Dear   Veterans ,

*NEVER MAKE THESE MISTAKES:-*

*1) You have not registered and Do Not have ZSB I Card.*

*2) Your address not changed in Service Records.*

*3) Wife’s name is NOT jointly notified in PPO.*

*4) Wrong Name/DOB of wife in PPO.*

*5) Your child’s name not endorsed in Service Records.*

*6) Your Child’s name/DOB is wrong in Service Records.*

*7) You have taken up for correction of Name/DOB/Address etc and received NE POR from DAV, but never came to ZSB to get that change endorsed in your Discharge Book.*

*8) Your wife/NOK is not the Joint Holder of your Pension Account.*

*9) You Don’t have ECHS 32/64KB Card/Temporary Slip.*

*10) Name, DOB, Address in the Adhaar Cards of yourself and family members have some errors.*

*11) PAN Card of your wife has incorrect name/DOB.*

*12) You have Not taken up case to change NOK after demise/divorce of first wife in Service Records.*

*13) You have remarried but name of 2nd wife is not endorsed in Service Records.*

*14) Name of 2nd wife is not jointly notified in PPO.*

*15) You have dependent unmarried/widow/divorcee daughter, but her name is not jointly notified as future family pensioner in your PPO.*

*16) You have not made a WILL for your all movable and immovable properties.*

*17) You have not converted your SBI Pension Account into DSP Account.* PPO number is Not written in your Bank Passbook.

*18) Name of your Disable Child is not endorsed in Service Records as future family pensioner.*

*19) You have not shown and told, “where you have kept all important Service and Civil documents” to your wife and grown up children.*

*20) You have not written down and briefed, steps to be taken by your Wife after your death.*

*21) You have not shown/taken your wife to various important offices to familiarise,* such as ZSB, Bank, ECHS Poly Clinic, CSD Canteen, Veteran Sahayata Kendra, Phase X, Mohali (near Cricket Stadium)

*22) You have not made a List of Contact Numbers, addresses, Email IDs etc of all Important offices, persons and given to your wife.*

*23) You have not kept Nominees for your various Bank A/c, Fixed Deposits, Investments, LIC Policies etc.*

*24) You have not shared your Password/pattern to open your mobile/laptop/computer etc with your wife.*

*25) You have not kept a list of various Log ID, Passwords used for ATM Cards, Bank and other places and told about it to your wife.*

*THINK OVER IT. IF SOMETHING YOU HAVE NOT DONE, PLEASE DO IT NOW. LIFE IS FRAGILE. DO NOT PUT YOUR WIFE AND FAMILY INTO HARDSHIP.*

*NEVER MAKE THESE MISTAKES:-*

*1) You have not registered and Do Not have ZSB I Card.*

*2) Your address not changed in Service Records.*

*3) Wife’s name is NOT jointly notified in PPO.*

*4) Wrong Name/DOB of wife in PPO.*

*5) Your child’s name not endorsed in Service Records.*

*6) Your Child’s name/DOB is wrong in Service Records.*

*7) You have taken up for correction of Name/DOB/Address etc and received NE POR from DAV, but never came to ZSB to get that change endorsed in your Discharge Book.*

*8) Your wife/NOK is not the Joint Holder of your Pension Account.*

*9) You Don’t have ECHS 32/64KB Card/Temporary Slip.*

*10) Name, DOB, Address in the Adhaar Cards of yourself and family members have some errors.*

*11) PAN Card of your wife has incorrect name/DOB.*

*12) You have Not taken up case to change NOK after demise/divorce of first wife in Service Records.*

*13) You have remarried but name of 2nd wife is not endorsed in Service Records.*

*14) Name of 2nd wife is not jointly notified in PPO.*

*15) You have dependent unmarried/widow/divorcee daughter, but her name is not jointly notified as future family pensioner in your PPO.*

*16) You have not made a WILL for your all movable and immovable properties.*

*17) You have not converted your SBI Pension Account into DSP Account.* PPO number is Not written in your Bank Passbook.

