SBI launches defence salary package for Indian Air Force

BUSINESS STANDARD

 

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/sbi-launches-defence-salary-package-for-indian-air-force/91487/on

The State Bank of India (SBI) today launched a defence salary package for the Indian Air Force with an array of concessional services such as zero balance accounts, interest rate concessions on loans, preferential allotment of lockers and free mobile banking.

"I recommit that SBI would serve the very best we can," SBI chairman O P Bhatt said at the launch of the product here.

The package includes free drafts and free cheque books and provides for free funds transfers to any of the State Bank Group's network of almost 16,000 branches or any other bank in India, besides free ATM cards and other features.

SBI further said that it plans to add 5,000 ATMs to its existing count of 20,000, which will benefit more than one lakh Air Force personnel, as the bank intends to establish a large number of ATMs to serve Air Force formations.

The package enables Air Force personnel to open zero balance accounts with an unique lifetime account number, valid even after retirement, and offers free mobile banking services, preferential allotment of lockers and interest rate concessions on home, car and personal loans, among others.

"The bank's network of business correspondents appointed in unbanked rural areas will also be available for the basic banking requirement of the Air Force personnel and their families," SBI said.

Speaking on the occasion, Air Chief Marshal P V Naik said, "I hope SBI would meet the expectations of defence personnel," adding that he would urge the SBI chairman to translate it into a reality at the earliest.

A similar package was announced for Army and Navy personnel earlier.

Safeguard yourself from credit card frauds

In recent times, there have been a spate of news items revealing a credit card fraud. In one such item, two youngsters were caught duping credit card holders by offering them new credit cards with higher credit limits by trading in their old credit cards. The youngsters then used the old cards to make their purchases, mostly electronics. This is how they laid the plot. 

They would call up credit card holders representing themselves as employees of the credit card company. They would inform these clueless customers about a new scheme about new credit cards with greater purchase limits in exchange of old ones. Then they would also inform customers that the company's representative would soon visit them with the new card, which would be activated as soon as they filled in a form! 

This news only reinstates the importance of being a vigilant customer and using credit cards with utmost prudence. Here are a few things one can do:

1. If you lose your credit card, it is necessary to inform your credit card company immediately. This will enable the card issuer to freeze the card with immediate effect and prevent any purchases on the card. The important thing for you is that your liability is limited once you inform the credit card issuer. 

2. Destroy your old card completely before you begin using your new card. This is important even if your old card has expired or you are upgrading your card.

3. Keep your card in a safe place and do not allow other people to handle it. 

4. Be prudent about signing up for new offers. Double-check the genuineness of the scheme. A simple way to verify genuineness of any scheme is to call up the credit card company and inquiring with them.

5. Change your PIN at regular intervals. Do not use obvious PIN like birth dates.

6. Inform your credit card company immediately if you do not receive your monthly credit statement. It could be a case of identity theft where the fraudster has changed your billing address. 

7. Use chip based credit cards. These cards offer better security than credit cards with black magnetic stripes. This is because in a chip based card, all information is stored in the small chip in encrypted format and it also uses a PIN. This makes changing or copying this data extremely difficult. 

8. So, the chance of data being misused while swiping the card is very remote. It is the highest level of security that credit card companies can offer at present. Citibank and Kotak Mahindra issue chip based cards to select high range customers. Axis bank's VISA Platinum card is also chip-based. HDFC Bank also has begun issuing these cards.

9. Be careful while shopping online. This is because you are required to give the CVV number for making purchases over the Internet. For this, be sure you shop only from secure websites. Ensure that the website is certified by VeriSign. Look for a yellow lock on the bottom right hand corner of the screen.

10. If you have a large credit limit on your card and use it frequently for several purchases including online and telephone purchases, it is a good idea to get your card insured. You cannot prevent credit card fraud but at least minimize its impact on your financial stability! You can protect yourself from fraudulent charges on your card up to 12 hours before reporting the loss to the credit card issuer.

http://in.finance.yahoo.com/personal-finance/loans_basics/75/safeguard-yourself-from-credit-card-frauds/

Shortage of 2000 CPMF Officers..

