Cavalier India Defence Training Academy

The government will go ahead with ‘Jamhooriyat, Insaniyat, Kashmiriyat’ motto in Jammu and Kashmir but will not tolerate terrorism, home minister Amit Shah said in a combative speech in the Lok Sabha on Friday aimed at reaching out to the people of J&K and sending a strong message to militants.  Piloting the resolution for extension of president’s rule and the amendment bill for extending reservation to communities living on the international border, Shah rubbished the Opposition allegation that the previous Modi government had misused Article 356, saying of the 132 times, Congress governments imposed President’s rule 93 times.  Shah emphasised that the government will have zero tolerance towards “Pakistan sponsored” terrorism and will succeed in crushing it with the support of locals. The government is committed to “well-being of Bharat Mata” and has ideological clarity on the issue. He picked holes in the policy Congress adopted since the prime ministership of Jawaharlal...

India is likely to make its payments for Russian arms in euros to a Russia-nominated bank to bypass the threat of US sanctions for purchase of military hardware including the S-400 air defence missile system, people familiar with the details told ET.  While certain payments for existing defence transactions have been processed through the rupee-rouble route, the people said that a solution was firmed up this month with Russia’s VTB Bank agreeing to receive money in euros.  Over $4 billion worth of payments to Russia have bunched up for this financial year, with the biggest contract being the S-400 system, followed by the Chakra III submarine lease and the procurement of four frigates for the Indian Navy.  Besides, two additional Russian contracts are expected this year for the supply of AK 203 rifles to the armed forces that will be manufactured in Amethi and the inking of an Army contract to procure Ka-226 helicopters that will be produced by a HAL-Russian Helicopters JV...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on June 26, will depart for the 2019 G20 Summit to be held in Osaka, Japan. The summit, scheduled to happen on June 28 and June 29, will be the 14th such gathering. Here's all you need to know: What is the G20 Summit? G20, or the Group of Twenty, is an international forum for the governments and central bank governors from 19 countries and the European Union (EU). It was founded in 1999 and has overshadowed the G7 in the last 10 years. The group comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the EU, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US). Heads-of-governments of these countries meet at the annual G20 Summit. Heads-of-states and chiefs of international organisations such as the United Nations (UN) are also extended special invitations. Leaders from the Netherlands, Singapore, Chile, Spain and Vietnam are expected to atten...

Uncertainty looms large over the future of the strategically-important Chabahar Port that India is building in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan province. Despite India getting exemption for the development of the port from the sanctions imposed by the United States on Iran last November, the European and Chinese suppliers who had won the bid to supply equipment for the port are now reluctant to deliver, fearing adverse impact on their business with the US, senior government officials familiar with the matter said. The US imposed the sanctions in November 2018 after pulling out of the nuclear deal it signed with Iran in 2015. ThePrint reported Saturday that the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is likely to reiterate his government’s stand to exempt India from sanctions on the use and development of the Chabahar Port during his visit next week. Critical Equipment The suppliers in question include Cargotec OYJ, the Finnish crane maker, which won the bid last year to supply 14 rubber-tyred gantr...

Security personnel who often face off with stone-pelters and civilians during crucial anti-terror operations in Kashmir will no longer depend on pellet guns to disperse the human obstacles. The Ministry of Home Affairs has approved the use of 'sound cannon', devices that can emit pain-inducing sound waves, on rampaging mobs in the Valley. The move follows criticism of pellet guns that have left several people with eye injuries. Known as Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), the sonic weapon was used for the first time in Pittsburgh, US, to control an agitated crowd during a G20 summit in 2009. "It is much needed. During an encounter with terrorists, locals start pelting stones at the forces. LRAD will help us immediately disperse the crowd and also take terrorists off guard, giving a strategic edge to our forces in action," a senior IPS officer told DNA. The use of LRAD has been criticised world over as the sound can cause pain in humans and permanently damage hearing. O...

With the Nuclear Suppliers Group beginning its plenary in Kazakhstan on Thursday, fingers are crossed in New Delhi as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is keenly waiting to see if China finally changes its position and stands aside to let India enter the cartel. The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) is holding its 29th annual plenary in Nur-Sultan (Astana), the capital of Kazakhstan, on Thursday and Friday. The cartel has on its agenda the “technical, legal and political aspects” of granting membership to the countries like India and Pakistan, which have not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, commonly known as the NPT. Kazakhstan will take over the chairmanship of the NSG from Latvia during the plenary. New Delhi hopes that the plenary may see China changing its position and stop blocking India’s entry into the NSG – given the bonhomie between Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping and efforts by both sides over the past one-and-a-half-years to mend the troubled relations ...

