New Delhi: India has chosen Boeing Corp as the preferred bidder to supply 15 heavy lift helicopters for its Air Force, a Defence Ministry source said on Monday, potentially the second major Indian contract this year for the Seattle-based firm. Boeing's Chinook twin rotor helicopters emerged as the lowest bidder and will now hold exclusive negotiations with the ministry, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Depending on how...
01:35 AM, Nov 06, 2012
New Delhi: Newly sworn-in Minister of State for Defence Lalchand Kataria has now been appointed as Minister of State for Rural Development Ministry after much confusion. Kataria, a first-time inductee into the Cabinet, was given his new post after meeting the Prime Minister on Tuesday. His first appointment as MoS Defence was put on hold as the other MoS Defence Jitendra Singh is also from Rajasthan. Kataria had refused to...
08:35 AM, Oct 31, 2012
New Delhi: Sulking over the work allocation in Defence Ministry to him, Lalchand Kataria on Tuesday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and sought a change in his portfolio which he has refused to take charge in the last two days. Official sources said Kataria conveyed to the Prime Minister that since the other Minister of State, Jitendra Singh, also hailed from Rajasthan like him, he would find it difficult to...
08:39 PM, Oct 30, 2012
New Delhi: Minister of State for Defence Lalchand Kataria's portfolio is likely to be changed, sources said on Tuesday. The sources said that the Prime Minister's Office had put on hold the decision to appoint Kataria as one of the two Ministers of State for Defence. Sources said that this was because both Kataria and the other MoS in Defence were from the same state: Rajasthan. Kataria is currently meeting...
10:02 AM, Oct 30, 2012
New Delhi: Defence Minister AK Antony on Monday cautioned the three services chiefs to be "transparent" in the process of weapon trials and procurement as he cleared proposals worth around Rs 6,000 crore for the Armed Forces. Antony's message to the chiefs came amid latest bribery allegations in the proposed purchase of 197 light choppers. At the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) meeting, the Ministry cleared proposals for procurement of 3,000...
02:49 AM, Oct 30, 2012
New Delhi: The Defence Acquisition Council is set to meet on Monday where a decision is expected on replacing the military's ageing Cheetah and Chetak helicopters of the Indian Air Force. The meet comes amidst allegations of bribery which threaten to torpedo the VVIP helicopter deal. Italian defence major Finmeccanica stands to lose thousands of crores in Indian orders if it is proved that its subsidiary AgustaWestland did give bribe...
10:10 AM, Oct 29, 2012
New Delhi: The CBI on Thursday questioned Lt Gen (retd) Tejinder Singh and Vectra Chairman Ravinder Rishi in connection with alleged bribe offer made by the former to the then Army chief VK Singh to clear a tranche of allegedly substandard all terrain vehicles. CBI sources said Managing Director of Vectra group Anil Mansharamani and a city-based businessman were also part of questioning. The agency sources claimed they had got...
09:47 PM, Oct 25, 2012
New Delhi: A Defence Ministry audit report has raised questions on Army Commanders, on the issue of money being spent for urgent procurement. The audit has found 55 cases where procurements were made without consulting centralised agencies. The Army Commander of the Northern Command has the power to spend up to Rs 125 crore in emergencies, while the Eastern Command has Rs 50 crore limits. And now the scanner is...
08:22 AM, Oct 24, 2012
New Delhi: An internal audit report of the Defence Ministry has detected a loss of over Rs 100 crore in spendings by six Army commanders between 2009 and 2011, prompting Defence Minister AK Antony to order strict checks and balances on expenditure. The Army, however, contested the loss of Rs 100 crore in procurements and insisted that no rules have been violated. The Defence Ministry had ordered the Controller of...
08:55 PM, Oct 23, 2012
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be addressing the Armed Forces Combined Commanders' Conference on Friday. The Indian armed forces are mulling the creation of three unified commands to effectively tackle security threats and challenges in the fields of space, cyberspace and special operations. The efforts are part of increasing significance being given on jointness among the three Services by the Defence Ministry and to avoid duplication of their...
08:50 AM, Oct 19, 2012
The bi-annual Army Commanders Conference kicked off in Delhi on Monday with the focus on issues ranging from operational and security to modernization and procurement. ...
12:17 PM, Oct 15, 2012
With less than a month to go for Russia's President Vladimir Putin's visit to Delhi, the two sides appear to have "stabilised" the military relationship ...
12:56 PM, Oct 11, 2012
New Delhi: A lawyer to one of the accused in the Defence Colony cash van heist was arrested for allegedly helping her client in hiding part of the looted Rs 5.5 crore, taking the number of arrests in the high-profile case to 11. Jyoti Batra is the advocate of Deepak Sharma, the first person to be arrested in the heist case, police said on Wednesday. Sharma was arrested for his...
10:21 PM, Oct 10, 2012
Republican candidate Mitt Romney on Monday sought to bolster his foreign policy credentials in a major speech just two weeks before the second presidential debate. Romney criticised President Barack Obama's handling of threats in the Middle East and spoke about how he intended to remedy the situation and the current foreign policy, if elected on November 6. Lashing out at Obama, Romney said, "I know the President hopes for a ...
09:57 AM, Oct 09, 2012
New Delhi: Defence Minister AK Antony on Friday called for reducing India's over-dependence on defence imports and bolstering research and development capabilities. Speaking to officials of Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs), Antony asked them to make sincere and sustained efforts to reduce the dependence on imports to the maximum extent possible. "While in the era of globalisation, it is not possible to completely do away...
12:58 PM, Oct 06, 2012
New Delhi: The Indian Air Force on Friday said it is procuring 22 Apache attack helicopters from the US, which will give it the capability to strike down enemy choppers and UAVs. "Yes, Apache is final now," IAF Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne said when asked if the IAF was procuring the American choppers in a 1.4 billion dollar deal. "We are going to contract for Apache and these will...
04:41 AM, Oct 06, 2012
New Delhi: Defence Minister AK Antony on Friday called for reducing India's over-dependence on defence imports and bolstering research and development capabilities. Speaking to officials of Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs), Antony asked them to make sincere and sustained efforts to reduce the dependence on imports to the maximum extent possible. "While in the era of globalisation, it is not possible to completely do away...
12:58 AM, Oct 06, 2012
Balasore: India successfully test-fired nuclear capable Dhanush, the naval version of Prithvi short-range ballistic missile, from a warship off Odisha coast on Friday. The indigenously developed naval version of the Prithvi short-range ballistic missile has a strike range of up to 350 km and can carry 500 kg of conventional or nuclear warhead, a DRDO official said. "Dhanush was test-fired from a naval ship off Odisha coast at around 1125...
12:38 PM, Oct 05, 2012
Balasore: India on Thursday test-fired its nuclear-capable Prithvi-II ballistic missile with a strike range of 350 km from a test range near Balasore as part of a user trial by the Army. "The flight test of the surface-to-surface missile was conducted at around 0907 hrs from a mobile launcher from Integrated Test Range's launch complex-III at Chandipur," defence sources said. The state-of-the-art Prithvi is the first ballistic missile developed under...
10:05 AM, Oct 04, 2012
New Delhi: Observing that piracy and armed robberies in high seas were threatening the stability of the Asian region, Defence Minister AK Antony on Wednesday said India was taking steps to augment its capabilities to fight piracy and terrorism. Addressing the 8th Heads of Asian Coast Guard Agencies Meeting, the Defence Minister said, "India strongly believes that mutual cooperation alone is the most effective way in ensuring the security and...
12:54 AM, Oct 04, 2012
