The Chanakaya Dialogues
The Chanakaya Dialogues Watch The Sessions
The run-up to the budget unveiling is invariably an open season for speculation and ‘requests’ by all the stakeholders of the economy for favourable treatment. This year was no different.…
Globally, countries are reeling with economic shocks. Comparatively, India has fared well with World Bank stating that the country is better positioned to manage global headwinds. In the defence and…
‘If the economic situation does not lead to its collapse, its militant groups will ensure prevention of its survival’ Part I of this essay emphasized on getting the background right,…
In keeping with the requirement to enhance the Indian Navy’s (IN) maritime intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) capabilities, the Indian Armed Forces’ Technology Perspective & Capability Roadmap, a…
Pakistan has for long, been heading towards a situation where it could be perceived as a failed state, or at least a state under immense strain. Everything that goes into…
As India Celebrates 75 years of Independence and commemorates the freedom struggle by the Indian citizens against the British Empire, the role of British Indian forces to preserve the British…
On January 18, 2023, Chinese President Xi Jinping held a video conversation with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops. He inspected the combat readiness of the troops stationed at Kunjirap…
“Mountains are the acid test of logistics- the ability of Armies to provide sustenance and maintain warfighting potential is nowhere more tenuous” - By the Author…
Two countries of the subcontinent gained independence seventy-five years ago, soon to be mired in bloodbath of partition and struggle to rise from poverty, illiteracy and many issues of social…
India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi will attend the Combined Commanders’ Conference in Karwar in March 2023. Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen Anil Chauhan will also be present. It is…
International Affairs
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Protests in China – Xi Under Pressure
By Dr Tara Kartha
Pakistan : The Laadla and His Rebellion
By Lt Gen Raj Shukla
China’s Possible Annexation of Taiwan: A Trade and Strategic Analysis
By Akshit Ramanathan
The General’s Desk
Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (R) 
Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (R)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
OP-ED
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President Biden, Please Transit from the 20th to the 21st Century
By Prof Madhav Das Nalapat
-
India is Only Aligned to its National Interest
By Kanwal Sibal
-
Xi Jinping’s Record Promotion of Generals – Loyalty or Insecurity?
By Vikram Sood and Shantanu Roy-Chaudhury
-
Amar Jawan Jyoti – Needless Controversy
By Kanwal Sibal
Cockpit Conversation
Cdr Sandeep Dhawan
Cdr Sandeep Dhawan
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
Policy & governance
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An Internal Security Challenge Brewing in the Northeast
A class 12 student from Manipur needed money for an outing with his friends, so he decided to approach a woman who had offered him Rs 1000 per “soap case” if he smuggled it successfully from Myanmar. With his Myanmarese acquaintance he managed to smuggle about 50 su
By Levina
Minimizing Casualties on Indo-Bangladesh Borders
India shares over 15000 Km of borders with its seven neighbours. The circumstances leading upto independence and partition gave rise to many new borders and ever since then India has been facing serious security challenges from many of its neighbours viz China in the No
By Sanjiv Krishan Sood
India as an Emerging World Power: Vision 2047
As India celebrates its 75 years of independence, there is a realization that much has been achieved since 1947. Today India can boast of being the fifth largest economy of the world having made giant strides in industrialization, infrastructure development and military
By Maj Gen (Dr) Rajan Kochhar (Retd)
Revisiting India’s Intelligence Architecture
“A Government that has an intelligence system that ensures a surprise does not become a surprise will be successful in securing its people and the nation”: Vikram Sood, Former R&AW Chief in Unending Game Gone are the days of historic world war, when the espio
By Srijan Sharma
Weapons platform
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Hybrid UAVs: The Advent of Responsive Combat Capability
Sometime in April 2022, TechEagle, a private start-up firm involved in drone-based logistics, launched the ‘Vertiplane-X3’, claimed to be the fastest hybrid e-VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) indigenous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The firm claims that the Ver
By Brig Arvind Dhananjayan (Retd)
‘Cis-Lunar’ Space: The New Military Battleground!