As per a popular website there is a shortage of around 2000 CPMF offrs. I feel defence Offrs with good track record who are unable to make it to next grade due to organisational structure of armed forces should be allowed to join to meet this shortage. It will be a happy situation for all.

Awards.....

PIB 

http://www.pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=60187

President, Smt Pratibha Devisingh Patil conferred two Kirti Chakras and twenty five Shaurya Chakras to Armed Forces Personnel for displaying conspicuous gallantry, indomitable courage and extreme devotion to duty at a solemn ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi today.

            The President also conferred fifteen Param Vishisht Seva Medals, two Uttam Yudh Seva Medals, one Bar to Ati Vishisht Seva Medal and twenty six Ati Vishisht Seva Medals to senior officers of the Armed Forces for distinguished service of an exceptional order. The following is the list of awardees:-

GALLANTRY AWARDS

KIRTI CHAKRA

1.      IC-59630 Maj Amit Oscar Fernandes  

2.      IC-61390 Maj Suresh Suri (Posthumous)

SHAURYA CHAKRA

1.    GS-173875N Operator Excavating Machinery Grade – II Satish Kumar

2.    26696 Sqn Ldr Harkirat Singh

3.    IC-64795 Maj Ankur Garg

4.    IC-62248 Maj Saurabh Dutt Kholia

5.    15330627 Lance Naik Sujith Babu V (Posthumous)

6.    IC-57104 Maj Dinesh Singh Parmar

7.    IC-63089 Maj Subramaniam Anand

8.    25871 Sqn Ldr Tarun Kumar Chaudhry

9.    776951 Sgt Mustafa Ali (Posthumous)

10.  GS-171792-K Operator Excavating Machinery Pritam Chand (Posthumous)

11.  GS-173772-P Driver Mechanical Transport Grade – II Piar Chand (Posthumous)

12.  9107449 Rifleman Mohd Abdul Amieen Bhat (Posthumous)

13.  IC-70145 Lt Satbir Singh (Posthumous)

14.  13625790 Naik Manoj Singh (Posthumous)

15.  2795178 Sepoy Hanmant Mahadeo Yevale

16.  13622147 Hav Vipan Thakur (Posthumous)

17.  SS-39651 Maj Ajay Singh

18.  JC-74651 Naib Subedar Ganesh Nath

19.  IC-61038 Maj Harmeet Singh Samra

20.  G/114735 Hav Thangjalet (Posthumous)

21.  IC-59470 Maj Manoj Aruparayil Pothen

22.  4478544 Lance Naik Davinder Singh

23.  IC-63580 Capt Mudassar Iqbal

24.  IC-69343 Capt Anoop Pandey

25.  120351-A POWTR CD III Chandra Sekhar (Posthumous)

