Events: DefExpo India 2008

Leapfrog the Technological Gap

India needs to do a China. Beijing has successfully converted China into a low cost manufacturing hub of the world. Similarly, New Delhi should rapidly transform India into a low cost, high end R&D centre of the world without neglecting its manufacturing sector. Fairly ideal demographic conditions exist along with favourable geo-political factors whereby international [...]

Terrorism: The Indian Drama

Hyderabad has been once again rocked by twin blasts. Innocent lives have been lost. Our national pride has been dented. Somehow, such tragedies draw a familiar and set piece response from all of us – the politicians, intelligence sleuths and the gullible public.

The Chief of Defence Staff

The divisive Indian culture continues to act as the principal destroyer of consolidation of military power by dithering over the appointment of a Chief of defence Staff (CDS). The ‘divide and rule’ concept not only costs the taxpayer a huge monetary loss through duplication of efforts by Army, Navy and the Air Force but also [...]

Blue Print for Indian Aerospace Industry

All of us would agree that aerospace power has multiple applications in peace or war. It impacts our lives, energises international relations and economic activity. It also matches the demands of national security so perfectly that it is a preferred instrument. Resultantly, civil and military aviation are growing world-wide, for those who can afford it.

U.S. Poodle or Chinese Poodle?

Ever since Shri Prakash Karat took over the stewardship of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), it has come out in the open as a strong defender of  Chinese interests.
Its decision to strongly oppose the Indo-US civilian nuclear co-operation agreement, known as the 123 agreement, even at the risk of destabilising the present Government headed [...]

Military Service Pay

The sixth pay commission is now about midway in their task of preparing their recommendations for the revision of wages of more than 33 lakh central government employees, including the personnel of the defence forces.

Punjab’s Pakistan

The part that constitutes the Punjab province in Pakistan, like other provinces of Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan, were not enthusiastic about the concept of Pakistan. It was much later, in the early 1940s, that the Muslim League made strong inroads into Sindh and Punjab. Finally, when they did decide to join the Pakistan Movement, their [...]

The Madhesis of Nepal

Dramatic events in the past one year since the 2006 “April Revolution” in Nepal have been redefining the political landscape of the Himalayan nation in more ways than one. One important change is the visible rise of “marginalized” groups in national politics. The “excluded” groups – cutting across ethnic, religious and language lines – are [...]

Teeth to Tail Ratio: An Archaic Concept

There are few concepts and expressions which have been blatantly misused as ‘teeth to tail ratio’ to determine efficiency of a fighting force. It is a much abused term to further subjective agenda of some sections of society. Strangely enough, even the militaries tend to use this expression without defining it or understanding its implications. [...]

India in the Neighbourhood

Leo Tolstoy’s classic Anna Karenina begins with the famous sentence: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” The Indian subcontinent is somewhat like this. A collection of unhappy neighbours – unhappy with each other and unhappy among themselves.

Kargil: A Ringside View

It was the 12th of June 1999. Eleven days had passed since 8 Mountain Division (Mtn Div) of which, I was privileged to be the General Officer Commanding (GOC), had assumed operational responsibility of the Drass-Mushkoh sectors from the local formation. My Div was deployed in the Srinagar Valley since 1989  when Gen Malik, later [...]