Current Events :
The IAF on Saturday carried out a drill involving 140 jets and attack helicopters in Pokhran, in a fire power demonstration close to the border with Pakistan. At the inauguration of the Vayu Shakti exercise, Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa said, “I wish to assure the nation of the IAF’s capability and commitment in meeting security challenges.”
With the help of the army during the heavy snowfall in Jammu and Kashmir, a pregnant woman has given birth to twins. The Army came to help the woman at the right time and admitted her to Bandipore District Hospital in North Kashmir. Officials said on Sunday that on February 8, a villager called the company commander of the Thana’s Panar camp at Bandipore and asked the army for help to take his pregnant wife Gulshana Begum to the hospital.
It is informed that due to heavy snowfall the weather was very bad. The temperature was minus 7 degree Celsius. Officials said that due to snowfall the roads were completely covered with snow, due to which the movement of vehicle was impossible. But it was necessary for the woman to take her to the hospital immediately.
In such a situation, the soldiers of Bandipore Rashtriya Rifles, after heavy snowfall and difficult conditions on the roads, reached the woman’s house and after crossing the ice frozen on the road, they took pregnant lady on their shoulders with the help of stretcher for two and a half kilometers. After this, the woman was taken to Bandipore District Hospital from an army ambulance. Considering the importance of each moment, the Army had arranged for doctors before meeting the civilian officers before reaching the woman’s hospital.
After the health checkup, the woman was told that she is going to be the mother of twins, for which the operation will be required. After this, he was taken to Srinagar Hospital for the operation. According to the officials, the woman gave birth to twins on the night of February 8.
NEW DELHI: Mi-35 – the Russia-made assault anti-armour helicopter – will unleash its firepower in the upcoming Indian Air Force’s (IAF) exercise ‘Vayushakti 2019,’ which is due to begin from February 16..
The Mi-35 is an assault anti-armour helicopter, which can be used in numerous combat roles.
This state-of-the-art helicopter can be used in anti-tank operations, escort to Special Heliborne Operations & destruction of enemy Air Defence missions.
The helicopter can launch attacks with Shtrum missiles and rockets of different caliber, bombs & canon.
The helicopter is made by Russia and it can carry eight troops and four stretchers too.
The Mi-35 can attain a maximum speed of 315km/hr at 1000m.
This helicopter can fly at a maximum height of 4,500m.
The Mi-35 is a modern combat helicopter, which is also operated by the armed forces of Venezuela, Brazil, Azerbaijan, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, and Mali.
The overall length of Mi-35 is 21.6m.
Its wingspan is of 6.5m and height is 6.5m. The take-off weight of this helicopter in ferry configuration is 12,000kg.
New Delhi, February 5
In a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court on Tuesday held that all Central Armed Police Forces-CRPF, BSF, ITBP, CISF, RPF and SSB-be recognised as “organised services”, saying it will remove stagnation, ensuring promotion and other service-related benefits to officers in the same post.
It also held that Group “A” officers of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) should be given all benefits, including non-functional financial upgradation (NFFU) from 2006 in terms of the 6th Pay Commission.
The top court upheld the Delhi High Court’s two verdicts by which it had granted “organised service” status to Railway Protection Force (RPF), CRPF, BSF, ITBP and SSB.NFFU is a concept introduced in the 6th pay commission and was granted to what the government termed as Group “A” organised services.
Under NFFU, if all the officers of a particular batch cannot move up the ladder owing to lack of vacancies but only one does, the others will automatically get financial upgradation like the one promoted. However, it would involve only a financial upgrade but not rank or perks.The top court’s order will benefit thousands of Group A officers of central paramilitary forces like Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and Central Industrial Security Forces (CISF).
A bench of Justices R F Nariman and M R Shah upheld the orders of the Delhi High Court passed on December 4, 2012 with regard to grant of “organised service” status to Railway Protection Force (RPF) and to CRPF, BSF, ITBP and SSB in its September 3, 2015 verdict.
The bench, while dismissing the appeals of the Centre against the order, said in the monographs published by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) right from 1986 till date, CAPFs have been shown to be a part of the Central Group “A” Services.
