Indian Defence Review

Crisis in the Maldives: India’s Options

“To be Secure on Land one must be Supreme at Sea” - Jawahar Lal Nehru In early February this year, the archipelago nation of Maldives found itself in a full-blown constitutional and political crisis, when the incumbent President Abdullah Yameen, ordered the arrest of two Supreme Court judges, who had ordered the...

The Scorpene: Enhancing India’s Underwater Capability

In addition to the 14 active submarines, India is in the process of constructing six Scorpène-class boats that are being indigenously built at the Mazagon Dock in Mumbai, under the supervision of French technicians. India’s defence planners have also begun development of the long anticipated, indigenously built...

Pakistan - Terror tags don’t worry Beijing’s Darling

News about the recently released UNSC consolidated list of individual terrorist and terrorist entities naming 139 from Pakistan including prominent names like Dawood Ibrahim and LeT chief Hafiz Saeed was headlined in Indian media. The list includes all individuals who have either lived in Pakistan, operated from there...

Crisis in the Maldives: India’s Options

Pakistan - Terror tags don’t worry Beijing’s Darling

Backroom Snippets from Islamabad

Indian High Commission Housing Residential Complex on about 15 acres plot is coming up in Diplomatic Enclave, Islamabad. It is 98% complete and will be fully operational by Sep 18. On becoming functional, interference from ISI may stop and thus ISI is worried. ISI intervened on 15 Feb and stopped the work and snapped...

Maritime Air Ops: Ex Gagan Shakti – 2018

During both phases of Ex Gagan Shakti, the IAF is effectively exercising its Maritime war fighting concepts on both the Western and Eastern seaboards. Air Dominance, over the entire extended area of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) in support of the Indian Navy (IN) is being demonstrated by employment of combat enablers...

Military Diplomacy: A Vital Tool for Furthering National Interests

“While the civil bureaucracy and the political leadership in our MOD continue to constrain the Indian military’s engagement with the world, China is consciously promoting it.” — C Raja Mohan A nation’s strength to thwart diverse threats to its interests and adequately address the varied transformational...

Indo-French Relations: Will the Partnership take a Step Further?

According to most commentators, the visit to India of French President Emmanuel Macron has been an unqualified success. For the first time, a French President was on the cover a national magazine; another first, President Macron gave an interview from the Elysee Palace in Paris which was broadcasted in prime time on a...

Internal Peace: Understanding the Structural Issues

Increasingly, as the country becomes more powerful, external threats reduce in intensity, but the army finds itself engaged in restoring internal peace. This becomes of even greater importance when the external enemies use the internal fissures to fight a proxy war against us; a low cost, low risk option for our...

Did India ever formulate Kashmir Policy !!!

Article 35A, which essentially determines as to who can be permanent citizen of Jammu and Kashmir is the lynchpin of Article 370. It was a Presidential Order in the year 1954 by way of which Article 35A was made operative. It has never been intrinsic to the Indian Constitution. This stark illegality or Constitutional...

Cyber Security: Civil and Military Implications

The capability of India’s matchless troops in on-the-ground, blood-and-guts fighting is legendary. But if operational logistics is compromised in advance by a hostile military, wars may be lost even before engaging in battles and such battles as engaged in, will prove costly in terms of soldiers’ lives lost due to...

The Scorpene: Enhancing India’s Underwater Capability

Kalyani Rafael Advanced Systems (KRAS) announces Expansion

Kalyani Rafael Advanced Systems (KRAS), a joint venture between Kalyani Strategic Systems Ltd. and Rafael Advanced Defence Systems Ltd. of Israel is all set to expand its product profile. The JV will now venture into the space of Missile systems with the New Generation Precision Guided Munitions (NGPGM), Air Defense...

Indian delegation witnessed performance of Ka-226T helicopter

The representatives of the Indian MoD visited Kamov Helicopters of Russian Helicopters Holding Company (part of Rostec) within the framework of the project of the delivering 200 units of Ka-226T rotorcraft and establishing its serial production in India. The Indian military took part in the demonstration flight of...

India, China must find ways to Cooperate Economically

That the 5th Sino-Indian Strategic and Economic Dialogue was held in Beijing despite deep divergences between India...

Creation of Defence Planning Committee: A Step towards Credible Defence...

In a significant defence policy reform notified on April 18, 2018, the government has revamped the existing defence...

Myanmar: Time to focus on Economy

With the Cease fire process as well as the desired progress in Constitutional reforms going no where, it is but natural, that the Government of Suu Kyi is trying rearrange the priorities and focus more on the economy. In his inaugural speech on 29th March, President Win Myint spelt out the major objectives of the Union Government that included rule of law, an improvement in socio economic...

Pakistan’s Western Frontiers Restive: The Pakhtun Awakening

Pakistan’s Western Frontiers comprising Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunwa Province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), have been restive for decades but recent Pakhtuns widespread protests in Islamabad and in rest of Pakistan has been described by Pakistani columnists as...

Raksha Mantri to Pursue India’s Defence Cooperation Agenda in SCO

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is scheduled to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s Annual Defence Ministerial Meeting to be held in Beijing on April 24. This is the first time that an Indian Defence Minister will be attending such a meeting, which will have the...

One more Airport in Tibet: Govern the Borders by First Stabilizing Tibet

Radio Free Asia (RFA) has reported that the Chinese authorities have seized some farmland near Lhatse in Central Tibet to build a new airport. The displaced Tibetan villagers would have been offered far less in compensation than the land is worth. According to a plan announced by...

Resetting India–Nepal ties: Oli shows his pragmatism

The visit by Nepalese Prime Minister KPS Oli to Delhi on April 6 continued a tradition going back to 1990, wherein the elected leader of Kathmandu makes India the first destination for an official visit. While this is a reiteration of the resilience of bilateral ties, the three-day Oli visit also marked the beginning of a new reset punctuation in the distinctive yet discordant Delhi-Kathmandu relationship. What is distinctive about this...