General

A women and children Help desk in each Police Station:An Idea whose time has come

by Nitin A Gokhale

29 Dec/12

General

Note: We often tend to think that civil servants are an insensitive lot, unable to emphatise with the plight of the ordinary citizen. There are of course always exceptions to the rule. SB Agnihotri, an IAS officer currently working with the defence ministry, has specialised in women and child development…

Triumph and tragedy of an Air Force cadet

by Nitin A Gokhale

1 Comment

22 Dec/12

General, NDTV

Its a case that highlights tragedy as well as triumph. Tragic because a young man will have to spend rest of his life bound to a wheel chair following an accident. Triumph because of the exceptional willpower shown by the young man. In an unprecedented decision, the Defence…

India-Sri Lanka Defence ties: An appraisal

by Nitin A Gokhale

No Comments

18 Dec/12

General, NDTV

As Indian Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh lands in Colombo later today, he is certain to hear from his hosts about many unfufilled aspects of Indo-Sri Lanka Defence Cooperation. One of the unfinished agendas between India and Sri Lanka is a formal Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA), in discussion between the…

Fufilling a sacred contract with the soldier

by Nitin A Gokhale

3 Comments

16 Dec/12

General

The Ministry of Defence will soon invite international bids for constructing a National War Memorial at India Gate following the allocation of Rs 100 crore in the budget for 2014-15 presented to the Parliament on Thursday. Although a basic design and concept for the proposed memorial is available with…

Looking back on IPKF, a quarter century on

by Nitin A Gokhale

4 Comments

06 Dec/12

General

Half a century ago, the 7th Infantry Brigade of the Indian Army earned the dubious distinction of disintegrating in less than a week against a better-prepared and numerically superior Chinese forces in the Kameng sector of NEFA, now Arunachal Pradesh. Brig. John Dalvi’s landmark book Himalayan Blunder has recorded in detail…