Experts Speak
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July 16, 2018
Visit of South Korean President Moon Jae-in
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)South Korean President Moon Jae-in arrived on his first state visit to India on July 8. His four-day visit (8-11 July) marked the 45th anniversary of establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties.
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July 16, 2018
Arrived - hand-held Laser Weapons
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)China claims its newly developed ZKZM-500 laser assault rifle, a non-lethal weapon, can hit a target nearly a kilometer away.
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July 16, 2018
Choosing Assault Rifles and Carbines
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The Ministry of Defence (MoD) reportedly sent team of military experts headed by a Brigadier to five countries to scout for rifles and carbines on June 30, 2018.
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July 16, 2018
Visit of Chinese military delegation
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)In what was described as a "significant ice-breaker" by our media, a 10-member Chinese delegation led by Lt Gen Liu Xiaowu, Deputy Commander of Western Theatre Command (that controls China's borders with Myanmar, India, Nepal...
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July 16, 2018
Another Kargil Anniversary
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Come July 26, India will celebrate Op 'Vijay' Diwas; another anniversary synonymous with the date of culmination of the Kargil Conflict during 1999.
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July 4, 2018
Visit of Seychelles President – and Assumption Island
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Seychelles President Danny Faure arrived at Ahmedabad on evening of June 22 for a six-day visit to India. His visit included visiting Gujarat, New Delhi, Goa and Uttrakhand.
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July 4, 2018
ISJK in J&K
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Of the four terrorists killed in Anantnag area of J&K on 22 June 2018, police identified Dawood Ahmad Salafi, chief of ISJK (ISIS affiliate). Security forces cordon and search operation with inputs about presence of terrorists turned into gunfight after terrorists fired at security forces.
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July 4, 2018
New Chinese drones - formidable challenge
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)China is going full steam in developing drones. Its latest undersea drone 'Qianlong III' is an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), which has dived deep into the South China Sea covering a distance of some 160 km in 42 hours.
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July 4, 2018
Indo-US 2+2 Dialogue – and the trade war
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The Indo-US 2+2 Dialogue scheduled for July 6, 2018 at Washington DC, for which EAM Sushma Swaraj and RM Nirmala Sitharamn were to travel to Washington DC to hold discussions with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretay James Mattis, has been postponed for a second time.
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July 4, 2018
Pakistan on FATF grey list – and the hogwash counter?
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Pakistan was officially placed in the 'grey list' on June 28, 2018, after it failed to convince the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) that it has taken significant steps to curb terror financing on its territory.
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July 4, 2018
The Civil-Military Gulf
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)In her recent article 'The belief system, and some truths' published in The Hindu, IAS officer Dipali Rastogi has blown the lid off the IAS cadre, whom she describes as: meant to serve, but do not; not trained to handle vast sums of money and human resources...
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June 22, 2018
Indo-US 2+2 Dialogue
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The first Indo-US Dialogue is finally happening almost one year after US President Donald Trump called PM Narendra Modi on August 15, 2017, congratulating him on India's 71st Independence Day, after which the White House announced India and US will start a new 2-by-2 ministerial dialogue to enhance...
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June 22, 2018
Dhanush – Ready for induction
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)On June 7, 2018, Dhanush reportedly completed the final round of user exploitation trials with a full battery of six guns firing 300 rounds at Pokhran ranges.
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June 22, 2018
UNHCR report – India in crosshairsy
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The recent report by UNHCR on Kashmir, though talking of both sides of the LoC, focuses mainly on serious violations in J&K between July 2016 and April 2018, alleging some 145 civilians killed (without mentioning terrorists including Pakistani terrorists) by security forces and up to 20 civilians killed by armed groups.
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June 22, 2018
NavIC – Rollout on the anvil
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)There is good news in the air. NavIC ('Navigation with Indian Constellation' whose English meaning is 'sailor' or 'navigator') or the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), our indigenous and fully autonomous regional satellite navigation system, is in the final stages of launch.
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June 22, 2018
Defence sector and cyber threats
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Addressing a workshop for formulating Cyber Security Framework on Jun 19, 2018, Defence Minister Sutharaman said that the defence sector is more prone to cyber threats and it was important to safeguard cyberspace with anticipation of possible attacks.
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June 22, 2018
The mess in Kashmir – Time we addressed it holistically
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Finally, the BJP pulled out from its alliance with PDP on June 19. The alliance had come about after the hung verdict in 2015. It was clearly a marriage of convenience.
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June 13, 2018
Singapore Summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore on June 12 was historic, with eyes of the world riveted on the live broadcast.
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June 4, 2018
Modi's three ASEAN nations visit
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Prime Minister Narendra Modi's three-ASEAN nation visit to Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia from May 29 to June 2 aimed at giving a substantive boost to India's ties with these countries in consonance with India's Act Eat Policy (AEP).
