Defense

The report will be submitted to the MHA, and if approved, action will be initiated to strengthen the existing Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), or to create agencies to counter-narcotics and terror funding at large.

BEL General Manager (Machilipatnam unit) K.R.K. Ravi Prasad told The Hindu: “All the designs of the Nimmaluru unit have been prepared to complete the project and commission it within two years (by 2021). The construction activity has just begun on the site for the ₹300 crore project.”

According to NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, the visit, which held from November 11 to 14, 2019, is at the instance of the Indian Government through an invitation extended by the CAS of the Indian Air Force (IAF), Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Singh Bhadauria. This partnership is in the area of capacity building and Research and Development (R&D) with a view to further boost NAF’s operational effectiveness in the fight against insurgency and other forms of criminality in the country.

“ACM Bhadauria became the first serving Air Chief to fly in HAL developed aircraft at the prototype stage as Chief of Air Force,” HAL said. He expressed his satisfaction with the aircraft performance and appreciated the design, project and flight test teams for having achieved the commendable progress, the statement said.

The advisory states that the popular social media platform Facebook has turned out to be a crucial source of collecting intelligence, which is why officers holding critical posts in the army must consider deactivating their accounts. The advisory also talks of inimical agencies possessing sophisticated tools for monitoring and analysing data on social media to derive intelligence, underscoring that those holding critical appointments are especially at risk

The project will be a stepping stone for the Goa Shipyard to construct weapon-intensive and technologically advanced warships in future, and will bolster the ‘Make In India’ objective of the Union government, Naik said.

“We have bagged a multi-million dollar order from the Ministry of Defence to make rucksacks for the Indian army. It is an unchartered territory but creating an ideal rucksack for an Indian jawaan who spends maximum time outdoors in challenging terrain will be good learning. The order will be executed next year,” said Siddharth Sood, cofounder of Wildcraft India, at a press meet to announce the launch of a new category of travel cases.

On the agenda will be sorting out the terms of an acquisition and cross-servicing agreement, or ACSA, to be used by their armed forces. If agreed, India will become the sixth nation with which Japan has inked an ACSA, following the U.S., U.K, France, Canada and Australia. Japan has already signed agreements concerning the protection of classified military information and transfer of defense equipment and technology with India.

Delivering its much-awaited ruling on the matter, the Supreme Court on Thursday refused to review its earlier decision of giving a clean chit to the government while rejecting pleas for registration of an FIR by the CBI for alleged irregularities in the deal.

The Ministry of Defence has started the process of procuring around 550 robotics surveillance units with minimum 25 years of service life for counter-insurgency ops in Jammu and Kashmir, sources said on Wednesday. A senior Indian Army officer told IANS that these robots should be capable of climbing stairs and negotiating obstacles apart from throwing grenades at terrorists in built-up areas. “These robots should be capable enough for water fording with minimum 20-cm depth,” the officer said.