*18) Name of your Disable Child is not endorsed in Service Records as future family pensioner.*

*19) You have not shown and told, “where you have kept all important Service and Civil documents” to your wife and grown up children.*

*20) You have not written down and briefed, steps to be taken by your Wife after your death.*

*21) You have not shown/taken your wife to various important offices to familiarise,* such as ZSB, Bank, ECHS Poly Clinic, CSD Canteen, Veteran Sahayata Kendra, Phase X, Mohali (near Cricket Stadium)

*22) You have not made a List of Contact Numbers, addresses, Email IDs etc of all Important offices, persons and given to your wife.*

*23) You have not kept Nominees for your various Bank A/c, Fixed Deposits, Investments, LIC Policies etc.*

*24) You have not shared your Password/pattern to open your mobile/laptop/computer etc with your wife.*

*25) You have not kept a list of various Log ID, Passwords used for ATM Cards, Bank and other places and told about it to your wife.*

*THINK OVER IT. IF SOMETHING YOU HAVE NOT DONE, PLEASE DO IT NOW. LIFE IS FRAGILE. DO NOT PUT YOUR WIFE AND FAMILY INTO HARDSHIP.*

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Bhartesh Singh Thakur Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 20

Experts warned political leadership against communal or ethnic divisions while also cautioning senior officers in the military to be alive and sensitive towards such issues during a session on ‘Pluralism, the Armed Forces-and the Question of Who is an Indian’ at Military Literature Festival today.

General VP Malik (retd), who led India to the Kargil victory, said, “As an organisation, the armed forces are proud of achieving and maintaining unity in pluralism and diversity.” While commenting on vote bank politics, he said social engineering was being emphasised more than regional or national development and it should be corrected either through courts or election commission.

There should be a greater emphasis on celebrating national events than religious ones, he said. Citing an anecdote, Gen Malik said in 1996 when he was the Vice Chief of Army Staff, they were not getting permission to celebrate the silver jubilee of the 1971 Indo-Pak war till the last moment. “During a meeting in the cabinet secretary’s office, the first question I was asked was “why do you want to celebrate it? Where is the need? It will upset Pakistan”. Such was the thinking of the government of that time, he said, while mentioning it was the greatest military victories in centuries.

“There have been a number of attempts to bring reservation into the Army. Not just during my time but earlier too. All political leaders need to guard against it. When an organisation is working well, why should it be politicised?” he said.

Adding a word of caution for politicians promoting division, Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal said, “We have studied in principles of science that if you boil water at 100 degree Celsius, it will turn into steam. The statecraft is also like science. If you do A, B and C, the country will progress and if you do X, Y and Z, the country will go down. You need peace to progress.”

Col Shantanu Pande, who is serving in the Army, said, “When a soldier from the Jat Regiment stands at the Siachen Glacier, his community, village and the entire country is standing behind him. We (military) are not a melting pot. We don’t try to fuse. We retain flavour.”

Merely articulating a joint doctrine does not mean we are ready to put aside years of inter-service rivalry and single service operating peculiarities. The IAF was the first to express reservations on the proposed theaterisation, for fear of its valuable air power assets being parcelled out to new entities. We should take our time evolving into an Integrated Defence Force such as that of Israel or Japan.

Group Captain Murli Menon (retd)

Defence analyst

THE historical backdrop to India’s penchant for theaterisation goes back to the 1999 Kargil war and the two committees that followed — headed by K Subrahmanyam and Naresh Chandra — which made a slew of recommendations to the government regarding higher defence management. The creation of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) was prime among those recommendations and the incumbent can be seen at work now, the latest salvo being the Integrated Maritime Theatre study by the Vice Chief of the Naval Staff (VCNS) that is due for submission shortly. This study supposedly recommends the creation of the Maritime Theatre Command (MTC), earlier referred to as the Peninsular Theatre Command. Be that as it may, the ongoing border stand-off with China threatens to reinforce India’s land-oriented war focus.

There is no gainsaying the fact that like the Kargil Review Committee (KRC) diktats, India’s defence planning for the coming years needs to factor in our country’s strategic location and world view, given how we are seen as a virtual fulcrum power between the Mediterranean and South China seas, enhancing the critical need to keep the Sea Lines of Communication open during peace and war. The creation of an Integrated Maritime Command could be seen in this light, also giving much-needed fillip to India’s expected emergence as a viable maritime entity. In order to be able to effect the desired power projection matrix in the region as also to maintain good relations with other seafaring nations such as Japan, Australia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, a strong maritime organisation is inescapable. There’s also a need to coordinate our strategic posture meaningfully with other littoral states such as Sri Lanka, Maldives, Madagascar, Iran and Oman. It is thus high time India asserted itself as a maritime power.