“CAPFs have been shown as a part of the Central Group A Services after conducting the exercise of Cadre Review, etc., by the DoPT. Therefore, all throughout from 1986 till date, in the Monographs published by the DoPT, CAPFs have been shown to be a part of Central Group A Services. Therefore, thereafter it would not be open for the DoPT not to consider and/or treat the CAPFs as an Organised Group A Services,” the bench said.
Justice Shah, who penned the verdict for the bench, said considering all facts and circumstances and the material on records “it cannot be said CAPFs do not constitute Organised Group ‘A’ Central Civil Services/ Group A Central Civil Services”.
Dealing with the NFFU, the bench noted that to overcome the stagnation problems, the 6th Pay Commission had recommended NFFU to all Group A Officers in various Organised Group A Services.
“The purpose of granting NFFU was to give relief to Group A Officers facing the problem of stagnation as fallback option when regular promotions do not come into various factors. It has come on record that CPMFs are facing huge problem of stagnation, more particularly, on one hand, they are not being granted the promotion as most of the promotional posts are filled in by deputation and, on the other hand, they are denied NFFU,” the top court said.
It further noted that CRPF was denied the NFFU on the ground that the 6th Central Pay Commission did not grant that.
The bench said the Central Pay Commission, as such, is not authorised to define “Organised Services” or to grant such status to any service.
It said “merely because the 6th Pay Commission did not recommend to grant NFFU to CAPFs Group A Officers in PBIII and PBIV, the Group A Officers in PBIII and PBIV cannot be denied the NFFU, which otherwise is granted to all the Officers of Group A Central Civil Services”.
The bench said it is in complete agreement with view taken by the High Court and does not call for any interference.
It further clarified that “rights of the IPS, if any, for their appointment on deputation on some of the posts in RPF cannot be said to have been affected and merely because some posts in the RPF might have been required to be filled in by way of deputation also, grant of status of Organized Group A’ Central Services to RPF shall not affect the IPS”.
With regard to RPF, the bench said view of the high court was correct in treating the office memorandum of 2003 as in principle decision/approval of the DoPT to constitute the RPF as an Organised Group A Central Services.
“The RPF is rightly treated and considered as an Organised Group A Central Service,” the bench said.
On September 3, 2015, the High Court had asked the Centre to consider all CAPFs as organised services.
Aggrieved officers of CAPFs have argued that they were facing stagnation not only because of lack of adequate promotional posts, but also because a majority of the posts of the top hierarchy had been filled up by deputationists (IPS officers), affecting the career progression of the cadre officers.
The CAPFs are the country’s largest paramilitary forces which not only guard strategic Indian frontiers but also are deployed for a variety of internal security duties. – PTI
The defence allocations in the interim budget 2019-20 have again been a disappointment. While the capital outlay has crossed Rs 1 trillion for the first time, it hardly represents any hike over the revised figures for 2018-19 once inflation and rupee depreciation are accounted for. On the other hand, the bill on salaries and pensions has ballooned, thanks to the large size of the Indian armed forces and the implementation of one rank one pension. A simple addition of pay and allowances of serving personnel and pension of retired veterans returns the sum of Rs 2.33 trillion.
Even if this is an election year, the story has been the same for a long time now. The reality is that India is a developing country with multiple competing demands over scarce capital. It is tough to make a case for higher defence allocations without hiving off resources from some other programmes, which, too, require urgent funds. But equally, it is also a reality that India lives in a precarious neighbourhood with two hostile nuclear powers, one of which aims to be a global hegemon and the other is a breeding ground for terrorists. So what can be done?
One, India needs to drastically prune the size of its armed forces. In any case, a large army like ours is more equipped to fight yesterday’s wars and not tomorrow’s, which will require less manpower but greater technological prowess. Two, the armed forces needs to look at its own assets to squeeze in extra resources. Three, the security establishment needs to take a hard look at our war doctrines and defence planning. For instance, one keeps hearing that the IAF needs 42 fighter squadrons to fight a two-front war. If India spends so much money on buying so many aircraft, what will be left for the army and the navy? We need realistic defence planning and war doctrines for the budget we have in real life, not the budget the planners have in their minds.
110 fighter aircraft are to be overhauled by HAL, project running behind schedule
Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, February 3
Friday’s Mirage-2000 crash that left its two pilots dead has raised a question mark over future upgrades of the fighter jet being carried out by public sector giant Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.
