New Delhi: None of the three services has complained against the British origin Tatra trucks, which are in the news in the wake of Army chief Gen VK Singh's allegation of offer of bribes to him by a lobbyist. "We have never received any complaint from the armed forces. Yet there are certain after sales service issues which keep coming up as they were procured over a period of 10-12...
12:28 AM, Mar 27, 2012
New Delhi: President Pratibha Patil's foreign travel has cost the public exchequer a whopping Rs 205 crore on her foreign visits, surpassing the record of all her predecessors. Since assuming office as the country's first woman President in July 2007, Patil has undertaken 12 foreign trips covering 22 countries across four continents. She has four more months to go for her five-year tenure and she is slated to make a...
07:16 PM, Mar 25, 2012
New Delhi: Differences between the Defence Ministry and the Army Chief General VK Singh appeared to be continuing with the Ministry blocking his proposal for appointment of a top military official to the post of Director General of Assam Rifles. General Singh, who had lost a bitter battle against the Ministry in the Supreme Court on his age issue recently, had recommended the name of Lt Gen AK Choudhary, who...
11:05 AM, Mar 25, 2012
Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir government on Monday said that the Indian Air Force (IAF) was planning to convert Kargil airport into a full-fledged air force base in the state. "Indian Air Force is planning to convert Kargil airport into a full-fledged air force base in Jammu and Kashmir," state Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather told the legislative Assembly in reply to a query of PDP member Peerzada Mansoor Hussain....
05:48 PM, Mar 12, 2012
New Delhi: Defence Ministry has blacklisted six companies including Singapore Technologies, Israeli Military Industry and Germany's Rheinmetall Air Defence for 10 years for their alleged role in ordnance factory scam. The firms, including two Indian and one Russian, were blacklisted following action against former Director General of Ordnance Factories (DGOF) Sudipta Ghosh who was chargesheeted by CBI for his alleged role in defence scams. "Consequent to the filing of the...
07:01 PM, Mar 05, 2012
Hyderabad: Army chief General VK Singh on Monday denied reports of him tracking phone conversations of ministers. He also stuck to his stand that ammunition in the Army was seeing an alarming shortage. He termed as 'fiction' media reports of a complaint about telephone tapping to hear conversation in connection with his age row. "Fiction does not require any reaction. If people concoct stories and some of the irresponsible editors...
02:39 PM, Mar 05, 2012
On February 16th, the Defence Ministry raised an alarm about a possible bug that was found inside AK Antony's office. ...
11:50 PM, Mar 02, 2012
New Delhi: Army Chief Gen VK Singh, who lost his battle with the Defence Ministry on the age row, feels the Supreme Court has "not, not effectively" closed the issue but ruled out his resignation. "It would be dishonest to say that that I was not, not under pressure to resign. Even my closest advisors were affected by the media interpretation and, yes, I was extremely disappointed that the Supreme...
06:02 PM, Mar 02, 2012
New Delhi: Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi on Friday said that investigations are underway in the Defence Ministry bugging issue. "If and only if this is correct," he said referring to the reports on Defence Minister AK Antony's office being bugged, "then it is a very serious issue." "Investigations are on. Let us wait for the outcome," he added. Sources close to the Defence Ministry said on Friday that the...
04:52 PM, Mar 02, 2012
New Delhi: The Defence Ministry on Friday denied the reports of bugging in its office, saying that there were just routine checks in the offices of the Raksha Mantri and other offices in South Block. "Nothing has been found in these checks," said Defence Ministry officials. The Home Ministry too said it was not aware of any bugging incident in the Defence Minister's office. "The MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs)...
03:48 PM, Mar 02, 2012
New Delhi: Defence Minister AK Antony's office is said to have been 'bugged', reports claimed on Friday. The bugging came to notice on February 16, following which Defence Secretary Shashikant Sharma took up the matter with the Intelligence Bureau (IB). Reportedly, officials of the Military Intelligence detected the bug during a routine check. Their hand-held detectors indicated presence of a monitoring device in Antony's office. The MI personnel were immediately...
01:25 PM, Mar 02, 2012
New Delhi: After a delay of over seven months, the Army has finally issued a retirement note to its chief Gen VK Singh communicating to him that his tenure will end on May 31, official sources said on Tuesday. Gen Singh, who was in Jodhpur on Tuesday, was issued the Retirement Warning Letter (RWL) by the Military Secretary branch recently, they said. RWL is normally given to officers about 10-11...
07:57 PM, Feb 28, 2012
Puneet Bali, the counsel for General VK Singh in the age row, said on Friday that the matter had been resolved very gracefully. "It is a victory for everybody. This matter has been resolved very gracefully." He said that it was very hurting to see "certain sections" reporting that the General perhaps wanted to cling on to the post. ...
03:45 PM, Feb 10, 2012
New Delhi: The Supreme Court will on Friday hear a plea from Army Chief General VK Singh to maintain his birth date as May 10, 1951, instead of 1950, and against the orders of the defence ministry rejection of his statutory complaint in this regard. The government is expected to file a reply in the Supreme Court on Friday after being pulled by the apex court last week over General...
06:14 AM, Feb 10, 2012
New Delhi: The government on Thursday approved Defence Ministry guidelines for its public sector units (PSUs) to establish joint ventures with private firms, a step that will increase opportunities to obtain advanced technologies from foreign sources. "The Union Cabinet today approved the guidelines for establishing Joint Venture Companies by Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs). The guidelines contain provisions for important matters that are critical from a national security perspective," an...
02:46 PM, Feb 09, 2012
New Delhi: Chinese companies are not being invited for the Defence Ministry's biennial military exhibition 'Defexpo' here next month but there will be an official delegation from that country for the event. The External Affairs Ministry has shot down a Defence Ministry proposal to invite Chinese companies to take part in the four-day show that will have representation from several countries including the US, Israel, Russia and France, sources told...
09:00 PM, Feb 07, 2012
New Delhi: A day after Army Chief General VK Singh won the first round against the Government on his age row, the Government walked the safe line, remaining cautious and refraining from commenting on the issue. Congress troubleshooter and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee refused to discuss details of his meeting with General Singh on Thursday evening. Mukherjee did not comment on the SC order which pulled up the Government on...
12:16 PM, Feb 04, 2012
The government says the age of the Army Chief is 1950, and 1951 which the Army Chief believes is his rightful age. ...
11:54 PM, Feb 03, 2012
New Delhi: The Defence Ministry may have to go back to the drawing board and take a fresh look at how it handled the case after the Supreme Court questioned the manner in which General VK Singh's complaint about his age was rejected by the Ministry in December last year. The apex court has given the Ministry the option of withdrawing its December order before the matter is heard by...
01:49 PM, Feb 03, 2012
New Delhi: The Supreme Court is all set to hear Army Chief General VK Singh's plea on the age row on Friday. This is the first ever petition by an Army Chief against the government and the court will decide on General VK Singh's plea on his date of birth. Ahead of the hearing, a late night meeting on Thursday, between the Army Chief and Congress trouble-shooter Pranab Mukherjee sparked...
06:21 AM, Feb 03, 2012
