Sainik Samachar turns 100

Sainik Samachar, the journal of the Indian armed forces, will celebrate its centenary on Friday with the launch a coffee table book, Soldering On, which chronicles the history of the defence forces over the past 100 years. The book will be released by Defence Minister A K Antony.

The coffee table book, being brought out by the Directorate of Public Relations, is a compilation of articles published in the magazine in the last 100 years on the defining moments of the nation. The book will contain rare pictures taken by the Photo Division, under the Ministry, which have never been published in the past.

The journal started its journey as a 16-page Urdu weekly on January 2, 1909, to provide Army personnel “a summary of news with a military bias”. The English edition made its debut in 1923 and the publication reached its peak during World War II when an overseas edition was brought out from Cairo for the benefit of Indian troops deployed in far-off the atres and its circulation touched three lakh copies.

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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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