IDR Blog
J&K: Need for an Urgent Review
Indian Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat has rightly shown his serious concern regarding the developing situation in the Kashmir valley where interference of separatists’ supporters is jeopardising the implementation of collateral-damage-free counter-insurgency operations. These protests have led to losses of lives of security force (SF) personnel...
Russia’s Policy Shift towards Taliban and Pakistan
For the second time in the last few months, Russia hosted a Conference on Afghanistan in Moscow on February 15, 2017, this time with an expanded representation of six countries – Russia itself, Iran, China, India, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Interestingly, a key player, the United States, which still maintains 9,800 troops to support the...
Weapons of Mass Disruption Lessons for India
Snowden Impact Edward Joseph Snowden disclosed that the National Security Agency (NSA) of USA had developed a capability that allowed it to intercept almost any communication. With these capabilities, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting.[i]Snowden described that the US hacked everyone...
A Train to Chumbi Valley?
A Tibetan website has just announced that the Mila (spelt ‘Mira’ by the Chinese media) tunnel will be opened on June 30. According toTibetonline.cn, at an average altitude of 4,740 meters, this will become the world’s highest highway tunnel. It will eventually cut the journey between Lhasa and Nyingchi (or Nyingtri) by some four hours. The...
Gorkhas of the Indian Army and India-Nepal Relations
This commentary is inspired by the Annual Gorkha Brigade Conference held at New Delhi on 11 February 2017 and the unique model of military diplomacy it fosters between India and Nepal. The Gorkha Brigade is an association representing approximately 40,000 Indian and Nepali Gorkha soldiers as well as about 90,000 Indian Army pensioners in Nepal....