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARDS

PARAM VISHISHT SEVA MEDAL

1.      IC-24198 Lt Gen Chanroth Kunnumal Suchindra Sabu

2.      01248-K Vice Admiral Sanjeev Bhasin

3.      12939 Air Marshal Venkatraman Ramamurthy Iyer

4.      13472 Air Marshal Pramod Vasant Athawale

5.      MR-03364 Lt Gen Naresh Kumar Parmar

6.      IC-24219 Lt Gen Ajay Kumar Singh Chandele

7.      IC-25053 Lt Gen Dalip Bhardwaj

8.      IC-25064 Lt Gen Shreedharan Shyam Kumar

9.      IC-25126 Lt Gen Rajinder Singh Sujlana

10.  IC-24706 Lt Gen Kammula Ramachandra Rao

11.  IC-25213 Lt Gen Mukesh Sabharwal

12.  IC-25469 Lt Gen Karan Singh Yadava

13.  IC-23689 Lt Gen (Retd) Narinder Singh Brar

14.  IC-29915 Lt Gen (Retd) Vinod Chopra

15.  12833 Air Marshal (Retd) Keshava Murthy Rama Sundara

UTTAM YUDH SEVA MEDAL

1.      IC-25538 Lt Gen Rabindran Krishna Swamy

2.      IC-25816 Lt Gen Bikram Singh

BAR TO ATI VISHISHT SEVA MEDAL

3.      IC-25457 Lt Gen Vijay Kumar Ahluwalia

ATI VISHISHT SEVA MEDAL

1.      IC-24654 Lt Gen Tejinder Singh

2.      IC-27146 Lt Gen Uma Shankar Prasad Sinha

3.      IC-25141 Lt Gen Deepak Raj

4.      IC-25442 Lt Gen Swatantarta Nand Handa

5.      IC-25056 Lt Gen Inderjit Singh

6.      IC-25815 Lt Gen Gurdeep Singh

7.      IC-27325 Lt Gen Rajesh Kochhar

8.      V-00330 Lt Gen Jai Krishan Srivastava

9.      02373-T Vice Admiral Paras Nath

10.  01701-R Vice Admiral Pradip Kumar Chatterjee

11.  01773-D Vice Admiral Anurag Gopalan Thapliyal

12.  13606 Air Marshal Simhakutty Varthaman

13.  IC-25280 Maj Gen Ashok Vasudeo Taskar

14.  IC-30052 Maj Gen Brijinder Singh Daulta

15.  IC-30076 Maj Gen Sathish Chandra Nair

16.  IC-30137 Maj Gen Sukhraj Pal Kochhar

17.  IC-30389 Maj Gen Sanjiv Chachra

18.  IC-30571 Maj Gen Rajeev Datt

19.  IC-33450 Maj Gen Darshan Lal Chowdhary

20.  IC-30687 Maj Gen Sanjiv Langer

21.  01660-Y Rear Adm Chander Shekhar Patham

22.  13508 Air Vice Marshal Dinesh Mukundan

23.  14446 Air Vice Marshal Anil Kumar Behl

24.  15327 Air Vice Marshal Ajit Shankarrao Bhonsle

25.  13487 Air Vice Marshal Salem Sunder Ram Gunashekar

26.  15220 Air Cmde Kulwant Singh Gill

Prime Minister Shri Manmohan Singh, Defence Minsiter Shri AK Antony, Minister of State for Defence Shri MM Pallam Raju, Marshal of the Air Force Arjun Singh, three Service Chiefs and several other senior civil and military officials were present on the occasion.

I FEEL THIS.... ON RECRUITMENT OF EX-SERVICEMEN

There is a proposal to recruit ex-servicemen for the training of CPMF on contractual basis. In my personal opinion the govt should instead permit lateral movement of army men into CPMF with full service benefits. I feel the govt should permit lateral movement into CPMF this will save thousand of crore rupees which they are spending on training of CPMF and will also provide much needed stability to soldiers. 

Don't send in the Army but learn from them

INDIA TODAY 

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/91859/India/Opinion:+Don

I WONDER : ARMY SHOULD COMMENT OR OFFER HELP ONLY WHEN THEY ARE ASKED. FREE ADVISES ARE NOT REQUIRED. I STILL REMEMBER AN OLD STORY WHERE A BIRD TRIES TO ADVISE A MONKEY ON BUILDING A NEST/HOME TO STAY IN IT DURING RAINS. MONKEY TRIES AND FAILS, SO HE DESTROYS THE NEST OF THE BIRD TOO. ARMED FORCES HAVE TAKEN ENOUGH BEATINGS IN TERMS OF CASUALTIES, OROP ISSUES, 6TH CPC ISSUES. THE STRONG COMMENTS WRITTEN BY MANY KNOWN PERSONALITIES AGAINST THE ARMED FORCES AND THEIR REQUIREMENT ARE STILL FRESH IN MANY MINDS.

The doyen of modern military thinkers, Carl von Clausewitz said that war was the extension of politics by other means. The Maoists understand this dictum well since their icon, Mao Zedong, said equally famously that power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

Unfortunately, the Indian state has yet to comprehend the link between politics and the military.

Because they claim to speak for the poor and wave red flags, most Indian politicians are unable to understand the mortal threat Maoists pose to the nation.

We need to quickly grasp, that, at this juncture at least, the only way we can meet the political challenge of the Maoists is through military means.

Why is it that in Kashmir, counter- insurgency operations in the urban and semiurban areas are left to the police forces, including the CRPF, and the task of handling the larger groups of militants in the forested heights of the Pir Panjal and the Rajwar area is taken on by the Army? The answer is simple. In terms of training and their working the police are most effective where the militants have to be ferreted out of the populace with the use of ground intelligence. Whereas the Army alone is equipped and oriented to handle larger groups of insurgents who are wellversed in guerilla tactics.