A dismal tally shows that attacks on security forces in Jammu and Kashmir have grown in the first six months of the year, as compared to last year. A total of 69 security personnel have been killed in 170 attacks between January and June in the restive state, compared to the 95 killed in the whole of 2018. And according to intelligence sources, around 300 terrorists are currently active in the state and thus security has been beefed up for July, when the pilgrimage to Amarnath begins. In June 2019, one of the bloodiest months in the valley, 11 security personnel and officers were martyred. There were 17 acts of terror in 18 days, according to an internal note circulated by the Ministry of Home Affairs. Security forces neutralised 16 terrorists in the sixth month of the year, including Sajjad Bhat, a Jaish-e-Mohammed commander believed to be the last surviving attacker behind the Pulwama attacks. Sources say infiltration from across the border begins with the melting of ice at the adven...

Fourteen years after the makeshift Ram Lalla temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya was attacked allegedly by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a special court in Allahabad on Tuesday convicted four of the five accused and sentenced them to life imprisonment. The fifth accused in the attack was acquitted for lack of evidence. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 60,000 each on Irfan, Mohammad Shakeel, Mohammad Naseem and Asif Iqbal alias Farookh. The fifth accused, Mohammad Aziz, was acquitted. All the convicts are lodged in the Naini Central Jail here and have been sentenced for murder and attempted murder. Special judge Dinesh Chand heard the case in the Naini jail itself. UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath welcomed the verdict but said that legal opinion would be sought regarding the one acquittal. On July 2, 2005, a joint team of CRPF and UP Police personnel had killed five LeT terroristsat the Ayodhya site, in a two-hour long gunfight. Two civilians were killed and seven CRPF jawans were injur...

An accidental fire at a naval dockyard resulted in damage to a recently upgraded Kilo class submarine. The Navy is now checking critical components in the control room to get it back to functional duty.  The INS Sindhukesari, which underwent a Rs 1,197-crore refit and upgrade in Russia and was shipped back in February, suffered the accident when certain indigenous components as well as a US-origin periscope were being fitted onboard.  While the submarine got a 10-year life extension upgrade at a shipyard in Zvyozdochka, Russia, a part of the work was to be completed at the Mumbai yard by the Navy, the biggest task being the integration of an L3 Communications periscope that would give it all-weather vision. Sources said the fire took place in the first week of March during welding. While the damage is believed to have been contained and there were no injuries, critical components in the control room were affected by the soot produced by the fire. These have to be individually ...

Ethnic Nagas in remote northern Myanmar have long provided sanctuary to insurgents who launch armed raids into northeastern India and then retreat back across the border beyond the reach of Indian security forces. Myanmar’s inability or unwillingness to uproot those rebel sanctuaries have been a persistent thorn in the side of the two neighbors’ bilateral relations, contributing to mutual mistrust and suspicion over the years. But that arguably began to change in January, when more than 400 Myanmar troops drove the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K) from its headquarters at Taga in the northern Sagaing Region. NSCN-K shared the camp with militants from the United Liberation Front of Asom [Assam] (ULFA) and other rebel outfits from Manipur in northeastern India fighting against New Delhi’s rule in the Seven Sisters region, a term for the contiguous states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. On June 3, during a press brief...

India's Foreign Ministry spokesperson said during a Thursday briefing that New Delhi would go ahead with the purchase of Russia-made S-400 air defence systems despite the threat of US sanctions. "I really cannot share how are we going to tackle the whole issue. We already have contract which has been signed and you already know that steps are being undertaken to implement the contract. We are engaged and we have engaged with the US administration as well as the US Congress on the issue of CAATSA", the spokesperson said. The official was referring to the Countering America's Adversaries through Sanctions Act, a 2017 law that gives Washington the right to impose economic restrictions on any state if it decides to acquire military equipment from Russia. The spokesperson said that "defence cooperation between India and the US is an important component of our strategic partnership", just like with Russia, Sputnik reported. The comments come less than a week after...