Indian Military

New Delhi — Indian Coast Guard  [CG] Director General Vice Admiral Anil Chopra has announced that a new modernization plan has been approved by the government to  induct state-of-art ships and aircraft  professional manpower

He said Last year, eight ships were commissioned into the service, and three more are expected to be inducted by Mar 2011.
The service is expected to achieve an effective strength of about 200 surface platforms and 100 aircraft by 2018, which is clearly indicative of the emergence of a new, modern and far more capable Coast Guard.

On the infrastructure front too, one District Headquarters, five CG stations and one air enclave have been established during 2010, and two more stations and a Regional Headquarters at Kolkata are being established by Mar 2011, he added. By the end of 2012, there will be a total of 42 CG Stations, 05 Air Stations and 10 Air Enclaves functioning from various locations along the coast.

As far as manpower is concerned, through concerted efforts and planning, the Coast Guard has increased its sanctioned strength by about 1200 personnel during the year gone by.

ISLAMABAD: A suicide bombing at an army recruitment centre in northwest Pakistan on Thursday killed at least 10 people, said a police official.
Residents said the bomber struck while recruits were conducting morning training in the town of Mardan.

KUNDUZ: A suicide attack on an army recruitment centre in northern Afghanistan killed 37 people on Monday, the third major assault in the area in less than a month, the deputy governor said.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack on behalf of the militant Islamist group. Dozens more were wounded, officials said.
A Reuters witness heard gunfire in the area after the attack but Hamdullah Danishi, deputy governor of Kunduz province, said the casualties were all caused by a single suicide bomber.
"The death toll includes new recruits, army soldiers and civilians," Danishi told Reuters. A doctor in the Kunduz provincial hospital said 33 bodies had been brought in.
Violence is spreading fast in the once relatively peaceful north, with Kunduz a particular focus for insurgents.
The Kunduz police chief was killed by a suicide bomber while out on patrol in the city last week. In late February, another suicide bomber killed at least 30 people in a government office while people were queueing to collect identity cards in the Emam Saheb district of Kunduz.

WASHINGTON: It's a subject Americans can't stop discussing and one Pakistan hates talking about. The terrorist attack on the Pakistani military facility in Karachi has once again focused world (and Washington's) attention on the security of the country's fast-growing nuclear arsenal.
The Obama administration on Monday did not publicly go beyond "strongly" condemning the attack on Pakistan Naval Station (PNS) Mehran and appreciating the "service and sacrifices of their brave Armed Forces," but the incident has re-ignited the simmering debate about vulnerability of its nuclear weapons. US analysts noted that Mehran is only 15 miles away from the Masroor Air Base, where Pakistan is believed have a large depot for nuclear weapons that can be delivered from the air.
While Pakistan insists that its "crown jewels" are under foolproof security, at the heart of the debate is worry that they are vulnerable to internal pilferage or attack by a "jihadized" military, judging by multiple attacks on military facilities by terrorists who seemingly have the inside track on security, including in the Mehran strike.

NEW DELHI: Another glass ceiling has been broken in the Indian Army with a mother of two becoming the first woman jawan.
Outperforming her male counterparts in the physical tests, 35-year-old Sapper Shanti Tigga joined the 969 Railway Engineer Regiment of Territorial Army (TA).
"Women are allowed to join the armed forces only as officers in the non-combat units. But Tigga has earned a unique distinction of being the first lady jawan in the 1.3 million strong defence forces," a senior army officer said.
"She performed exceedingly well in all the physical tests. She took five seconds less than her male counterparts to complete 1.5 km run. She completed the 50 meter run in 12 seconds which is rated as excellent," he said.
Employed with the Indian Railways as points-man posted at Chalsa station in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district, Tigga volunteered for the TA last year.
"I joined Railways in 2005 on compensatory ground after my husband passed away.

WASHINGTON: Iran is unlikely to move toward building a nuclear weapon this year because it does not yet have the capability to produce enough weapon-grade uranium, a draft report by the Institute for Science and International Security said on Wednesday.
The report by the institute founded by nuclear expert David Albright offered a more temperate view of Iran's nuclear program than some of the heated rhetoric that has surfaced since the United States and its allies stepped up sanctions on Tehran.
"Iran is unlikely to decide to dash toward making nuclear weapons as long as its uranium enrichment capability remains as limited as it is today," the report said.
The United States and Iran are engaged in a war of words over sanctions, with Iran threatening to retaliate by blocking oil shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. The United States said it would not allow that to happen.
The escalating rhetoric and tensions have led to concerns about the potential for missteps between the adversaries that might spiral into a military confrontation that neither wants.

MUMBAI: The Naval examination paper leak case is turning to be murkier with the CBI arresting a senior Naval official for his alleged involvement in the racket and questioning him about the role of some more people within the command.

The CBI arrested Ramesh C Saini, a commander with INS Angre, here late last night and produced him today before a designated court which remanded him to CBI custody till October 13 for questioning about possible involvement of other Naval officials in the case.

Saini has been accused of leaking the question paper of the lower division clerk exam to the administrative officer in Western Naval Command and president of the examination board R C Naik.

"Saini and Naik, between the period of September 16 to 18, went to Pune to give question papers for printing to Atharva Consultancy and Allied Services printing press. During their stay, Saini had given Naik a copy of the paper and had also permitted him to take a copy of the paper in his pen drive," CBI DIG Pravin Salunkhe claimed before reporters here.

[THE HINDU] After completing 11 months of rigorous training at the prestigious Officers Traning Academy in St. Thomas Mount, 118 young men and women from different States joined the Indian Army after a passing out parade on Saturday morning. After an impeccable drill and march past at the famed Parameshwaran Drill Square, the young men and women, who till now were addressed as Gentlemen and Lady Cadets, walked past ‘The Final Step’, marking their induction into the Indian Army. After changing into their respective regiments’ uniform, the 92 men and 26 women took an oath, sang ‘Roshini’, the OTA song and the national anthem, before bursting into joy.