India’s military budget is now literally “weighed down” by salaries and pensions. The defence budget, minus the pensions, was increased to Rs 3,37,553 crore, up from Rs 3,18,931 crore for the present fiscal ending March 31, 2020. This is a meagre 5.8 per cent hike.
The capital allocation used for purchase of new weapons, aircraft, warships and other military hardware like guns and new UAVs is Rs 1,13,626 crore. This means modernisation gets an increase of Rs 10,316 crore over this year’s allocation of Rs 1,03,310 crore.
On the other hand, the budget for pensions has been hiked by Rs 21,742 crore and is now pegged at Rs 1,33,819 crore. This year, a sum of Rs 1,12,077 crore is earmarked for pensions.
The combined budget for operations, salaries, pensions and capital for the next fiscal stands at Rs 4,71,372 crore and it works out to be 15.4 per cent of the country’s entire budget.
The services are literally weighed down by bulging “establishment” costs — euphuism for salaries. The salaries of the three services and the civilians concerned work out to be Rs 1,34,989 crore, which now form 39.99 per cent of the budget. In other words, salaries and pensions take up more money than what is allocated for modernisation.
The MoD is looking at “right-sizing” the forces and also at cutting costs within. The Army has already started the restructuring process.
Key outlays
Rs1,34,989 cr salaries
Rs1,33,819 cr pensions
Rs1,13,626 cr capital
Union Budget: Check out what is costlier, what is cheaper
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Govt introduces five tax slabs with lower rates for those foregoing exemptions; raises customs duty
New tax regime optional; taxpayers have the choice to either remain in the old regime with exemptions or opt for the new reduced tax rate without those exemptions
New Delhi, February 1
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday announced cuts in personal income tax, extended tax benefits for affordable housing and gave relief to companies on payment of dividend in the Union Budget for 2020-21 as the government looked to boost consumption to bring the economy out of the worst slowdown in 11 years.
The minister proposed raising customs duty on a variety of products ranging from tableware and kitchenware, electrical appliances to footwear, furniture, stationery and toys to give a level-playing field to domestic companies and boost ‘Make in India’.
Offering an optional lower rate of income tax to individuals, Sitharaman in her Budget for 2020-21 proposed new tax slabs of 15 per cent and 25 per cent in addition to the existing 10 per cent, 20 per cent and 30 per cent. The new I-T slabs would be for individuals not availing certain specified deductions or exemptions.
Under the proposed I-T slab, annual income upto Rs 2.5 lakh is exempt from tax. Those individuals earning between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 5 lakh will pay 5 per cent tax. Income between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 7.5 lakh will be taxed at 10 per cent, while those between Rs 7.5 and Rs 10 lakh at 15 per cent.
Those earning between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 12.5 lakh will pay tax at the rate of 20 per cent, while those between Rs 12.5 lakh and Rs 15 lakh will pay at the rate of 25 per cent. Income above Rs 15 lakh will be taxed at 30 per cent.
Individuals opting for taxation under new rates will not be entitled to exemption/deductions, including under Section 80C and 80D, LTC, housing rent allowance, deduction for entertainment allowance, professional tax, and interest on self-occupied/vacant property.
Currently, annual income upto Rs 2.5 lakh is exempt from I-T. While a 5 per cent tax is charged for income between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 5 lakh. 20 per cent for income between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh and 30 per cent for those earning above Rs 10 lakh.
“The new tax regime shall be optional for taxpayers,” she said.
Agricultural services needed copious investments, she said, adding that the government had insured 6.11 crore farmers under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.
With her post 2019-20 Budget corporate tax cut drilling a Rs 1.45 lakh crore hole in government revenues, the minister hiked the fiscal deficit target for current fiscal to 3.8 per cent of GDP, from 3.3 per cent.
An alumnus of Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC), Dehradun, and National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, the general is a June 1982-batch officer from the Rajput Regiment and is also the Colonel of the Regime.
An alumnus of RIMC and NDA, Lt Gen C P Mohanty is a June 1982-batch officer from the Rajput Regiment. Express
Lieutenant General C P Mohanty, an infantry officer with varied operational experience including in counter-insurgency environment, assumed command of the Southern Army on Thursday. In a wreath-laying ceremony at the National War Memorial in Pune, he paid tribute to fallen soldiers, followed by a traditional Guard of Honour at the headquarters of the Southern Command.
