Experts Speak
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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.
