Indian Defence Review

Army: Caught between Devil and deep blue sea

The Indian Army, as the most disciplined and organized force in the country, carries out every task with complete commitment and to the best of its ability, besides winning wars. This involvement, as the last resort, is necessitated by the successive failures of civilian agencies in delivering results, be they building...

When India struck a fine strategic balance

This article re-visits Malabar Exercise 2018 and illustrates how India made some fine choices in pursuance to maintaining a fine strategic balance The twenty second addition of the Malabar exercise involving United States, Japan and India started off from 07 Jun till 16 Jun 18. This exercise, was conducted off the...

Lateral Entry in Defence (Finance)

The Ministry of Defence is sui generis amongst all Ministries, as it has to provide the policy architecture to protect territorial integrity and sovereignty of India. Defence expenditure is the first charge of a budget, and being a ‘charged expenditure’, as per Article 112(3) of the Constitution it witnesses no...

When India struck a fine strategic balance

Indo-US 2+2 Dialogue: An Analysis

After cancellation twice in the last 14 months, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held the first high-level 2+2 talks on September 6 with their US counterparts Mike Pompeo and Jim Mattis respectively with boosting cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region and finalising a pact on...

Convergence of the strongest and the largest

The US high power delegation led by the Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, and including the US Army Chief, has just concluded its visit to India. The two countries are moving towards closer cooperation in their efforts for regional and global peace and development. The US lately recognizes that the strongest and the...

Army: Caught between Devil and deep blue sea

Re-structuring of the RR Headquarter?

In a recent issue, the Daily Excelsior of Jammu informed that the Army was contemplating re-structuring of the Rashtriya Rifles Headquarters for better operational capability and strategic and logistic efficacy. Rashtriya Rifles (RR) force was raised soon after armed insurgency surfaced in Jammu and Kashmir in 1990....

When Soldiers Ask Questions

The country is at war, make no mistakes about it. Many eyebrows will be raised asking ‘Where is the war?’ Von Clausewitz had many aphorisms, of which the most famous is “War is the continuation of politics by other means.” And today the ‘other means’ has graduated from direct conventional conflict to pursuing...

Lateral Entry in Defence (Finance)

Kashmir: Sustaining Insurgency

Come January 2019, insurrection in Kashmir will turn thirty. How do we assess the present status of this insurgency in the Valley? Indeed, insurgents are setting the narrative in Kashmir. A report compiled by the J&K Police, in August 2018, establishes this reality. Over the last decade, the number of active...

The politics of Panchayat elections in J&K

The time is closing in for holding of the Panchayat and local body elections in Jammu and Kashmir! It is a Key Result Area for newly appointed Governor, Satya Pal Malik, who has been given a specific mandate to revive the political process in the trouble torn state. Panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir have always...

Tata Motors to showcase its Indigenously Build Combat Vehicles at the BIMSTEC Nations Summit

To showcase India’s First Indigenous Wheeled Armoured Amphibious Infantry Combat Vehicles Supplied over 1.5 Lakh vehicles to the Indian Military, Para-military Forces and State Police forces till now Is the only Asian Company to offer a full range of wheeled Defence vehicles, including a combat range Present across...

Maiden Mid-air Refueling Trial of LCA Successful

The Light Combat Aircraft (Tejas LSP8) has successfully completed the Wet (actual) engagement today by transferring 1900 Kgs fuel from IAF IL78 mid-air refueling tanker. The refueling was carried out at an altitude of 20000 ft. The aircraft speed was 270 knots and all the internal tanks and drop tanks were refueled. A...

Lockheed Martin, Tata to Build F-16 Wings in India

• Landmark ‘Make in India’ move strengthens U.S.-India defence ties Lockheed Martin Corp. announced today an agreement to commence production of F-16 wings in India. This strategic initiative positions Tata Advanced Systems Limited’s (TASL) to become the provider of wings for all future customers and...

Under Shadow of the 2+2 Dialogue

The inaugural Indo-US 2+2 Dialogue has happened finally. The media worked overtime, giving minute to minute...

Can the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation bring India and Pakistan closer?

With India and Pakistan as newly incorporated members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), China is...

India bound by international law against any intervention in Maldives

South Asia – and the region – are keenly following events unfolding in the Maldives. The Maldivian Supreme Court in a landmark decision on February 1, 2018 ordered the government to release nine opposition leaders, including the exiled former president Mohamed Nasheed. The Court also reinstated 12 members of parliament who had lost their seats after defecting to the opposition. This resulted...

The love affair with Imran Khan is over, its back to business in Kashmir

The terror machinery operating from Pakistan has reactivated itself in a big way. The big words that he spoke of taking two steps forward if India takes one have proved to be just that – words. He has done nothing whatsoever to curb his wayward army and its nefarious arm of...

Myanmar Under Siege: Give Suu Kyi some Respite!

The Myanmar Government appears to be coming under a siege mainly by the international organizations and some western countries. If their idea is to throw Myanmar back into the arms of the Chinese, they are perhaps already succeeding. Even if the Government and the people want to...

Land Ahoy! Debarment Systems in Ministry of Defence start Coming of Age

Despite the Government of India (GoI) having issued perhaps the most advanced and comprehensive guidelines anywhere in the world on blacklisting/debarment1 as early as 1971, its own Ministry of Defence (MoD) continued with an ad-hoc approach2 until as late as 2013. This divergence...

Exposing a repressive campaign in Xinjiang

Chinese brutality towards the Uighur Muslim minority is not new but what is surprising is that nobody dares to question Beijing. Why these double standards? Last week, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a 117-page report titled, ‘Eradicating Ideological Viruses — China’s Campaign of Repression Against Xinjiang’s Muslims’, which gave fresh evidence of Beijing’s “mass arbitrary detention, torture and mistreatment, and the...