An alumnus of Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC), Dehradun, and National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, the general is a June 1982-batch officer from the Rajput Regiment and is also the Colonel of the Regime. During his military career, Gen Mohanty has had vast operational, logistics and administrative experience in varied command and staff appointments. He commanded his battalion in Jammu and Kashmir and Northeast, a Mountain Brigade along the Indo-China border and a Mountain Division in counter-insurgency operations in Northeast. Later, he commanded a strategically important corps in the Eastern Theatre after the Doklam incident and also the Uttar Bharat Area at Bareilly.
Gen Mohanty has vast overseas experience of commanding a multinational brigade in the Republic of Congo, and also as the Military Adviser to the Government of Seychelles. He has held important staff appointments in an Armoured Brigade and Military Secretary Branch, besides being the Director General of Operational Logistics and Strategic Movement at Integrated Headquarters of Ministry of Defence (Army).
On the academic front, he has an MPhil and a management degree and has researched extensively on China, South Asia and northeast India, making him a domain expert of these regions. He is a graduate of Defence Services Staff College (DSSC), Wellington, and also an alumnus of National Defence College, Delhi.
200 years of the Bombay Sappers: ‘Ever-modernising engineering forces will remain crucial in future warfare’
The celebrations will culminate on February 1, when Chief of Army Staff General Manoj Naravane is slated to attend the function.
Bombay Engineer Group, also known as the Bombay Sappers, is a regiment of the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army located at Khadki in Pune.
THE EVER-modernising engineering forces will remain crucial to future warfare, said Commandant of College of Military Engineering Lieutenant General Michael Mathews, at the occasion to mark 200 years of the Bombay Sappers.
Bombay Engineer Group, also known as the Bombay Sappers, is a regiment of the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army located at Khadki in Pune. The Group is completing 200 years in service this month. The bicentenary celebration commenced in style on Thursday with a para adventure display, including para drop, skydiving and para motors display by serving officers, troops and veterans and teams of Army Adventure Wing. The celebrations will culminate on February 1, when Chief of Army Staff General Manoj Naravane is slated to attend the function.
Lt Gen Mathews, who is also the seniormost officer of the Bombay Sappers, addressed the media on the sidelines of the para drop display.
“Sappers have key roles to play. One is to deny the enemy the mobility by laying mines and other obstacles. The other role is to facilitate and increase mobility when we go for an offensive, and that is by building helipads, tracks, bridges. The relevance of engineering elements in warfare is going to stay, irrespective of the form it takes. The process of modernisation is always on and we too keep evolving. In modern warfare, elements of Artificial Intelligence and robotics are bound to be there. Just as an example, in the College of Engineering, there are in-depth courses of subjects, so that we are ready for future security challenges. The practical application of AI and robotics is focused in these courses,” he said.
The para drop display event commenced with the para motors show by the Army Adventure Wing Parachute team from Parachute Regiment Training Centre, Bengaluru. This was followed by the para jump, in which senior serving officers and veterans took part. Some prominent names included Major General S K Jaswal (Retired); Deputy Chief of Army Staff (Planning and Systems) Lt Gen S S Hasabnis; General Officer Commanding of the Sudarshan Chakra Corps Lt Gen Yogendra Dimri; and Commandant Bombay Engineer Group and Centre, Khadki, Brigadier MJ Kumar. The event culminated with a skydiving display by Lt Gen R R Goswami (Retired) and Brig S R Mazagaonkar (Retired), among the pioneers in skydiving in India.
Army jawans rectify a technical snag in an optical fibre cable at the Khardungla in Ladakh. Tribune Photo
Tribune News Service
Jammu, January 28
Braving subzero temperatures and accumulated snow of several metres, Army jawans rectified a technical snag in an optical fibre cable at the extreme height of 18,000 feet at the Khardungla in Ladakh on Monday.
The pictures uploaded by the Army’s Northern Command with soldiers rectifying the snag of fibre cable in the middle of accumulated snow at the Khardungla have gone viral in social media and were widely appreciated by the netizens.
The photographs have been uploaded with the message “No terrain, no weather, no enemy can stop us! We are #IndianArmy!”
“#NorthernComd Signallers braving subzero temperatures, snow covered mountains, extreme heights at #Khardungla Pass(18000 ft) maintain Optical Fibre Cable Link just to keep #Ladakh connected,” the Army said on its official Twitter handle.
The connectivity has remained a major issue in the arid region of Ladakh where there are more than 350 uncovered areas having no telecom connectivity.
Recently, the lone member of Parliament from the region, Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, had urged the Union government to sanction sufficient mobile towers for all 350 uncovered areas to ensure better connectivity in the Union Territory of Ladakh.