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June 4, 2018
Alternative Communication Network for Military
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)As per media reports, government on May 16, 2018, has cleared raising of budget by Rs 11,330 cr for defence projects; more than doubled the budget to 24,664 cr for laying an alternative communications network for defence services - for the Network For Spectrum (NFS) project.
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June 4, 2018
India-North Korea relations
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The visit by General VK Singh, MoS (EAM) to North Korea on May 15-16, 2018 was a surprise because in March 2018, India had imposed fresh restrictions on trade with North Korea, in line with the restrictions imposed by the UN.
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June 4, 2018
Kick-starting AI in Armed Forces
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)News reports of May 20, 2018 have reported the government has embarked upon an ambitious defence project for incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance operational preparedness of the armed forces in a significant way.
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June 4, 2018
Modi-Putin informal summit
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)With growing global challenges informal summits are becoming the norm in bilateral relations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to Sochi for an informal summit with President Putin.
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May 14, 2018
PM Modi's Nepal visit
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent two-day visit to Nepal on May 11-12 was described in media by some cross-sections for countering Chinese influence in Nepal, while some opposition parties in India alleged it was to influence the polls in Karnataka.
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May 14, 2018
Neemrana Dialogue – resumed
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Media reports suddenly appeared that government had agreed to revive the Track II diplomacy process with Pakistan despite its apparent aversion to 'conventional' talks with that country.
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May 14, 2018
ISI in Nepal
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)On April 17, 2018 a pressure cooker bomb went off outside an Indian Consulate office in Nepal's Biratnagar, damaging the wall of the premises. Biratnagar is the industrial capital of Nepal and 6 km north of the border of Bihar.
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May 14, 2018
S-400 – and the CAATSA waiver
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Russia's S-400 (nicknamed Triumf) is an upgraded version of the S-300 system, manufactured by Almaz-Antey and is in Russian military service since 2007.
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May 14, 2018
Border Patrolling – new rules for LAC?
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The message from the informal meet between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping at Wuhan on April 27-28 was both agreeing to strengthen communications between their militaries and keeping peace along the shared borders.
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May 14, 2018
K-9 Vajra-T Guns entering service
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)There is good news in the air – that the 155 mm/52 calibre tracked self-propelled gun system, K9 VAJRA-T will be entering service in the Army by end of this month - May 2018.
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May 2, 2018
Modi-Xi informal meet – how Xi acts is the key
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The informal meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on April 27-28 is hot news that must have been watched with much interest globally.
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May 2, 2018
FICCI-ADB collaboration is the way forward
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The Indian Army set up its own Army Design Bureau (ADB) in August 2016 whose charter included: one, act as central repository of technical know-how for the Indian Army; two, collate operational requirements...
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May 2, 2018
Coming – military satellites by ISRO
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)On April 24, 2018, ISRO announced postponement of launch of satellite GSAT-11, a month after it lost contact with communication satellite GSAT-6A.
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May 2, 2018
National approach must beyond MoCA, CISF counter-drone moves
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)As per media reports, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has tied up with the Indian army to train personnel in identifying drones of Pakistani and Chinese origin, following a six-day training session conducted in Gopalpur, Odisha).
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May 2, 2018
Pak Defence Budget 2018-2019
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Pakistan announced a hike in the country's defence budget by 10 per cent (1.1 trillion), as the over 5.6 trillion federal budget for 2018-2019 was presented on April 28.
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May 2, 2018
Gadchiroli and beyond – Maoists under pressure
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)With 39 Maoists killed by Maharashtra police in Gadchiroli over 48 hours on April 22-23, 2018, and 10 Maoists killed in by Chhattisgarh Police in Sukma in south Bastar on April 21, the numbers of rebels gunned down has gone up to 49.
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April 20, 2018
Visit of Nepalese Prime Minister
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Nepal’s Prime Minister KP Sharama Oli’s three-day state visit to India from April 6 to 8 is being hailed as landmark albeit it was more about resetting relations after Nepal’s China drift, acrimony over the border blockade during the Madhesi agitation over amendment to the Nepalese Constitution...
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April 20, 2018
Terror labels worry Pakistan little
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The recently released UNSC consolidated list of individual terrorist and terrorist entities names 139 from Pakistan including prominent names like Dawood Ibrahim and LeT chief Hafiz Saeed. The list includes all individuals who have either lived in Pakistan, operated from there or have been associated with organizations that used Pakistani territory to carry out terrorist operations.
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April 20, 2018
UAV losses — Time to wake up
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The loss of a Heron Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) of the Indian Navy near Porbandar in March 2018 has taken the count of UAVs losses by the Indian Armed Forces to 14 since the Kargi Conflict.