Wrong-headedThis simple truth of the Indian experience in counter- insurgency is staring at us in the face, yet, the mandarins of New Delhi are unable to see it. The media, too, has been knocking on wrong doors. Neither KPS Gill nor Prakash Singh have really dealt with insurgencies involving thousands of armed men who are organised like an army and operate freely in a large geographical area. Such experience only resides with the Indian Army- or in a specialised unit like the Assam Rifles.

Ambushes are a devastating military tactic that the Indian Army understands well.

Besides the element of surprise, the ambusher has the luxury of being able to site his own deployments and carefully prepare what is called the " kill zone". The army has a long institutional memory that encapsulates the experience of Burma in World War II, the Naga uprising of the 1950s and the Sri Lanka campaign of 1987- 90. Perhaps no one could beat the Nagas in laying deadly ambushes. But in no one incident did the Army lose 76 men.

The maximum I have been able to research is some 14 who were killed on April 1, 1957. So ambush and counterambush are basic small- unit tactics taught to all army personnel.

Caught in an ambush, even highly skilled forces find the going tough; for the CRPF

company in Dantewada, the chance of escape was nil. Neither through training, nor doctrine and equipment, is the CRPF, or the BSF, oriented towards such combat.

That is the reason why Maoist ambushes of police teams in Maharashtra, Orissa and West Bengal have been so devastating and one- sided.

As it is, there are chilling parallels in the Green Hunt strategy of sending in small groups of paramilitary to hold the ground to enable development activity, with the 1961 decision to send Indian forces in penny packets across the Sino- Indian border in what was optimistically called the " forward policy." The Chinese military response to this fat- headed effort led to a disastrous military defeat for India.

The Green Hunt's disaster is only now becoming manifest.

Sending in ill- trained paramilitary forces where others fear to tread, too, is not a new development either. In April 1971, after General Sam Manekshaw turned down Indira Gandhi's suggestion that the Army act in East Pakistan immediately,immediately, the government decided to entrust the task to the BSF. According to Lt Gen J. F. R. Jacob, the BSF commander K. F. Rustomji boasted that his forces would lead a victory parade in Dhaka in a short matter of three weeks. The BSF and their Mukti Bahini allies were so badly plastered by the Pakistan Army, that in May 1971 the government promptly handed over the security responsibility of the entire border to the Army.

Support
Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram has no doubt spoken in shock and anger when he termed the Maoists as barbaric and decried their cowardice in fighting from the jungle. The facts, however, suggest that a better trained and motivated force used a legitimate military tactic to wipe out an entire CRPF company.

The only way to respond to this challenge is to meet it in kind. Unfortunately, there is no indication that either the government or the Home Ministry are even aware of the nature of the threat, leave alone any idea as to how to confront it.

The Home Secretary's bleating about " pressure bombs" reveals his ignorance of the fact that pressure mines are the basic weapons of insurgents and not undefeatable atomic weapons.

The same holds true for his quick rejection of the use of air power. To not do so is to deny yourself an advantage. The government has been rightly reluctant to use helicopter gunships ever since the Chavakacheri incident in Sri Lanka where scores of civilians died in a strike that ignited a fuel bunker. They were right, too, in not using them in the crowded landscape of Kashmir where the excellent road network enables the forces to reach any spot within the hour or less.

The jungles of Chattisgarh are different and air support could be the only means of assisting beleaguered columns, especially those under ambush. If appropriate rules of engagement are framed to avoid strikes in villages- whether or not Maoists were suspected to be there- there is no reason why gunships cannot operate there.

LeadersThe problems of a police- led counter insurgency campaign are fundamental.

Normally CRPF and BSF battalions, which are in themselves one thousand or so strong, are deployed in company-sized formations of some 100-120 men. These may be spread out in an unconnected fashion. The company commanders and battalion commanders are cadre officers, whereas most of the senior officers belong to the Indian Police Service who are most likely not to have served with the battalions at an operational level.