“There is no battle arena that favours mobility, strategic brilliance and lethality more than Space!” - By the Author Mankind, has, till very recently, looked at the spheroidal area of near-earth space as an altitude-band for satellites with military and civi
By Brig Arvind Dhananjayan (Retd)
India’s MRFA Program: Seeking To Conquer The Skies!
The looming spectre of a collusive, two-front war with China and Pakistan, has necessitated the Indian Armed Forces to plan and carry out quantitative/qualitative right-sizing of their equipment profile to meet this existential threat. This would imply possessing the wh
By Brig Arvind Dhananjayan (Retd)
India’s Ballistic Missile Interceptors!
India’s Nuclear Policy of ‘No First Use’ behoves that the Nation is prepared to absorb a first strike and still retain capabilities for similar retaliation. Retaining such ‘second-strike’ capability will necessitate that India deploys an effective missile-defe
By Brig Arvind Dhananjayan (Retd)
Defence & Strategy
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Insurgents of Northeast – Between Devil and Deep Sea
India’s northeast is undergoing a colossal change! The region is witnessing massive infrastructure development to improve connectivity as it is hard to reach swathes of forests. This is being done not just to facilitate the blossoming tourism of the region but also
By Levina
Ex-‘Veer Guardian-2023’: A Strategic Boost to Indo Japanese Defence Cooperation
The joint air exercise “Veer Guardian-2023” between the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Japan Air Self Defence Force (JASDF) has commenced in Japan and is scheduled to take place from January 12 to January 26, 2023, to foster international cooperation in air operations.[
By Prof (Dr) DK Pandey
Sino-Indian War: Are We Prepared?
As they say ‘War’ is never a solution to a problem as it is a barbaric activity which only results in loss of lives and property/land. Both the parties persecuting war end up with massive economic and social losses as rightly said by John SC Abbott, “War is a scie
By Maj Gen (Dr) Rajan Kochhar (Retd)
Shahed-136: Challenging the Air Defence Systems
Iran has denied selling drones to Russia, but images making the rounds on social media confirm that Russian forces have attacked Ukrainian cities using Shahed-136 suicide drones made in Iran. The Shahed-136 delta-wing Kamikaze drones can be operational in less than 10 m
By Prof (Dr) DK Pandey
Shahed-136: Challenging the Air Defence Systems
Iran has denied selling drones to Russia, but images making the rounds on social media confirm that Russian forces have attacked Ukrainian cities using Shahed-136 suicide drones made in Iran. The Shahed-136 delta-wing Kamikaze drones can be operational in less than 10 m
By Prof (Dr) DK Pandey
Chinese Port In Myanmar – Threat To India
China has found the shortest possible entry into Indian Ocean to circumvent the traps laid by QUAD. India’s eastern belligerent neighbour China has expedited its work in the Kyaukpyu dual purpose port. This port may soon bear the footprint of Chinese Navy which could
By Levina
Why the Victory of 1971 Must Remain a Psychological Landmark
In India the mention of ‘1971’, in a gathering or individually, evokes elative sentiments of victory. Having defeated Pakistan comprehensively on the battlefield, attained both the political and military objectives in 14 days and created a new nation (Bangladesh), I
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
The Yangtse Standoff : With or Against the Run of Play
One of the highlights of the ongoing FIFA World Cup in Qatar are some of the results against the run of play. A perfectly balanced game suddenly goes in favour of a side willing to show a brief spurt of energy and activity. The situation at the Line of Actual Control (L
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
India Beware Of Copycat Chinese Air Force
In China, ‘Shanzhai’ today means imitation products that originally meant mountain stronghold. This word was originally associated with pirate factories producing duplicate products. Who knew one day, China would be copying and stealing just about everything and be
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
Russia-Ukraine Conflict: Using Winter as A Weapon of War
The Russian-Ukraine Conflict (RUC) has completed nine months and heads into its tenth month. The Ukrainian Army is on the offensive, but Ukraine still has a long way to go to regain lost regions. Moscow's forces do control about one-fifth of its territory, and the comin
By Prof (Dr) DK Pandey
Protests in China – Xi Under Pressure