In all, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is slated to upgrade 110 Mirage and Jaguar jets. The killed pilots, Squadron leaders Samir Abrol and Sidhharth Negi, were attached to Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE). The two were on a test flight before the plane could be re-allocated to its squadron in the Air Force.
The IAF and the Ministry of Defence are expected to review the progress of the upgrades shortly and new parameters are likely to be introduced on speeding up the programme, running years behind schedule, and also maintaining the quality. A court of inquiry has been launched. Of the 51 Mirage-2000 planes, only 11 have been upgraded so far. Dassault Aviation, the original manufacturer, upgraded four jets—two at its own plant in France and the rest at the HAL headquarters.
The contract with the HAL is to upgrade 47 Mirage-2000s. As of now, the programme is two years behinds schedule. The entire lot was to be upgraded by July 2021 and the deadline was rescheduled to December 2022. So far, the HAL has delivered 9 planes, including the two done by Dassault here. The crashed plane was the 10th upgraded by HAL and the 12th overall if the two done in France are counted. Going by the contract, by now 25 of the planes should have been upgraded and handed over to the IAF.
The upgrade includes new Thales radar, allowing long-range engagement of targets in the air, automatic tracking of targets and mapping of targets on the ground. The pilots now have a display inside their helmets. A clutch of new weapons and beyond visual-range missiles is being added and kits for all the add-ons have been supplied.
In case of Jaguar, a total of 61 are to be upgraded to what in military terminology is called ‘Darin 3’ standard. The contract was signed in 2009 but was largely in cold storage over the choice of its engine. The first plane in its final operational clearance (FOC) version should have been handed over in February this year and has not been handed over. The present pace would mean the upgrade of 61 jets would not be completed by 2024, the scheduled target.
Jaguars are currently powered by Rolls-Royce Adour 811 engines, which are to be replaced with Honeywell’s F-125N. The new engines are supposed to provide almost 1.5 times the power of the existing ones.
Speaking at a seminar in New Delhi last week, Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa noted that a crucial contribution to all the successes of indigenisation was also the “supreme sacrifice of IAF’s pilots in testing these aircraft to battle-worthy standards.” He said the IAF had lost 17 pilots and engineers in air accidents during the testing and evaluation of indigenous-prototyped aircraft.
Indian Army SSC Recruitment 2019: Indian Army invited application from Unmarried Male and Female Engineering Graduates and from Widows of Defence Personnel for Short Service Commission Course (Tech).
Indian Army Short Service Commission Course will commence from April 2019. The eligible candidates can apply for the post through official website from 23 January to 21 February 2019.
Important Dates
Indian Army Short Service Commission Course (SSC) Vacancies Details
SSC (Tech)
Widows of Defence Personnel
Branch-wise Posts
|
Branch |
Male |
Female |
Total Posts |
| Civil Engineering |
46 |
04 |
50 |
| Mechanical Engineering |
14 |
03 |
17 |
| Electrical/Electronic Engineering |
22 |
02 |
24 |
| Aeronautical/ballistics/Avionics Engineering |
12 |
00 |
12 |
| Computer Science Engineering |
44 |
03 |
47 |
| Electronics & telecom/Telecommunication/ Electronics & Communication engineering |
23 |
02 |
25 |
| Electronics/Opto Electronics Engineering |
08 |
00 |
08 |
| Production Engineering |
03 |
00 |
03 |
| Architecture/building Const. Tech. Engineering |
03 |
00 |
03 |
|
Total |
175 |
14 |
189 |
Eligibility Criteria for Indian Army Short Service Commission Course (SSC)
Educational Qualification:
SSC (Tech) – Men and Women
Widows of Defence Personnel
Age Limit:
Selection Process for Indian Army Short Service Commission Course(SSC)
Shortlisted Candidates will be called for interview
How to Apply for Indian Army Short Service Commission Course(SSC)
Online applications will be accepted through the official website of Indian Army (Direct link is given below) from from 23 January to 21 February 2019.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) plans to take up the upgrading of Vijaynagar, an almost-inaccessible sliver of a plateau on the China border surrounded by forests on all sides. This advance landing ground (ALG), or a temporary airfield, was among the seven earmarked for modernisation eight years ago. Since then, six became functional but Vijaynagar became so in 2016. It is heartening that locals in this hinterland are lending a helping hand. The Arunachal Government did its bit by building 150 km of roads through dense forests to this ALG. This rare instance of civil-military synergy is a case for cheer in a theatre where infrastructure development has been perennially delayed, especially on the border with China.
