Book by BestCurrentAffairs.com for IAS Prelims 2020
DEFENCE
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A Department of Defence Production was set up in 1962 to deal with research, development and production of defence equipment. A Department of Defence Supplies was created in 1965 for planning and execution of schemes for import substitution of defence requirements. These two departments were later merged to form the Department of Defence Production and Supplies. In 2004, the name of Department of Defence Production and Supplies was changed to Department of Defence Production. In 1980, the Department of Defence Research and Development was created while the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare was formed in 2004. The Raksha Mantri (Defence Minister) is the head of the Ministry of Defence. A post of Chief of Defence Staff was created in 2019. The 4th BIMSTEC Summit, held in Kathmandu in 2018.The Kathmandu Declaration provides vision and leaders’ directions for intensifying regional cooperation. India launched an Information Fusion Centre-Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) in Gurugram in 2018. India continues to play a role in training and supporting capacity building of the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF) as a part of larger developmental cooperation assistance. India continues to assist Maldives National Defence Forces in their capability and capacity building. Bilateral exercises between the Army (Ekuverin), Navy (Ekatha) and Coast Guard (Dosti) of the two countries take place on an annual basis. The 13th edition of India Nepal Joint Military Exercise ‘Surya Kiran’ was held in 2018. The armies of India and Sri Lanka held their sixth annual ‘Mitra Shakti’ military exercise. The country’s new Indian Ocean Policy was articulated by Prime Minister during his visit to Mauritius in March 2015. The policy, encapsulated in SAGAR (meaning ocean) which stands for “Security and Growth for All in the Region”. West Asia is home to nearly nine million Indians who remit about 60 per cent (US$ 39 billion) of the total of approximately US$ 62 billion foreign remittances. Indo-US partnership is on a positive trajectory with India been designated ‘Major Defence Partner’ in National Defence Authorization Act (NDAA-17) and has been upgraded to Strategic Authorisation Act-1 Status (STA-1) equating India at par with the closest allies of US. India has formalized frameworks of Defence cooperation with South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Mauritius, Seychelles and Madagascar. In our federal structure, the primary responsibility for ‘Public Order’ and ‘Policing’ rests with the state governments. However, the central government is steadfastly assisting the states in dealing with problems such as terrorism, militancy, insurgency and extremism. Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff (HQIDS) was raised in 2001 based on the recommendations of Group of Ministers to review Higher Defence Management. Under the aegis of Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee, the organisation has been working towards achievement of synergy amongst the Services. HQ IDS is headed by the Chief of Integrated Defence Staff to the Chairman COSC(CISC) who enjoys a status equivalent to that of a Vice Chief of a Service HQ. The organization has representation from all three Services, MEA, DRDO, DoD and Def (Finance). Currently, four UN Peace Keeping missions’ contingents of India are deployed around the world. Since 1950, Indian Army has participated in 51 UN missions out of the total of 71 UN missions, across the globe. It has contributed more than 2,34,000 Indian troops in various UN missions. The most significant contribution of the Indian Army has been to ensure peace and stability in Africa and parts of Asia. India has so far provided 15 Force Commanders in various UN missions. India has a well established training institute in ‘Centre for United Nations Peacekeeping’ in Delhi, which was established in 2000, training both personnel from India and abroad on UN peacekeeping. Operation Sadbhavna has provided succour to a large section of population in in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Launched in an extremely challenging operation environment, the Operation is a part of the Counter Terrorist strategy to wrest the initiative and re-integrate the ‘Awaam’ with the national mainstream. In 2018, Indian Navy (IN) shifted from the ‘Escort Cycle’ concept, to a concept of ‘Free Patrol’. The ‘Free Patrol’ in the Gulf of Aden (GoA) provided greater flexibility to the IN ship to respond to developing situations for anti-piracy mission. ‘Op Madad’ was conducted to provide SAR and relief assistance in the flood affected areas of Kerala. The Defence Procurement Procedure, 2016 assigned highest preference to ‘Make’ and Buy (IndianIndigenously Designed and Developed Manufacturer (IDDM)) categories. LCA Mk-1A, Light Combat Helicopter (LCH), AWACS (India) and High Frequency Radio set are some of the cases being progressed through the IDDM route. IAF has established pan IAF captive 3 G WCDMA Mobile Network AFCEL. Avani Chaturvedi, Bhawana Kanth and Mohana Singh created history in 2016 by becoming the first women pilots to be commissioned into the fighter stream. These women pilots, now Flying Officers, have been posted to MiG-2 Bison and Hawk units as Sqn Pilots on successful completion of their fighter flying training.
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In 1955, the Commanders-in-Chief were renamed as the Chief of the Army Staff, the Chief of the Naval Staff and the Chief of the Air Staff.
India Year Book 2020 Synopsis
[BestCurrentAffairs.com]
Page No.32