Presently, we have seven commands each in the Army and the Air Force and three regional commands in the Navy. Besides, we have the integrated CDS, Strategic Forces Command and Andaman & Nicobar Integrated Command already functional. It is understood that the agenda for the CDS is to reorganise the existing single service commands into five integrated commands for enhanced operational and functional efficiency. The Indian Armed Forces Joint Doctrine Manual came out in 2017; it talks about theaterisation of the military, including the creation of the then Peninsular Theatre Command and now the MTC, an Air Defence Command under the IAF’s aegis and three Army Theatre Commands — west, north and east — to deal with the threat from Pakistan and China. The MTC, whose implementation is expected as early as 2022 once the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) gives its approval, would address the overall maritime threat. Organisationally, no additional liabilities of posts or ranks are expected, the structure itself being culled from the existing command structures of the Army, Navy and Air Force. The Navy, of course, would see the churning first, with the proposed merger of its Western and Eastern Commands. As per the VCNS study’s recommendation, the Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS) would apparently lose his importance to a Maritime Theatre Commander to whom the Western and Eastern Naval C-in-Cs would report. The CNS’s role is expected to be reduced to ‘raising, training and sustaining’ the Navy.

The reported naval proposals have understandably created a flutter among the traditionalists in all the three services. The ‘extremists’ feel that the move for theaterisation is akin to ‘fixing what ain’t broke’. After all, the Indian armed forces have done well in all wars so far with the existing system, they aver. Integrated war-fighting could well be made a reality through mandatory tri-service postings and service courses, they further argue. But the KRC’s and Naresh Chandra Committee’s viewpoint about the need for ‘integrating and restructuring the security ecosystem’ has validity too.

India has a need to retain its influence in its defined strategic space, which includes the ability for overseas deployment of the military for political intervention or evacuation of its citizens. Some of this capability was demonstrated recently in the evacuations necessitated from Sri Lanka, Maldives and the Middle East during the Covid-19 crisis. However, care should be exercised to ensure that we do not attempt to overhaul a working system unnecessarily, bringing in change for the sake of change. Integrated commands for special forces, space and logistics may be more urgent in terms of achieving effective integrated war-fighting in the subcontinental context. Theaterisation could perhaps wait a few years, and be done in a phased manner. Merely articulating a joint doctrine does not mean we are ready to put aside years of inter-service rivalry and single service operating peculiarities. The IAF was the first to express reservations on the proposed theaterisation, for fear of its valuable air power assets being parcelled out to different new entities, at times also headed by a non-specialist C-in-C. Now, it does take a while for any nation to make such drastic changes in its war-fighting philosophy and so also we should take our time evolving into an Integrated Defence Force such as that of Israel or Japan.

Integration of the Ministry of Defence and the service headquarters, integration of defence manufacturing, integration of tri-service logistics, communications and procurements are other low-hanging fruit the government could target initially. Given the volatile security situation in our neighbourhood, we do not have the luxury of ambling through an organisational change such as theaterisation, compromising war-fighting efficacy ad interim. Therefore, much more of war-gaming, think tank inputs and hands-on experience through international exercises would be called for before the Indian military treads the path of new-fangled concepts such as Theatre Commands.

Farmers’ protest: Facebook clarifies Kisan Ekta Morcha page was marked ‘spam’ for increased activity

New Delhi [India], December 21, 2020 (ANI): Clarifying the reason behind the suspension of the Kisan Ekta Morcha page, social media giant Facebook on Monday said its automated systems found an increased activity on the page and flagged it as “spam”.
A company spokesperson pointed out that the page was restored within 3 hours. Facebook had on Sunday temporarily blocked the page of Kisan Ekta Morcha for allegedly “going against” the platform’s “Community Standards on spam”. The page, which was being used by the farmers protesting at the borders of the national capital, was later restored.
“As per our review, our automated systems found an increased activity on the Facebook page www.facebook.com/kisanektamorcha and flagged it as spam, which violates our Community Standards. We restored the page in less than 3 hours when we became aware of the context,” a Facebook spokesperson said on Monday.
The spokesperson said that the review showed that only the Facebook page was affected by the automated systems while the Instagram account remained unaffected. The company said that the vast majority of its work in fighting spam is done automatically using recognisable patterns of problematic behaviour.
“For example, if an account is posting over and over in quick succession that’s a strong sign something is wrong. However, we also rely on our human review team to work on cases where human expertise is needed to understand the context of a particular situation,” the spokesperson said.
“In Q3, 2020 out of the 1.9 billion pieces of content removed globally for violating our policies on spam, we restored 74.9 mn pieces of content globally, when we identified issues ourselves,” the spokesperson added.
This comes as thousands of farmers are protesting at the gates of Delhi against three recently passed farm laws. The Central government and farmer leaders are engaged in talks. However, all discussions have remained inconclusive so far. (ANI)

Expected to face competition from the French Rafale aircraft for the Navy contract, Boeing has pitched the Super Hornets as the lynchpin for cooperation in naval aviation between the United States and India.