It’s all quite unheard of. Well, nearly. Protests spread across China into 14 provinces, lit by the governments ‘Zero Covid’ policy. At least so it seems. There’s a lot to anger the Chinese people these days, and it could be that the pandemic restrictions were t
By Dr Tara Kartha
India Needs A Military Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Revolution
It is Balakot 2.0 kind of night, with a different target and different platform. It would be remembered as Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) night. A swarm of decoy UAVs took off from a secret location in north India and crossed to Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK). Following
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
An Internal Security Challenge Brewing in the Northeast
A class 12 student from Manipur needed money for an outing with his friends, so he decided to approach a woman who had offered him Rs 1000 per “soap case” if he smuggled it successfully from Myanmar. With his Myanmarese acquaintance he managed to smuggle about 50 su
By Levina
A New Pakistan Army Chief : The World and India Remain Wary
Apprehension about a change in command of the Pakistan Army has been rife for fairly long. Although everything about Pakistan remains unpredictable, the announcement of the appointment of Lt Gen Asim Munir as the next Pakistan Army Chief to succeed General Qamar Bajwa
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
How the Practice of Illegal Terror Financial Networks Functions in a Proxy War Zone?
Three fascinating events relating to counter terrorism took place in quick succession over the last eight weeks. First was the meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) which took Pakistan off the grey list and classified it white. The world’s response to this
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
Is “Nuclear-Attack Threat” an Effective Weapon?
Vladimir Putin and many other Russian officials, politicians, and pro-Russia analysts have repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war. Particularly following the commencement of the Russia-Ukraine Conflict on February 24,
By Prof (Dr) DK Pandey
New Pakistan Army Chief – Mystery Deepens
Pakistan and whole world are waiting for nomination of the next Army Chief. General Qamar Javed Bajwa is due to retire after his extended tenure of six years on 28 November 2022. Pakistan PM, Shahbaz Sharif rushed to London with his Defence Minister, Khwaja Muhammad Asi
By Lt Gen K J Singh (Retd)
Chinese Navy’s Advancements: Challenge Or Opportunity For India
The Chinese digital news outlet ‘The Paper’, recently published details of China State Shipbuilding Corporation’s display of a large number of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), unmanned surface vessels (USVs), and underwater gliders at the Zhuhai air show. Thes
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
The Strategic Ladakh Range
Something extraordinary happened south of Pangong Tso (lake) in the night of August 29, 2020; the ‘Special Frontier Force’ (SFF), also known as Establishment 22 or Vikas Regiment occupied the heights of the Kailash Range. Lt Gen Vinod Bhatia, a former Director Ge
By Claude Arpi
Rising Rivalry in the Indian Ocean
As two major emerging powers, India and China are maritime-oriented nation-states. New Delhi and Beijing have a unique set of vested interests in the Indian Ocean region (IOR). Geostrategic supremacy in this area is deemed to be a highly profitable national venture on t
By Jay Maniyar
Deciphering Military Signals Emanating from China’s 20th Party Congress
There has been the usual high symbolism and loaded political rhetoric of Chinese leadership that was witnessed during the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. Comrade Xi Jinping’s thoughts on socialism with Chinese character in new era to make China
By Lt Gen Rameshwar Yadav (Retd)
Minimizing Casualties on Indo-Bangladesh Borders
India shares over 15000 Km of borders with its seven neighbours. The circumstances leading upto independence and partition gave rise to many new borders and ever since then India has been facing serious security challenges from many of its neighbours viz China in the No
By Sanjiv Krishan Sood
Teenage Terrorists of PLA in Manipur and the China Angle
Teenagers in Manipur are on the edge of a precipice ready to be pushed into a very frightening abyss. The proscribed terrorist groups like PLA are now following a strategy very similar to the one executed by ISI backed terrorist groups in Kashmir. Reports suggest tha
By Levina
Where is the Henderson-Brooks-Bhagat Report?
