Recently, in a rare public admission, Air Marshal B S Dhanoa, Vice Chief of Air Staff (VCAS), said while briefing the media recently on the eve of Exercise Iron Fist, a firepower demonstration of the Indian Air Force (IAF) that the “numbers are not
Unspent Funds At the end of the third quarter of Financial Year (FY) 2015-16, 40 per cent (Rs 37,000 crore out of Rs 93,675 crore) of the capital budget of the armed forces remained unspent. As it will not be possible to spend all of the remaining
In his address to the Chiefs of Staff and the Commanders-in-Chief of the armed forces on board the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya on December 15, 2015, the Prime Minister made a rare statement on India’s defence policy. The PM lauded the sacrifi
At 93, one of India’s great military icons, Lt Gen JFR Jacob passed away in Delhi on Wednesday. Jakes to friends and colleagues, Lt Gen Jacob was a regular visitor to Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF). One of the important protagonists in
During his first year in office, Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar gave a free hand to the army to act pro-actively on the LoC. He led from the front and worked closely with the leadership of the armed forces, the bureaucracy and his counterparts in
Defence planning in India has been marked by knee jerk reactions to emerging situations and haphazard single-Service growth. The absence of a clearly enunciated national security strategy, the failure to commit funds for weapons and equipment acquisi
On May 1, 2015, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, appointed a 10-member committee headed by former Home Secretary Dhirendra Singh, to review the defence procurement policies and procedures and to recommend fresh guidelines with a view to implementin
India conducted five nuclear tests over two days on May 11 and 13, 1998, and declared itself a state armed with nuclear weapons. Since then, India’s nuclear deterrence has been effectively operationalised. With a pacifist strategic culture steeped
Paresh Baruah’s United Liberation Front of Assam-Independent and S S Khaplang’s National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K) have joined hands with seven other militant organisations active in India’s north-east to form the United National L
The Special Representatives of the Prime Ministers of India and China met on March 23, 2015 at New Delhi to discuss the resolution of the territorial dispute. This was the 18th round of border talks that have made little progress so far. A typically