Indian Defence Review

Donald Trump’s India Visit

US President Donald Trump is to arrive in India on February 24 for a two-day visit. This will be his first state visit to India. According to the White House Press Secretary, “During a phone call President Trump and PM Modi agreed the trip would further strengthen the India-US strategic partnership.” Trump’s visit...

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...

The Truth about Rising Defence Pensions

There is considerable commotion in media over the rising defence pension outlay which has touched Rs 1.33 lakh crore. There are headlines like “General Rawat Favours Pension Cut, Colonial Bungalows to go Away” as if the two are connected and auction of colonial bungalows will supplement pension bill, defence budget...

Donald Trump’s India Visit

Corona Virus: Developing National Strategy to Counter New Age Bio-Weapons

Biological warfare involves use of Micro-organisms or toxins derived from living organisms to produce death, disability or toxicity in humans, animals or plants. The history of biological warfare is as old as history of warfare itself. It was common practice in ancient warfare, to throw plague infested dead bodies in...

Nailing Pakistan’s War on Terror Financing Farce

It’s neither appropriate nor civil to accuse the judiciary of being biased, but then, exceptions are always there and Pakistan is one such example where just a year and a half ago, Justice Shaukat Siddiqui who was then a sitting judge of Islamabad High Court judge made some very shocking revelations. The judge openly...

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

The Truth about Rising Defence Pensions

Lessons learnt? A year after Pulwama

Almost a year after Pulwama on February 14, 2019, the following strike on Balakot on February 26 and the aerial engagement the day after that, I was happy to see that we seemed to have learned some lessons from these episodes. As has been widely debated and discussed in public forums, the basic intent and objective of...

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...

New Bodo Accord

Signing of the Bodo Accord on January 23 between the Government of India and Bodos is a significant step that would contribute greatly towards ushering peace in the turbulent northeast. The new Bodo Accord was signed with all the rebel factions: the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), the All Bodo Students’...

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...