Experts Speak

June 30, 2017
A Historic Meeting
By Air Marshal B.K. Pandey (Retd)
The historic meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump is expected to propel the relationship between India and the US to greater heights.
June 29, 2017
Modi-Trump Meet – amidst Modi's 3-Nation Tour
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met US President Donald Trump on June 26. Modi's US trip starting June 25 was part of his three-nation tour commencing with Portugal.
June 23, 2017
New Indigenous Bullet Proof Jacket for Forces
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd.)
In an article titled 'Bullet Resistant Vests' in April this year, it was reported in these columns that Amrita University, Coimbatore is offering highly advanced technology bullet proof jackets (BPJs) and the proposal titled "Development of Hyper Velocity...
June 23, 2017
Trial of another Assault Rifle – and the missing carbine
By Lt General V.K. Kapoor (Retd)
Media had reported in July 2016 that the Army had junked DRDO's 5.56mm Excalibur assault rifle. Resultantly, Army's quest for a state-of-the-art assault rifles was extended – fresh equipping taking minimum seven-eight years as per informed...
June 23, 2017
QCG - flogging the dead horse?
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd.)
The Pakistani media is upbeat with the news that Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to continue with the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) established for talks with the Taliban in order to bring them into the reconciliation process. Obviously, Pakistan wanted to show some sort of diplomatic 'victory' after Chinese President Xi Jinping snubbed Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by not granting him te customary meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Kazakhstan...
June 8, 2017
Indian Army in Limelight
By Lt General V.K. Kapoor (Retd)
The Indian Army continues to be an institution that is loved and respected by the nation and its people. Let us not drag this fine institution in to politics and controversy.
June 8, 2017
PM Modi's 4-nation tour
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)
Before Prime Minister Narendra Modi embarked on his four nation tour to Germany, Spain, Russia and France on May 29, it was reported that his main focus would be bilateral cooperation on economic (in backdrop of India having passed GST Bill and record FDI inflows of $43.5 billion during 2016-17), defence, science and technology, and nuclear fronts, parleys on EU-India Free Trade Agreement, and fight against terror.
June 8, 2017
Army Division to Afghanistan – hoax or perception building?
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)
Word by word Identical reports from Washington, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India are talking about India planning to send 15,000 troops to Afghanistan – as is a press release has been issued by someone.
June 8, 2017
Pakistan's info war
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)
Why Pakistan's information war succeeds in India is not only because of exploitation of communications and social media and is using the religious card in Kashmir Valley, but it also has a cross-section of pro-Pakistan lobby in India. After some Hurriyat leaders openly admitted to have taken money from Pakistan to stoke unrest in Kashmir Valley, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) raided 26 places across Kashmir, Delhi and Haryana, recovering letterheads of Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), laptops, mobile phones...
June 8, 2017
DGQA – Knotted within and insensitive to troops
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)
As per media reports over 16,000 GPS units purchased for the Army are lying idle in the Central Ordnance Depot at Agra, reportedly on grounds of 'quality concerns'. This has been the state for over one year despite Rs 28 crores spent on their purchase, since the Army cannot use them until a final quality assurance is given.
June 8, 2017
Another giant leap with GSLV Mk III
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)
When India fired the high thrust cryogenic engine CE-20 launching GSLV Mk-III in its first experimental flight from Sriharikota on june 5, it was a monumental leap drawing the curtain on what the US sanctions prevented ISRO from doing in 2003, even as the US seeks strong ties with India in wake of all round Chinese aggression.
May 30, 2017
Strategic Partnership Model – Game changer?
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)
On May 20, the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) chaired by Defence Minister Arun Jaitley finalized the broad contours of the Strategic Partnership (SP) policy.
May 30, 2017
New Defence Procurement Organization
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)
According to recent media reports, government is mulling setting up a new autonomous organization, 'Defence Procurement Organization' (DPO), to be created within the MoD to deal exclusively with procurement for the Armed Forces as recommended by a committee headed by Dr Pritam Singh, former Director of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Lucknow.
May 30, 2017
Ransomware – Beware!
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)
WannaCry or WannaCry 2.0 the ransomware that struck globally some 150 countries last month affected some 200,000 PCs worldwide. India was the third hardest hit county with close to 50,000 PCs affected.
May 30, 2017
Empowering DIPP – or weakening defence?
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)
Considerable confusion prevails about whether the proposed Defence Procurement Organization (DPO), as a follow up to the Dr Pritam Singh Committee recommendations, is to be 'all encompassing' in matters of defence procurement, which it actually should be. But this confusion appears to have been compounded through a recent notification (Notification S.O. 1636 (E) dated 19.05.2017 of Ministry of Home Affairs) vide which the power to issue licenses for the manufacture...
May 30, 2017
Next level Cyber War
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)
The news about IAF's Sukhoi SU-30 gone missing near India-China border has been making headlines. The Sukhoi had taken off on a routine training mission on 23 May 2017 when radar, radio contact was lost roughly 60 km north of Tezpur air force base in Assam.
May 25, 2017
Defence modernisation in three years of NDA rule
By Air Marshal B.K. Pandey (Retd)
The three services had suffered prolonged neglect in respect of modernisation in the period 2004 to 2014 owing to a number of factors.
May 24, 2017
NDA's achievements in defence sector in three years
By Lt General V.K. Kapoor (Retd)
The Modi government which completes three years on 26 May 2017 is planning to celebrate their achievements by putting out a report card giving out statistics of their achievements in the last three years of NDAs governance.
May 24, 2017
Defence in 3 years under NDA II
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)
On May 26, 2017 the NDA II government completed three years in office. Last three years have seen India rising in economic strength and making way for greater say on the world stage.
May 20, 2017
M777 howitzers finally debut India
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)
In what is being described as "laying the Bofors ghost to rest", the first two M777 howitzer guns manufactured by BAE System of USA arrived in India and...
May 20, 2017
US nudges Pakistan — Wee bit only
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)
The US National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has blamed Pakistan for deteriorating India-Pak relations and warned that the ties might worsen further if another "high- profile" terrorist attack emanates from across the border this year.
May 20, 2017
Beyond ICJ ruling on Kulbhushan Jadhav
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)
The unanimous verdict by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) staying the execution of former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Yadav was on expected lines because Pakistan had violated India's right, provided under the Vienna...
May 20, 2017
North Korea — Rogue supported by rogue
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)
As North Korea carried out another ballistic missile test, shortly after President Moon Jae-in took office in South Korea, US President Donald Trump called for "stronger sanctions" against North Korea, while China is urged restraint.
May 20, 2017
PM Modi's Sri Lanka visit
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)
When Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe came to India on a 5-day visit in April 2017, he had reiterated the invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for visiting Sri Lanka on occasion of Vesak Day celebrations commencing...
May 20, 2017
New counter-Maoist strategy — Why it is regressive?
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)
The twin Maoists attacks in Sukma on March 11 on a 110-strong CRPF column) and on April 24 on a 99-strong CRPF column, inflicted massive casualties on the CRPF; 36 killed and 12 injured, besides loss of 34 weapons...