One FIR, Government blacklists 7 firms, hits artillery upgrade

Having already taken a knocking with the controversies involving Bofors and Denel, India’s artillery modernisation programme hit another roadblock when the Ministry of Defence, taking note of bribery allegations in a fresh case, blacklisted seven firms, including gun manufacturer Singapore Technologies (ST) and munitions giant Israeli Military Industries (IMI) until further notice.

With all dealings with the two firms put on hold, defence contracts worth over Rs 6,000 crore — all involving artillery guns and ammunition for the Army — are now in deep freeze.

Confirming a report in The Indian Express, the Ministry of Defence said “all acquisition cases in the pipeline” with seven firms have been “put on hold” after their names figured in a CBI probe into corruption charges against former Director General of Ordnance Factory Board Sudipta Ghosh.

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Army told to wait for Made-in-India night vision devices, Pakistan has the latest from United States

By the looks of it, the Army has an impressive Infantry, the second largest in the world, backed by a solid armoured thrust of over 3,000 tanks that can overwhelm the western front. But as soon as the sun goes down, the Army gets affected by a deadly case of night blindness.

For all practical purposes, the Army is fighting blind at night. Its soldiers face a glaring shortage of night vision devices, the ones in service are a generation behind what Pakistan already has and only 10 per cent of its tanks have a proven night-fighting capability.

In a modern scenario where most battles are fought under the cover of darkness, the inability to even see the enemy is crippling the war capabilities of the Army. While the top leadership is acutely aware of the shortcoming, efforts to procure new night vision devices for soldiers has been stuck in a tussle between the Army and the Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).

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Army brass defied Government on pay hike by citing ‘larger interest of the services’

The armed forces have agreed to implement revised pay scales and arrears from October 1 but in a highly controversial move last Friday, the Army top brass, taking a cue from the Navy, cited “the larger interests of the services” to justify their defiance and “delay” in implementing revised salaries.

The Army signal was sent the day Defence Minister A K Antony talked tough with the three Services chiefs and told them in very clear terms to implement the Cabinet decision on the Sixth Pay Commission report.

Top sources confirmed to The Indian Express that via a signal on September 26 — two days after Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta signalled his men — Lt Gen V K Chaturvedi, Director General, Manpower Planning, under the Adjutant General of Army, informed “all ranks up to unit level” that the revised pay scales were delayed. The signal, being kept under wraps, was sent to Headquarters/Commands and Corps of the 1.1 million-strong Army.

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