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April 20, 2018
Defence Minister’s Russia visit
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s recent three-day visit to Moscow was primarily to attend the Seventh Moscow Conference on International Security. However, she also met the Russian Defence Minister, General Sergey Shoygu in a bilateral meeting, focusing on reinforcing defence cooperation with specific focus on military-technical cooperation.
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April 20, 2018
Defexpo 2018 — Not much headway
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)In his speech to the 10th edition of the four-day DefExpo 2018 held in April, Prime Minister Narendra Modi outlined the steps taken by his government to open up defence manufacturing to private sector companies...
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April 20, 2018
New Think Tank for military strategy planning?
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)This is to make defence preparedness much more than an acquisition-centric exercise. The Committee will reportedly have a cross-ministry mandate, headed by the National Security Advisor (NSA), and members being the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, three Service Chiefs, Defence Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Chief of Integrated Defence Staff to Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee (CISC) as its members.
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April 4, 2018
Military's manpower shortages
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Responding to questions by two MPs, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently informed Parliament that the Armed Forces had a total shortage of approximately 60,000 personnel excluding those belonging to the medical and dental streams.
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April 4, 2018
Coming – Chinese robot tanks
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)In October 2017, media reports confirmed the government seven-point strategy as prelude to India's strategic plan for using AI, covering issues like developing methods for human machine interactions, ensuring security of AI systems, creating competent workforce matching AI and R&D needs...
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April 4, 2018
The Chinese challenge
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Post being anointed President for life, Xi Jinping told 3,000 legislators of the Chinese Parliament on March 20, 2018, "The Chinese people have been indomitable and persistent.
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April 4, 2018
Hoax call of integrated theatre commands
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Headlines like 'Govt moves on integrated theatre commands; amends rules to bring three forces under single leadership' appearing in the media on March 19, 2018, caused considerable excitement in the public domain.
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April 4, 2018
The bogey of 'Bajwa Doctrine'
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The Bajwa Doctrine was first mentioned by Asif Ghafoor, DG ISPR and later by Qamar Javed Bajwa, army chief himself while briefing a group of journalists and anchorpersons, but it is not documented as such.
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March 15, 2018
20 Years of Indo-French partnership and Macron’s India visit
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)France was the first country in the world with which India signed a strategic partnership in 1998; between French President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. Indian space scientists received initial training in France after Pokhran-II, France recognizing India as responsible nation while balance West blocked out India.
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March 15, 2018
Visit of Vietnam President boosts India-Vietnam strategic partnership
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The three day visit (March 2-4) this year by Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang’s was testament to the growing closeness in the bilateral security ties between India and Vietnam. His visit came just few weeks after Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s visit to India as chief guest at India’s Republic Day Parade 2016 along with heads of states of all other ASEAN countries.
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March 15, 2018
Indo-US 2-by-2 dialogue
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Post US President Donald Trump called Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15, 2017, congratulating him on India’s 71st Independence Day, the White House announced that India and US will start a new 2-by-2 ministerial dialogue to enhance “peace and stability across the Indo-Pacific region...
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March 15, 2018
MoD shown the mirror
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)In end February 2018, public become aware that MoD for once was shown the mirror to recognize its ugly face. According to media reports, MoD had deduced internally that the much publicized ‘Make in India’ initiative is floundering...
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March 15, 2018
Pakistan in FATF crosshairs
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Pakistan find itself in the crosshairs of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), founded in 1989 on the initiative of the G7 to combat to ‘combat money laundering and terrorism financing’. It is an intergovernmental organization, also known as Groupe d'action financière, with its secretariat housed at the OECD headquarters in Paris.
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March 5, 2018
Rouhani’s visit boosts Indo-Iranian construct
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Iranian President Hassan Rouhani arrived at Hyderabad on February 15, 2018, visited Hyderabad for two days and arrived New Delhi on February 17.
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March 5, 2018
Aura to fly in 2018
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Our military’s requirement of UAVs has suffered past several years because of lack of industrial expertise, combined with delays and cost overruns.
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March 5, 2018
ICV procurement approved
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)On January 20, 2018, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman cleared the proposal for procurement of 156 infantry combat vehicles (ICVs) to meet the requirement of the mechanized infantry and troops for rapid deployment.
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February 19, 2018
PM Modi’s West Asian outreach
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Just before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to Palestine, the UAE and Oman, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar, while briefing media had outlined that the visit would be of strategic importance in terms of energy and security...
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February 19, 2018
Mujahids to fuel Indo-Pak border more?
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)As per recent reports, Pakistan is deploying several battalions of its Mujahid Regiment, along the Line of Control (LoC) and the International Border (IB) to infiltrate terrorists and target Indian security forces. According to intelligence sources, these Mujahid battalions are 641, 647, 654 and 655.