“The first successful and safe launch of the F/A-18 Super Hornet from a ski-jump begins the validation process to operate effectively from Indian Navy aircraft carriers,” Ankur Kanaglekar, head for India Fighters Sales at Boeing Defense, Space and Security, said Monday.

Briefing select journalists through video-conferencing about the demonstrations held at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in the US, Kanaglekar said they were always confident of meeting Indian requirements, but “we are even more confident now that we can fully meet the STOBAR (Short Take-off but Arrested Recovery) jump for Indian Navy”.

Carrier-based fighters mainly come in three categories — STOVL (short take-off and vertical landing), STOBAR and CATOBAR (catapult take-off but arrested recovery).

While American carriers use CATOBAR, the Indian carriers — INS Vikramaditya and the indigenous one under construction — employ STOBAR. Therefore, validation of the STOBAR capability by the Navy was a basic requirement.

Kanaglekar said the F/A-18 Block III Super Hornet will offer the Indian Navy value in the form of advanced war fighter technologies at a low acquisition cost and affordable cost-per-flight-hour because of its ease-of-maintainability design and durability.

The Indian Navy, he added, stands to benefit from the multi-billion dollar investments made towards new technologies in the Super Hornet by the US Navy and several international customers, including advanced network technology, longer range and low-drag with conformal fuel tanks, enhanced situational awareness with a new advanced cockpit system, and a 10,000+ hour life.

Pitching it as the lynchpin of naval cooperation between India and the US, the top Boeing official said the aircraft has the ability to interface with the American P-8I plane in use with the Indian Navy as a force multiplier and even future American systems.

“The commonality and interoperability between US and Indian Navy will be unmatched,” Kanaglekar said.

Also Read: Indian Navy gets 9th P-8I anti-submarine warfare aircraft ordered from US

‘Different requirements’

Asked about the Navy’s plan to combine its multi-role carrier-based combat jet procurement tender along with that of the IAF for 114 planes, Kanaglekar said he would refer the question to the Defence Ministry and the Navy.

“All I would say is that Indian Navy’s requirement and the Air Force’s requirements are very different,” he added, stating that the environment and mission are different between a carrier- and land-based operations.

“However, we are confident that MoD (Ministry of Defence) will take all that into account and will make the decision for the Indian armed forces while taking into account the cost of acquisition and timelines for these procurement,” Kanaglekar said.

Navy chief Admiral Karambir Singh had said earlier this month that they may pursue joint acquisition of fighters with the IAF.

“We have the MiG-29K operating from the Vikramaditya and will operate from the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC)-I. To replace them, we have taken up a case for the Multi-Role Carrier-Borne Fighters (MRCBF) which we are trying to do along with the IAF,” he said.

It was in 2017 that the Navy issued a Request For Information (RFI) to foreign players for 57 new fighters.

However, with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) now working on a Twin-Engine Carrier-Based Deck Fighter (TEBDF), it is likely that the Navy could actually cut down its numbers for a foreign fighter from the 57 it was looking at earlier.

Asked if the the Boeing will offer India both Super Hornets and its twin-engine tactical fighter, the F-15EX, Kanaglekar said they will only take a decision once the final requirements of the IAF and the Navy come out.

“Boeing is very proud to bring complete spectrum of capability to the Indian armed forces,” he added.

Also Read: Navy could take minesweeper vessels & helicopters on lease, pushes for third aircraft carrier

Chamkaur Sahib, December 20

A large number of devotees paid obeisance at Gurdwara Katalgarh Sahib as the three-day Shaheedi Jor Mela started here on Sunday.

The mela is organised every year in the memory of two elder Sahibzadas of Guru Gobind Singh and other Sikhs who had attained martyrdom while fighting the Mughal forces. While ‘nagar kirtans’ from various villages started arriving in the town, religious diwans were started in gurdwaras.

Residents of various villages have set up community kitchens (langars) on roads leading to Chamkaur Sahib.

The Congress, SAD and AAP have decided not to hold political conferences on the occasion due to the Covid pandemic.