Standing Committee on Defence (16th Lok Sabha): Striking Old Notes on Debut
Three months after the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was swept to power at the centre in the general elections held in April–May 2014 to the 16th Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Indian Parliament), the Standing Committee on Defence was constituted under the chairmanship of Major General B.C. Khanduri (Retd.), former Chief Minister of the northern state of Uttarakhand and a prominent member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is the main constituent of the NDA.
The Rise of the Bengal Tigers: The Growing Strategic Importance of the Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal region is now growing in economic and strategic importance. The good economic prospects of many Bay of Bengal states are making the region a cockpit for Asian growth and a key economic connector between East and South Asia. This article looks at strategic developments in the Bay of Bengal and their implications for our understanding of the Indo-Pacific. It argues that the Bay of Bengal needs to be understood as a region with its own particular strategic dynamics and issues.
India’s Doctrine Puzzle: Limiting War in South Asia, by Ali Ahmed
India has often been accused of not having a strategic culture and, more recently, of not clearly enunciating its strategic and doctrinal thought. More often than not, this has led to interpolation of brief statements, actions and speeches in public domain that create more doubts than answer questions regarding the country’s strategic formulations. Ali Ahmed attempts to dig deeper into India’s doctrinal underpinnings in light of nuclearization in the operational domain, a field that remains limited to patchy assessments in the past.
New Twist in the MMRCA Tail
MoD will do well to set up a crack team of experts from all fields to work out the terms of the proposed IGA keeping in view the larger picture of what happens after these 36 aircraft are inducted.
Libyan Chaos Reaches European Shores
The paucity of options for a solution will lead to increasing securitisation of
migration in Europe. Meanwhile, the African Union should recognise that the
migrant problem is as much theirs as of Europe. After all, the migrants perishing
in the sea are not Europeans, but Sub-Saharan Africans.
India – Tanzania Ties Get A Fillip
Despite the decline in piracy, there are other threats such as threat of illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing. The recent discovery of large deposits of natural gas off the country's sea coast has made the Tanzanian government vary of threat to the emerging natural gas infrastructure in the region and it is open to finding new partners, like India, to deal with this peril.
Burundi Elections 2015: An Endless Cycle of Political and Social Unrest
For the Burundians a non-violent electoral process was significant for the
consolidation of peace and economic recovery in the country, as well as for
democracy in the wider Great Lakes region. However, the decision of the current President, Pierre Nkurunziza, to run for the third term had sparked anger among the opposition parties and Burundian population as they saw this move as unconstitutional.
India-Ethiopia Cooperation
As both Ethiopia and India are old countries, with 3000 and 5000 years of history
respectively, their relations go back thousands of years.
Revisiting the 1971 ‘USS Enterprise Incident’: Rhetoric, Reality and Pointers for the Contemporary Era
The USS Enterprise naval task group entry into the Indian Ocean during the closing stages of 1971 Indo-Pak Conflict led to further deterioration in the relations between India and the United States (US), and this estrangement lasted until the end of the Cold War. The US couched this show of force under the rubric of ensuring safety of American personnel caught up in a war zone. In India, however, this was seen as a coercive attempt to prop up a genocidal military regime.
Benchmarking of Shipyards and Processes for Cost Effective Naval Shipbuilding
The article highlights the applicability of benchmarking methodologies to the shipbuilding industry, and how these could be utilized to improve the competitiveness of shipyards to enable delivery of cost-effective naval ships. Cost continues to be a major factor that characterizes the competitiveness of shipbuilding, and is cited as the main reason for the industry having moved from Europe to Asia over the last two decades.