Indian Defence Review

Pakistan, FATF and Masood Azhar’s Houdini Act

The media is full with headlines like ‘Pakistan fails to get off the ‘Grey List’ of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). But a better way would be to say ‘Pakistan successfully avoids being placed on FATF’s ‘Black List’. On February 20, 2020, last day of its five-day meeting to review Pakistan’s...

Refugees from Pakistan speak of inhumane persecution of minorities in the country

The Parliament of our great Nation has enacted the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, (CAA), with the noble, justified and righteous intention of easing the process of grant of citizenship to the persecuted religious minorities of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The merits or otherwise of the Act, that are been...

Pakistan Fails Yet Again

Despite its intensive lobbying and cosmetic measures to convince the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to take it off the Grey List in which it was placed in June 2018, the international watchdog has once again placed Pakistan in the said List with a stern warning to be prepared to be placed in Black List if it does...

Pakistan, FATF and Masood Azhar’s Houdini Act

Refugees from Pakistan speak of inhumane persecution of minorities in the country

Pakistan Fails Yet Again

Indo-US Defence “Make in India” Aviation Initiative

The discussions on the Indo-US nuclear deal in 2005 actually started the India-US strategic cooperation and possibly of India leaning towards the USA. Because of years of military purchases from the erstwhile Soviet Union, later Russia, the process had its complexities. India needed high technology American military...

Role of Military History

Napoleon had once famously said that ‘morale to the material is like three is to one’. Military history that celebrates the glorious deeds of past can boost the morale of soldiers and citizens alike. In case of India however the prominent role played by the non-violent movement in attaining freedom, there is general...

Space Tech in Indian Defence : A new chapter in the offing?

Global Space industry revenues are valued at $360 Billion according to market reports. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs estimates that the global space industry could generate revenue of more than $1 trillion by 2040. Bank of America Merrill Lynch sees the space industry growing to $2.7 trillion in 30 years. This...

India’s Third Front

An opposition leader in the Lok Sabha taunted the capability of the Indian Armed Forces to deal with a two-front threat. The remark was by no means innocent, the message was meant for external and internal consumers. The external clients being Pakistan and China, and the internal consumers are the people who under the...

J&K and Ladakh: Intense winter season highlights People-Army bond

The people of the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh region have, along with the Army, faced great challenges to neutralise a diabolic foreign design of wresting the region from the Indian Union through the medium of a low cost Proxy war and cross-border terrorism. The mainstay of this epic fight has been mutual trust and an...

India Under a Hybrid Attack?!

“Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent’s fate.” —Sun Tzu In the aftermath of the dismemberment of Pakistan in 1971, Zulfikar Bhutto is quoted to have said “we will bleed India by a...

Marginal Increase in Defence Budget Could Mar Modernisation

The disappointing part is that there has been a very marginal increase in the capital outlay for defence for 2020-21 as compared to the budget estimates and revised estimates of 2019-20, which will affect several big-ticket projects of the defence forces that are being done for building capabilities against our two...

Drones: A Game Changer in Future Conflict

Drones have been called “the ultimate military growth industry”. Air, naval and land forces everywhere are striving to acquire these platforms. Herein lies the danger; thanks to advanced armed drones, aggression is becoming pain-free. Practically every military that has inducted UCAVs has sought to purchase even...

MBDA at DefExpo 2020: "Making in India"

“MBDA has two exciting focuses during DEFEXPO 2020: providing the highest performing missile technologies to India, and secondly delivering on Make in India as part of our longstanding partnership strategy with India. DEFEXPO 2020 is timely as it falls soon before the arrival in India of the first Rafale fighter...

London Bridge to Kashmir and Beyond: What makes Jammu & Kashmir so Important?

One of the best sources for background information on the complicated subject of Jammu and Kashmir is a book by...

Turks and Syrians Heading Towards a Major Conflict

Turkey and Syria are now directly involved in the military confrontation and this time not through proxies but...

Turbulent times for Beijing

The world is going through tumultuous times. China, too, has not been spared. A dreaded virus has struck the Middle Kingdom and there’s no end in sight for the epidemic though it seems to be spreading at a slower pace outside Wuhan, its epicenter. The epidemic has strange collaterals. In usual times, internet and social networks are kept under close watch by the communist State and any...

Hezbollah now most Prominent Threat to US

After the killing of Major General Qassem Suleimani the loudest voice (After Ayatollah Khamenei) threating United States came from Hezbollah. Secretary General of Hezbollah Sheik Hassan Nasrallah in his public speech said the US military in the Middle East would pay the price for...

Sri Lankan Refugees- Another Memorable Judgement

India has not ratified the 1951 UN Convention on the Status of Refugees nor the 1967 Protocol. Nor has India enacted so far a national refugee law. With the passing of the Amendment to the Citizenship Act different yardsticks are being applied to the refugees in different parts of...

How killer Corona virus has dented President Xi's mandate

Dynasties in the Middle Kingdom go through cycles. The Emperor of a strong and just dynasty brings peace and prosperity to the people with the ‘Mandate of Heaven’. With time, the system becomes corrupt and the people start suffering. Disasters strike. The Emperor loses his mandate...

Pakistan: Where ‘Larger’ Interests Render Humans Disposable!

If Islamabad’s decision not to evacuate its students studying in Wuhan, which is the epicenter of the Coronavirus epidemic reflects sheer irresponsibility, then the reasons that it has given for doing so are even more appalling. How can a democratically government that’s supposed to be “Of, by and for the people,” abdicate its constitutional responsibility in such a casual manner? How can anyone ever expect that Special Assistant to...