Lt Gen Ashok Bhim Shivane

The author, a PVSM, AVSM, VSM has had an illustrious career spanning nearly four decades. A distinguished Armoured Corps officer, he has served in various prestigious staff and command appointments including Commander Independent Armoured Brigade, ADG PP, GOC Armoured Division and GOC Strike 1. The officer retired as DG Mechanised Forces in December 2017 during which he was the architect to initiate process for reintroduction of Light Tank and Chairman on the study on C5ISR for Indian Army. Subsequently he was Consultant MoD/OFB from 2018 to 2020. He is also a reputed defence analyst, a motivational speaker and prolific writer on matters of military, defence technology and national security. The views expressed are personal and do not necessarily carry the views of Raksha Anirveda

From Industrial AI to Military Power: Why India’s Defence Ecosystem Needs Structural Integration

India’s AI debate has been framed largely around digital services and start-up innovation. That focus obscures a more consequential question: whether AI can reorganise the country’s defence ecosystem at an industrial level. For a...

Mosque Bombing in Islamabad and the Strategic Blowback for Pakistan

The suicide attack at the Khadija-tul Kubra Mosque in Islamabad is not just another terrorist incident in Pakistan’s troubled history. When a sectarian strike hits the federal capital and is claimed by an Islamic...

India-EU Free Trade Agreement: A Strategic Imperative in a Fractured Global Order

The India-European Union Free Trade Agreement marks a decisive moment in India’s foreign policy and economic strategy. It marks a strategic partnership and a landmark agreement seeking stability in a volatile world. Its significance...

When War Can Silence Without Firing a Shot, Is India Listening Closely Enough?

Every generation of warfare announces itself quietly before it explodes into history. The tank did not arrive suddenly in the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Air power was theorised long before it pulverised...

Defence Budget 2026: Capability, Credibility and the Cost of Preparedness

Defence budgeting is not an annual financial ritual. It is a strategic signal. It communicates national intent to adversaries, reassurance to citizens and direction to the armed forces. The Defence Budget 2026, presented at...

Oil, Sanctions, and Power: How Energy Became the Sharpest Weapon of War

For most of history, war was decided on battlefields. Armies marched on muscle and discipline. Fleets sailed on wind before they sailed on fuel. Oil mattered, but it was rarely spoken of as a...

India’s Defence Modernisation: Momentum, Fragility, and the Battle for Future Deterrence

For decades, India’s military posture along both active borders relied on manpower, grit, and the comfort of legacy doctrines. The Army lived in a world defined by defensive culture, siloed compartments and reactive mindsets....

Iran at the Edge of its Patience

The pressures Iran faces today did not appear overnight. They represent the accumulated weight of long-standing structural weaknesses that have persisted alongside constant external pressures. The roots of the present situation lie in three...

Forging India’s Battle-Winning Edge

The Indian Army’s decision to designate 2026 as the Year of Networking & Data Centricity marks a decisive inflexion point in its journey from a platform-heavy force to a truly information-age army. Anchored in the...

Bangladesh at a Breaking Point: Islamist Mobilisation, State Drift, and the Regional Threat

A Drifting Bangladesh: The unrest that spilled onto Bangladesh’s streets in December should not be mistaken for a passing diplomatic spat. That description understates what actually occurred. The targeting of Indian diplomatic missions, the explicit...

Is Pakistan’s Drone Confession a Live Fuse for South Asian Peace?

The latest admission by Pakistan during the failed talks in Turkiye, that it has a secret agreement with a ‘foreign country’ allowing drone strikes on Afghanistan, should raise alarms far beyond the immediate border...

Budapest Summit Cancelled: Can Diplomacy Survive Its Own Paralysis?

The cancelled summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Budapest has since become synonymous with something bigger in its failure to maintain diplomacy in a world that now appears at ease, trading threats...

Asim Munir’s Speech: A Masterclass in Bluff and Frustration

Field Marshal Munir’s address at the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul was not a strategy, it was a cry for relevance. A general speaking not to India but to a fractured institution that has...
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