Cavalier India Defence Training Academy

With the signing of the lease agreement for an Akula-class nuclear-powered attack submarine worth over $3 billion, the value of defence deals between India and Russia made in the last six months has surpassed the value of defence deals struck between India and the US in the last one decade. Following last year's annual summit, which witnessed India and Russia sealing a $5.43 billion deal for S-400 air missile and defence systems, the two countries have inked defence deals worth over $7 billion, including the sale of submarines, short range air defence systems, frigates, and assault rifles by Russia to the Indian Armed Forces. "Russia provides two advantages that the US cannot. Firstly, it is willing to give much more technology than the US, and secondly, Russia gives strategic protection from China. (Putin is the only leader Xi would listen to). After Doklam, given Chinese People's Liberation Army's massive increase on the Line of Actual Control (de-facto border), vuln...

Last week, India and Russia signed a lease for an Akula class nuclear-powered attack submarine which is to be refurbished in a Russian shipyard and transferred to India after a six-year refit. This lease, worth over $3 billion for the Chakra-3 submarine, will replace the one operated by the Indian Navy. It comes amid a blizzard of defence deals worth over $10 billion between Moscow and New Delhi in just six months. The Chakra lease is second to last October’s inking of a $5.4 billion contract to purchase five S-400 missile systems. Sources say a majority of the government-to-government deals are being directly steered by the PMO underlining their strategic nature. Over 40 per cent of the lease amount of the Chakra-3 is to be paid in advance. This, sources say, is a departure from the 2011 lease of the Chakra 2. On March 3, Prime Minister Modi announced an Indo-Russian joint venture to make AK-203 rifles at an Ordnance Board Factory in Korwa, Amethi. The JV, will churn out an over 7.5 l...

Pakistan is short of becoming a blacklisted country by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the multilateral body on terror financing, and India is making sure Pakistan is not let off the hook for allowing terrorists activities to emanate from its soil, Defence Minister Nirmala Sithamaran said on Sunday. Speaking at a session organised by FICCI Ladies Organisation in Chennai, to celebrate Women’s Day, Ms. Sitharaman said, “When it came to the question of financial action that has to be taken against terror funding, the FATF as it is popularly called, Pakistan is short of becoming a black listed country. That’s also because we are making sure that Pakistan is not let off the hook.” Reiterating India’s position on the IAF strike at Balakot, she said it was a targeted, pointed strike at a terror training camp. “We had intelligence enough, information enough, that it (terror) was where it was coming from, we preemptively acted on terror, so that it does not any longer go unattended,” sh...

When it comes to women who have broken the glass ceiling, Nirmala Sitharaman definitely tops the list. On the occasion of International Women's Day, Nirmala Sitharaman's story is unmissable.  From being a trained economist, a former employee of PriceWaterhouseCooper to being the first woman to independently run the Defence Ministry, Sitharaman has taken on several roles in her life. She graduated from Seethalakshmi Ramaswami College, Tiruchirapalli, and went on to pursue a Masters degree in Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi.  In JNU, she fell in love with Parakala Prabhakar, the son of an Andhra Pradesh minister Parakala Seshavataram of the 1970s. She eventually moved to London where Parakala Nirmala went on to do his PhD from the London School Of Economics.  In London she worked as a salesgirl at a home decor store on Regent Street. She then took on the task of a translator in BBC Radio's Tamil Division and then employed as an analyst at the researc...

A US military commander suggested Thursday that a loose security grouping of his country, Japan, Australia and India, also known as the quad, may be shelved for now after New Delhi showed disinterest. Admiral Phil Davidson, who heads the US Indo-Pacific Command, said he was on a panel with the other navy chiefs at the Raisina Dialogue, a multilateral conference in New Delhi in January. Davidson said the issue came up "several times" but Indian navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba "made it quite clear that there wasn't an immediate potential for a quad." "That does not omit or prevent our ability to cooperate in crisis and conflict. And we continue collectively, all of us, to seek opportunities in which we might exercise and work together moving forward," he said. Davidson was asked if the quad was relevant to the US's vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific region, which was the central theme of his lecture in Singapore. The US and the other three countri...

The local youth of Jammu and Kashmir in huge numbers are taking part in the ongoing recruitment drive by the Territorial Army (TA) being held in Doda district for 57 vacancies. The recruitment drive for the four districts-Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban and Udhampur-commenced on March 5 and will culminate on March 13. "I have attempted it 12 to 13 times so far. I will keep trying till I qualify. I have been interested in joining Indian Army since my childhood days," said an aspirant Nawaz Ahmad. "I want to serve the nation and also earn a livelihood to survive. I am very poor and live very far from here, the Imam of the mosque in my area gave me Rs 1500 from the Mosque's fund so that I can reach here. Indian Army treats everyone very nicely and I want to do the same," he added. He said that unemployment is the biggest challenge in Jammu and Kashmir. Another youth, Rahul Kumar said: "I want that everyone should go for the Army. Indian army provides the best platform ...

Hours after Pakistan Army violated ceasefire along the LoC in the Digwar sector in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, Indian Army successfully destroyed a Pak post in retaliation against the heavy shelling in the Balnoi sector in the Mendhar area of Poonch district on Tuesday evening.  Continuing its blatant run by violating the ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan on Tuesday afternoon also violated ceasefire violations in the Sunderbani sector of Rajouri district, incidentally the area where the Pakistan Air Force attempted its intrusion into Indian airspace in an effort to attack India's military installations.  On March 1, Pakistan fired in Jhullas area of Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district in which two children - a nine-month-old baby, her five-year-old brother and their mother were killed. The cowardly act had exposed Pakistan's doublespeak as the civilians were targeted during the time of the release of IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman. The shelling from...