Army makes Doda residents stand tall Overcoming all odds, hoists two national flags on R-Day at old bridge
Doda took the lead this Republic Day to show residents’ unique style of patriotism towards the country, as two national flags were hoisted by the Indian Army on the old bridge of Pul Doda over the Chenab.
This was a unique gift given to the entire Chenab valley by the Army when, early on the morning of January 26, soldiers of the 10 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) hoisted the two national flags on the bridge and dedicated these to the people of Doda.
The bridge, made of wood and ropes, was closed to vehicular traffic after a concrete bridge was constructed over the river in early 1990s and now stands as a heritage site for posterity. The two national flags, 44-foot-high, are aloft the bridge on both banks of the Chenab, depicting the uniqueness of the 71st Republic Day.
The installation of the flags on the bridge was not an easy task for the Army as it had to manually construct the pillars and hoist the flags without the help of any crane or earthmoving machinery.
“It took one week for the Army to work on the old bridge and erect the poles without any use of modern-day technology. Due to the bad weather prevailing for a fortnight, there was no availability of cranes and latest machines in Doda, Batote, Udhampur and Kishtwar. Undeterred by the challenge, the Army decided to meet the deadline at any cost. Soldiers of the 10 RR, stationed in Doda, improvised methods and worked very hard to finally complete the work for the grand Indian Flags on both sides of the bridge on Pul Doda,” an officer of the Army said.
“The grand flags will make every passenger proud each time they pass through Pul Doda and fill their hearts with patriotism,” he added.
Punjab CM wants equipment to detect drones from Pak
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday underlined the need for high-end equipment for security forces to detect drones used by Pakistan to smuggle weapons into the border state.
The issue was discussed during a meeting convened by the CM with Congress MPs from both the Houses and to discuss budget proposals for the next fiscal and issues pending with the Centre, a government statement said.
On the Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal issue, Singh asked the MPs to push for amendment in the Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill 2019, pending in Rajya Sabha, to protect Punjab’s water resources, it said.
The Bill seeks to expedite and streamline resolution of inter-state water disputes through a single central tribunal instead of the existing numerous ones.
The linking of the Sutlej and Yamuna rivers through a canal has been a contentious issue between Punjab and Haryana. Punjab wants a reassessment of the volume of water in Ravi and Beas rivers while Haryana seeks completion of the SYL canal to get its share of 3.5 million acre feet of the river waters.
Last week, an all-party meeting in Punjab called for a new tribunal to assess river water availability. Saying that Punjab does not have surplus water, the parties urged the Centre to ensure that the river water from the state is not transferred to non-basin areas.
During the meeting, the CM also expressed concern over the increase in activities by the Pakistani spy agency ISI near the borders and reiterated the need for developing infrastructure that can detect various kinds of drones.
Singh said he had written to the Ministry of Home Affairs back in August 2019, when the first instance of use of suspicious drones came to light.
A GPS-fitted drone was detected to have dropped weapons and money in August last year. Earlier this month, Punjab Police found two drones used for smuggling drugs from Pakistan.
During the meeting, it was also decided that Punjab Congress MPs would urge the Centre to immediately lift food grains from the state in the wake of shortage of storage facilities and tardy procurement of wheat and rice by central agencies.
The statement said 140 lakh metric tonnes of wheat and 95 LMT of rice belonging to the central pool are currently stored in the state.
As much as 70 LMT of wheat is lying in the open (covered area plinth), including 16 LMT wheat purchased under relaxed specifications (URS) during 2019-20 and 10 LMT wheat procured in 2018-19.
The MPs urged the Punjab CM to approach the prime minister over the Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices’ reported recommendation to review MSP policy, dubbing it a “serious threat” to the state’s farmers.
Any change in minimum support price procurement policy will adversely impact Punjab’s economy, they felt, expressing the fear that the Centre would limit procurement as the first step towards putting an end to MSP purchase.
Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar said all MPs should take up in Parliament the issue of the delayed SGPC elections “to break the stranglehold of the Akalis”. The tenure of the current SGPC ended in 2016. — PTI
CONGRATULATIONS COL SAJJAN PRAKASH : veterans and SANJHA MORCHA IS PROUD OF YOUR TARGET ORIENTED ACHIEVEMENT
It is a proud movement for me to share with friends and welwishers that,
My contributions to irredicate Drugs menace through DRUGS ABUSE PREVENTION OPERATIONS has been recognised by Govt Of Punjab. I have been HONOURED by Punjab CM Capt Amrinder Singh on the occasion of 71 st Republic Day at state level function. It is the outcome of hard work of Team GOG Derabassi
Col Sajjan Prakash
Sikhs protest ‘eviction’ by forest, revenue officials They have been living in Qila Darhal tehsil since 1947
People of Qila Darhal tehsil have warned to block the Jammu-Poonch highway if the administration fails to resolve the issue.
