The 'institution' of CDS carries tremendous responsibility of modernising the country's military forces, and reflecting the 'hopes and aspirations' of 1.3 billion Indians, Modi said.
Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika Rawat and 11 others were killed when an Indian Air Force helicopter carrying them crashed on Wednesday near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu in apparently foggy conditions, killing 13 people on board, the IAF and other officials said.
In an address at the Global Dialogue Security Forum, he underlined the need for India to put greater focus on having strong bilateral, trilateral and multilateral arrangements with like-minded countries to maximise its strategic leverage in the region.
"Numerous rounds of talks have taken place with the Chinese counterparts to deescalate the situation without compromising on India's stand of 'complete disengagement and immediate restoration of status quo ante'," the defence ministry said.
The significant changes include devolution of powers within the ministry and the service headquarters and concurrent running of the acquisition process.
'If the Chinese intent is to be gauged based on its aggression in the South China Sea, greater forays in the Indian Ocean, a hawk's attitude towards Taiwan, flying its fighters repeatedly over the Senkaku islands in the East China Sea and creating strategic assets globally, there would be a requirement for strategic partnerships for India,' says Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
'In India, China's capacities to conduct new types of warfare is critically underestimated,' says Claude Arpi.
A quintessential military commander, Gen Bipin Rawat possessed an uncanny understanding of geopolitical upheavals, calibrated a tri-services military doctrine to make India face myriad security challenges, and is largely credited with bringing down militancy in the Northeast and Jammu and Kashmir.
Apart from battle tanks, Pakistan Army is also procuring 245 150mm SP Mike-10 guns from Italy out of which it has already received 120 guns.
Excerpts from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech at the Combined Commanders Conference on board the INS Vikramaditya at sea, off the coast of Kochi.
Has the army confronted China, equipping itself with emergency purchases that have been largely paid for by pensioners, asks Ajai Shukla.
He said that those who have surrendered and returned to the mainstream are being rehabilitated by both the central and Assam governments and they will participate in the development journey of the state.
The commander said the situation in the region has been stable and no major "changes or palpable shift of stance has been noted" even as the Indian and Chinese troops are engaged in a stand-off in Demchok and Depsang in eastern Ladakh.
Currently women are allowed in a number of select areas including in medical, legal, educational, signals and engineering wings of the army.
'The wise men learn lessons in war.' 'The smart men learn lessons from others, it's only the foolish who learn the wrong lesson.'
The current fleet of BMP-2/2Ks was first inducted into the Army in 1985 and it has been the mainstay of the mechanised infantry since then.
According to the report, Russia tops the table with 6,375 warheads, followed by the United States with 5,800, and the United Kingdom with 215 warheads.
If New Delhi finds itself out in the cold in Afghanistan, both the Congress-led UPA and BJP-led NDA have only themselves to blame. Each has been in power for a full decade from 2001, without reaching out to the Taliban, points out Ajai Shukla.
UAVs are an intrinsic part of today's technology driven battlefield. Indians don't seem to be taking the challenge with the degree of urgency that is required, says Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
In the Union Budget presented in Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, a total of Rs 1,52,369 crore has been set aside for capital expenditure that includes purchasing new weapons, aircraft, warships and other military hardware.
The nine nuclear-armed states -- the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) -- together possessed an estimated 13,080 nuclear weapons at the start of 2021.
The government is undertaking a comprehensive modernisation programme to prepare the police and paramilitary forces of the country for newer challenges of terrorism, cyber crime and border security, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said in New Delhi on Wednesday.
The reforms include relocation of 229 officers from the Army headquarters, creation of a new post of deputy chief for military operations and strategic planning.
The US, China and the UK remain the top three defence spenders while India has the fourth largest military budget, followed by Saudi Arabia and Russia, according to the '2016 Jane's Defence Budgets Report', released by research firm IHS Markit.
The reality is that Indian defence modernisation is lagging behind and the government and the present defence minister is largely responsible for the sad state of affairs today in the military realm.
The demand for OROP has been projected as an unambiguous issue but a good policy argument must have a sound economic element.
'Clarifying that modernisation of national defence and armed forces should be completed by 2035, Xi Jinping asserted the goal is to make the People's Liberation Army a "world class force" that "can fight and win" by 2050,' points out former RAW officer Jayadeva Ranade.
The Taliban has its backers, notably Pakistan and China. Their purpose is to have a monstrous entity near India's northern borders to keep democratic, secular India off-guard, observes Amulya Ganguli.
The Indian and Chinese troops are engaged in a five-month bitter standoff in eastern Ladakh.
As per the plan, each of the theatre commands will have units of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, and all of them will work as a single entity looking after security challenges in a specified geographical territory under an operational commander.
The onus today is on China, but it also requires a little diplomatic finesse from India, backed by a modernised armed force, argues BJP MP Subramanian Swamy in this excerpt from his new book, Himalayan Challenge: India, China And The Quest For Peace.
Terming military might as the biggest deterrent to war, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the defence forces will be modernised to ensure that "nobody casts an evil eye" on the nation.
The CDS will have a significant role in higher defence planning and operational aspects of India's nuclear arsenal.
A hike in China's defence budget has got defence experts and analysts debating the country's rising military power and clout.
India has become the 37th country to join the list of Strategic Trade Authorization-1 category, the only South Asian nation.
'If you behave like a nail, the adversary will behave like a hammer.'
Xi, the most powerful leader in recent decades heading the ruling Communist Party and the military, will now be the first Chinese leader after the founder chairman Mao Zedong to remain in power lifelong.
The nation has the fifth largest defence budget in the world, at $52.5 billion in 2017 ($51.1 billion in 2016), overtaking the UK whose defence budget fell from $52.5 billion in 2016 to $50.7 billion in 2017.
India will maintain territorial integrity in Doklam, the Raksha Mantri said.
In a late night statement, the White House said completion of these sales would increase bilateral defence trade to nearly USD 19 billion, supporting thousands of US jobs.
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