These ALGs are purely for military use. While their strategic importance is indisputable, there are grounds to utilise the upgraded infrastructure for civilian use as well. Several airports in the country have become throbbing hubs of civilian travel such as Chandigarh, Goa or Pune that were once military bases. Now that the IAF has set its sights on making strips functional in places like Lahaul-Spiti and Ladakh that are tourism magnates but tough to access by road, there should be the possibility of dual use at some of them. The extension of civic infrastructure in areas where there has been none contributes to the cause of national security; a variation of the ‘hearts-and-minds’ programme undertaken by the security forces in similarly remote areas.
It may be worthwhile to take a leaf out of China’s Tibet book in this regard. China has modernised six civilian airfields in Tibet to handle military operations. New Delhi, too, needs to convert makeshift strips with tourist potential into all-weather dual-purpose facilities. India has broken out of the siege mentality with the forward deployment of its military assets while observing the spirit of the 1996 and 2005 Sino-India agreements. The excessive cost of building facilities in remote areas has hampered modernisation of the upper Himalayas at the desired pace. Wherever feasible, dual use will distribute the infrastructure costs among several stakeholders to meet the pressure on government funds by competing demands.
› All efforts to improve infrastructure along the border are most welcome. These projects will be helpful for… military and civilian purposes
SL NARASIMHAN (RETD), Lieutenant General
From page 01 NEWDELHI: The government is set to clear the construction of 44 “strategically important roads” along the India-China border as New Delhi has sharpened its focus on ramping up border infrastructure to counter Beijing, according to the Central Public Works Department (CPWD)’s 2018-19 annual report. The roads in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh are expected to be built at cost of around ₹21,040 crore, the report adds.
PTI FILE■ Twenty-two foot tracks measuring 750km are also in the works to support the movement of ITBP in Arunachal Pradesh.
The detailed project reports (DPRs) for the roads, which are aimed at swifter mobilisation of troops, have been submitted to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-headed Cabinet Committee on Security for approval.
The construction work is expected to be split between the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and the CPWD, two government officials said on condition of anonymity.
BRO and CPWD are currently engaged in the construction of 73 strategic roads measuring 4,643 km along the India-China border. The BRO, which comes under the defence ministry, is constructing 61 of these roads. The CPWD is building the remaining 12.
“All efforts to improve infrastructure along the border are most welcome. These projects will be helpful for both military and civilian purposes,” said Lieutenant General SL Narasimhan (retd), who commanded a corps in the North-East and is currently a National Security Advisory Board member.
Twenty-two foot tracks measuring 750 km are also in the works to support the movement of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel in forward areas of Arunachal Pradesh, the report said. They are likely to cost 1,275 crore.
Projects along the India-China border form the bulk of the CPWD’s work. The CPWD is also set to execute projects along the border with Pakistan. It will construct axial and lateral roads measuring around 2,200 km along the India-Pakistan border in Punjab and Rajasthan at a cost of ₹5,450 crore, the report said. “To secure the vast and remote border areas of Rajasthan and Punjab, the DPRs of constructing lateral and axial roads along the Indo-Pak Border are under preparation in CPWD.” The CPWD is also eyeing the construction of permanent integrated buildings at 96 ITBP border outposts. These buildings in high-altitude areas will have thermal insulation and renewable energy technologies. The report said the preparation of DPRs for the ₹2,500-crore project was in full swing.
Developing border infrastructure in the North east has been among the government’s top priorities. Modi had on December 25 inaugurated the Bogibeel Bridge in Assam to improve road and rail connectivity in the region, especially to Arunachal Pradesh. The bridge facilitates the movement of troops in a strategically sensitive region. The government has focused on building infrastructure in the North-East as part of its Act East policy to develop the region and use it as a link to parts of South and South East Asia.
