On 21 April 1975, Godhra MP and founding member of Swatantra Party spoke in the Lok Sabha during a debate on defence expenditure and purchase of arms. 'We have been, especially since the last war with Pakistan, shopping round the world.'
A recent report by SIPRI revealed that while India remains the largest importers of arms, Russia’s contribution to its imports declined between 2018-2022 and French exports increased.
At the end of May, US announced military assistance worth $4.6 billion for Ukraine, UK has announced military aid worth £1.3 billion, while EU has declared €2 billion in military support.
SIPRI's 2021 Trends in International Arms Transfers report says India, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Australia, and China were world's top 5 arms importers in 2017-21 period.
Procurement procedures in the armed forces are near perfect. So if sub-standard equipment pass through, it's either because the leadership is corrupt or it is incompetent.
India is now looking at acquiring 6 armed drones from the US instead of the planned mix of 30 armed and non-armed drones. It is also in talks with Israel.
While the language war in other states is targeting those who can't speak the local language, in Bengal, even those whose mother tongue is Bengali have to constantly prove their Bengali-ness.
Mini deal will likely see no cut in 10% baseline tariff on Indian exports announced by Trump on 2 April, it is learnt, but additional 26% tariffs are set to be reduced.
Capable of being fired in plain and high-altitude areas, it has day-and-night capability and two-way data link to support post-launch target, aim-point update.
As Narendra Modi becomes India’s second-longest consecutively serving Prime Minister, we look at how he compares with Indira Gandhi across four key dimensions.
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