Sixty years ago, traumatic events took place on the Northern borders of India; undoubtedly, the Sino-Indian conflict in October/November 1962 is an episode which marked the Indian psyche. Though many facets of what happened in October 1962 have already been discussed
By Claude Arpi
Are Paradigms of Indo-US Relations Changing?
Little did the world expect that the war in Ukraine would become such a spoiler of global geopolitics that many emerging and well-established international relationships would get challenged. The conflict’s geostrategic location, players, links, economic impact and sc
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
A Reminder for India : 13 October was International Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Day
CHANAKYA FORUM IS COMMITTED TO EXECUTE REQUISITE RESPONSIBILITIES FOR REDUCTION OF DISASTER RISK AND ENHANCEMENT OF DISASTER MANAGEMENT CULTURE, FOR THE SAKE OF HUMANITY. Headlines in the media inform us every day of the new phenomenon of October rains in North India a
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
American Deep State Out to Sabotage India-USA Relationship?
Recently the US embassy in Islamabad went on a social media overdrive. In a series of tweets over three days, they highlighted the US ambassador to Pakistan, Donald Blome’s 2-4 October visit to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). This was the second high-profile visit by
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
A Guerilla Victory At Umberkhind!
Screenshot Portraying The Battle of Umberkhind: Source-inmarathi.com “The conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerrilla wins if he does not lose”.
By Brig Arvind Dhananjayan (Retd)
Intricacies of Military Aircraft Maintenance Repair and Overhaul: Challenges and Opportunities for Industry
Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) is a major activity in the life span of an aircraft and its cost as well as time for overhaul is significant for the operations of aircraft. The activity is complex, equally important, but substantially different than manufacturing.
By Air Vice Marshal Samir Borade, VSM (Retd)
Coronation Of Emperor Xi and The World Thereafter
A few days ago, news about Chinese President Xi Jinping's arrest took social media by storm. The rumour was that Xi, who is the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), on return from the Shangha
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
Emerging Challenges on Western Front
Western Command, the pivotal command on Western front celebrated, platinum jubilee, on 15 September. It is opportune time to look beyond nostalgia and ceremonials, to take stock of operational dynamics and emerging challenges, on the Western Front. The review is also
By Lt Gen K J Singh (Retd)
China is Coming For Your Land: Farmland
Drought has plunged water levels to the lowest in China in decades. The temperatures have also soared to record levels, and hydropower plants failed to meet the sharp rise in power demand. However, this is just a glimpse of the worst things to come. Floods, droughts, an
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
‘The Pashtuns: A Contested History’
Pashtunistan - the land of the Pashtuns- straddling an area of more than 100,000 square miles, historically stretches from the Indus to the Hindu Kush. Today, this land and its people stand divided by the British era controversial Durand Line into Afghanistan and Pakist
By Tilak Devasher
The World Is Not Enough
From time immemorial, survival of the self and the tribe, at any cost, has been the foremost pursuit of mankind, and trade has been used immensely to achieve this. One of man’s first acts of trade was to obtain rare metals and raw materials to build his tribe’s arse
By Akshit Ramanathan
The General’s Desk
Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (R)
Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (R)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
OP-ED
-
President Biden, Please Transit from the 20th to the 21st Century
By Prof Madhav Das Nalapat
-
India is Only Aligned to its National Interest
By Kanwal Sibal
-
Xi Jinping’s Record Promotion of Generals – Loyalty or Insecurity?
By Vikram Sood and Shantanu Roy-Chaudhury
-
Amar Jawan Jyoti – Needless Controversy
By Kanwal Sibal
Weapons Platform
Brig Arvind Dhananjayan (Retd)
Brig Arvind Dhananjayan (Retd)
By Brig Arvind Dhananjayan (Retd)
By Brig Arvind Dhananjayan (Retd)
By Brig Arvind Dhananjayan (Retd)
By Brig Arvind Dhananjayan (Retd)
By Brig Arvind Dhananjayan (Retd)
Cockpit Conversation
Cdr Sandeep Dhawan
Cdr Sandeep Dhawan
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
