Antony handed over the IOC certificate to Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal P V Naik at the HAL Airport in Bengaluru.
A skillful organiser and shrewd strategist with the man-next-door image, 67-year-old Oommen Chandy has been a key player in the Congress in Kerala for over four decades.
Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, on Tuesday addressed senior defence commanders in New Delhi in the wake of a deteriorating security scenario in the South Asian region, especially in neighbouring Pakistan and Afghanistan.
A week after government auditors exposed Army supplying stale food to jawans, Union Defence Minister A K Antony on Saturday gave an assurance that efforts were in progress to improve quality of rations given to them.
India and Russia will sign a pact on Thursday to extend their military cooperation programme till 2020 as Defence Minister A K Antony and his counterpart Anatoly Serdyukov discussed a wide range of issues, including the upgrade of aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov.
Voicing concern over the misuse of United States' military aid by Pakistan, India on Friday asked America to set up a "monitoring mechanism" as a remedial measure, but got no clear assurance in this regard.
India conveyed its serious concerns over the US military aid to Pakistan being misused against it and asked America to establish a "monitoring mechanism" to ensure that this does not happen on Friday.
Claiming that the Left Democratic Front government in Kerala had little to show as its achievement, Defence Minister A K Antony on Monday said the state would become the 'second Bengal' if the Left alliance returned to power.
After campaigning in Alleppey for the legendary K R Gowri Amma, Oommen Chandy spoke to Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier about forming the next government in the state, development in Kerala and more.
The Cabinet Committee on Security today took stock of the situation arising out of the Pune bomb blast and is understood to have discussed issues related to the upcoming foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday spoke to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over phone and briefed him on the law and order situation in the Valley.
Defence Minister A K Antony on Tuesday said that cross-border terrorism continues unabated and Pakistan has not done much to stop it. He was speaking to media personnel in Bengaluru where the first Naval prototype of the Light Combat Aircraft was rolled out today.Antony stated that while the situation in Kashmir was improving, terror camps continued to operate from across the border. But he added that bilateral dialogue between India and Pakistan was imperative.
Union Defence Minister and senior leader of the Congress party AK Antony said on Thursday that no force can stop the Congress-led United Democratic Front from coming to power in Kerala and forming a government in the state.
After blowing the lid off the Adarsh Housing Society scam in Mumbai, Trinamool Congress MP Ambica Banerjee has now alleged that another defence land in the metropolis was given away to a private pharma company through a NOC from the army.
A top military official, Lt Gen Awadesh Prakash, allegedly involved in the Sukna land scam faces court martial with the Union Defence Minister A K Antony asking army chief General Deepak Kapoor to initiate disciplinary action against the officer.
Stung by the Adarsh Housing Society scam in Mumbai, Defence Minister A K Antony on Tuesday recommended a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation to fix responsibility of the armed forces and defence estates officers in the episode. He also asked the CBI to look into the circumstances under which a No Objection Certificate was issued to the housing society to construct the 31-storey building on a piece of land, which was in the 'de facto' possession of the army.
The suspense over the fate of embattled Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan continued on Sunday night with a high-level Congress committee tasked to give a report on the housing scam in Mumbai saying it would need 'more time' to do its job. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is heading the two-member committee, met fellow panel member Defence Minister A K Antony on Sunday night shortly after his arrival from Kolkata.
The Defence Ministry is likely to complete the computerisation of records of all the land under it by the end of this month, the Lok Sabha was informed on Monday. "Computerisation of land records is already going on and is likely to be completed by March 2011. Steps have been initiated to streamline proper management of defence land and its protection," Defence Minister A K Antony said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
The issue of constituting a mechanism for the wide ranging consultations promised by the Centre on Telangana is expected to come up on Friday at a meeting of the Congress core group headed by party president Sonia Gandhi.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who discussed Pakistan's response on the Mumbai terror attacks dossier with senior ministerial colleagues P Chidambaram and A K Antony, on Thursday said that India is examining the report received from Islamabad. "Pakistani authorities have admitted that elements in Pakistan were responsible for terror attacks in Mumbai," Mukherjee told reporters hours after Pakistan's response was handed over to India's High Commissioner.
Defence Minister A K Antony ruled out any plans for offensive action against Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden despite an increase in piracy- related incidents.
On the eve of an all-party meeting on Telangana, Telangana Rashtra Samithi chief K Chandrashekhar Rao on Monday said the Centre should follow its announcement on creation of a separate state with a resolution in Parliament but set no deadline for it.
India is concerned over thriving terror camps in Pakistan, but the bilateral talks between the two sides would continue, Defence Minister A K Antony on Tuesday said.
Defence Minister A K Antony said piracy was a matter of concern for India and combating the maritime terror was one of the topmost priorities of the government.
Defence Minister A K Antony said on Sunday that the government viewed the violence unleashed by Maoists in some parts of the country very seriously.
An investigation by the army and other agencies into classified information leak from a Major's computer has established "cyber security breach", but not the espionage angle so far, Defence Minister A K Antony said on Friday.
Legendary Marxist firebrand K R Gowri, one of the founding leaders of the Communist movement in Kerala and the lone woman member in the state's first cabinet, died at a hospital in Thiruvananthapuram.
Ahead of his meeting with Indian counterpart A K Antony, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said the Pentagon wants to strengthen and expand its military to military ties with India.
The 143-metre-long warship, with 6,000-tonne displacement, has "versatile control systems with signature management and radar cross-section reduction features."
In a bid to build a blue-water navy capable of operating across oceans, Defence Minister A K Antony on Thursday commissioned the first of the Shivalik-class multi-role frigate with stealth features.
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