Shyam Sood
Rajouri, January 24
Various organisations, including the Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena and the Sikh community, have been holding protests against senior revenue, forest officers/officials for “evicting” the Sikhs from their homes/agriculture land alleging the forest land has been encroached.
Members of the Sikh community residing in Qila Darhal Tehsil in Nowshera sub-district in Rajouri district, alleged that since 1947 they had been living in the area, and had constructed their homes and fields.
“Many among us and our ancestors have fought against Pakistani soldiers and tribesmen in 1947-48 and had forced the invaders to leave the Qila Darhal Fort and other areas” said Balbir Singh.
After the creation of Qila Darhal as a tehsil, the revenue officials in nexus with forest officials have changed their land records and by claiming their lands as encroached, has evicted about eight Sikh families so far, alleged those residing there.
“The Divisional Forest Officer, Tehsildar, Naib Tehsildar, Forest Range Officer and others, instead of taking action against the actual encroachers, have been harassing the Sikh families” said Zorawar Singh.
Shiv Sena activists have held protest at Sunderbani against the revenue and forest officials.
“Stop harassing those who had saved the mother land in 1947 and appeasing encroachers of forest land from a particular community on monetary consideration” they said.
Members of the Sikh community, Bajrng Dal and Shiv Sena have appealed to the Lt- Governor to intervene in this matter and also demanded CBI inquiry against the erring officials.
“In nexus with revenue and forest officials, many families from a majority community have encroached the forest land in Qila Darhal and other areas and have constructed their homes/fields” said Sushil Sudan, a former State Bajrang Dal president.
No action has been taken against such encroachers while the Sikh families living since 1947 have been evicted from their homes and agriculture land. This process should be stopped immediately, added Sushil.
People have warned to block the Jammu-Poonch highway if the administration failed to resolve the issue.
State Stalwarts
DEFENCE MINISTER
Minister Rajnath Singh
ALL HUMANS ARE ONE CREATED BY GOD
HINDUS,MUSLIMS,SIKHS.ISAI SAB HAI BHAI BHAI
CHIEF PATRON ALL INDIA SANJHA MORCHA
LT GEN JASBIR SINGH DHALIWAL, DOGRA
SENIOR PATRON ALL INDIA SANJHA MORCHA
MAJOR GEN HARVIJAY SINGH, SENA MEDAL ,corps of signals
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PATRON ALL INDIA SANJHA MORCHA
MAJ GEN RAMINDER GURAYA ,MADRAS REGIMENT
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PRESIDENT SOUTH ALL INDIA SANJHA MORCHA
COL SS RAJAN BOMBAY SAPPERS,
PRESIDENT UTTARAKHAND ALL INDIA SANJHA MORCHA
COL B M THAPA ,BENGAL SAPPERSS
PRESIDENT HARAYANA STATE CUM COORDINATOR ESM
BRIG DALJIT THUKRAL ,BENGAL SAPPERS
PRESIDENT TRICITY
COL B S BRAR (BHUPI BRAR)
PRESIDENT CHANDIGARH ZONE
COL SHANJIT SINGH BHULLAR
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PRESIDENT PANCHKULA ZONE AND ZIRAKPUR
COL SWARAN SINGH
INDIAN DEFENCE FORCES
DEFENCE FORCES INTEGRATED LOGO
INDIAN AIR FORCE
Air Officer C-in-C WESTERN AIR COMMAND
AIR MSHL S PRABHAKARAN AVSM VM
AOC-IN-C, EASTERN AIR COMMAND
Air Marshal Inderpal Singh Walia
AOC-in-C SOUTH WESTERN AIR COMMAND
Air Marshal Vikram Singh
AOC-IN-C, SOUTHERN AIR COMMAND
Air Marshal J.Chalapati
AOC-IN-C TRAINING COMMAND
AIR MARSHAL SK GHOTIA VSM
AOC-IN-C MAINTENANCE COMMAND
Air Marshal Jagdish Chandra
Flag Officer Commanding in Chief, Western Naval Command
ice Admiral R Hari Kumar, PVSM, AVSM, VSM
Flag Officer Commanding in Chief, Eastern Naval Command
Vice Admiral Sanjay Bhalla, AVSM, NM
Flag Officer Commanding in Chief, Southern Naval Command