The army, on the other hand does not deploy anything less than a battalion which can be anywhere from 800- 1000 men. While these are divided into companies, the command and control is exercised at the battalion level by a commanding officer who deploys his companies in a mutually supporting role.

Army officers learn combat craft along with their men. Their first posting is with the jawans in mountain pickets, and their experience is gathered in long- range patrols and operations in Kashmir or the North- east. The vital bonding that takes place between an officer and a soldier in the army at a lower level serves in good stead when confronted with an emergency like an ambush. Given their rural and semi- educated background, Indian jawans require good training and leadership to be effective, whether in the Army or police. But while the Army caters for this, the police units do not.

This is not an argument for sending in the army to take on the Maoists, yet.

There are several other options before the government. It could set up a new Assam Rifles like force which is officered by Army personnel, matches the Army in its training, but is run by the Home Ministry.

The other is to sharply upgrade the quality of the existing CRPF units through better training and provision of better officers. In the meantime, perhaps, the Home Minister should persuade his Home Secretary to confine himself to running the day-to-day affairs of the ministry, and get himself a new security aide-an experienced Army officer-to advise him on the military aspects of tackling the Maoists.

Govt trims troop presence along Jammu-Srinagar highway

THE PIONEER 

http://www.dailypioneer.com/248830/Surge-in-strikes-but-Army-cut-to-size.html

Even as the Centre is facing criticism for cutting down the number of Army personnel in Jammu & Kashmir under the US pressure, the Indian Army has further trimmed its presence along the strategic Jammu-Srinagar national highway.

Official sources said, “Two battalions of the Central Reserve Paramilitary Force (CRPF) have replaced Army jawans along the only surface link connecting the Kashmir Valley with the rest of the country, while two more CRPF battalions would soon be deployed along the highway after undergoing training in the second phase.” The training of these two CRPF battalions is yet to begin.

Inspector General of the CRPF AS Sidhu, in an exclusive interview with The Pioneer on Monday, said, “After undergoing full two weeks of training from the Army and CRPF instructors, we have taken over the charge of independently securing the strategic NH 1-A between Jammu and Ramban (up to 145 km along the 294-km-long highway) from March 26.”

Sidhu said that immediately after the training the CRPF carried out joint road opening drills with the Armymen on vulnerable locations. The move to remove the Army from along the highway seems part of the same strategy under which the Government pulled out 30,000 troops from the two frontier districts of Jammu region in the last several months.

The CRPF will deploy two more battalions between 145-km and 204-km milestones (up to Jawahar tunnel) soon.

Surprisingly, the fresh relocation of troops has taken place at a time when incidents of militant violence have been recording an upward trend across J&K.  In the recently concluded operation Khoj, the Army had managed to eliminate 16 LeT militants in different encounters in Rajouri district only.

The decision to move out Armymen ahead of shifting of the ‘durbar’ and start of the annual pilgrimage to Amarnath cave shrine in the coming months has also raised eyebrows in the security establishment in view of the surge in violence in the State.

Coupled with this, the spectre of ‘hot summer’ was looming large on the minds of the people in the security establishment even as more than 300 infiltrators have been  eagerly waiting  to cross the Line of Control  after coming straight from PoK jihadi camps.

IG CRPF said, before replacing the Army from the highway duty, the CRPF personnel carried out joint road opening drills for two weeks and learned the art of sanitising the strategic highway.

The Army would, however, still mark its presence along the highway in the form of its sophisticated surveillance equipment used on daily basis to sanistise the highway and detect the presence of any explosive/IED material near the culvert/bridge or under the ground, the senior CRPF officer said.

“The CRPF has initiated the process of procuring its own surveillance gadgetry, but for the time being it is relying on the Army,” he added.

Cheaper call rates for ''jawans'' in border areas

PTI 

I WONDER  : I HOPE ITS FOR FAUJIs TOO.......

The government today reduced call charges to Re 1 per minute from Rs 5 per minute for satellite phones used by forces along the border areas. The reduction in charges will be for the para military forces like ITBP and BSF serving along the border outposts throughout the country, a DoT statement said.

Telecom PSU BSNL has been providing the forces with satellite phones to ensure that these ''jawans'' enjoy access to telecom services, the statement said. This decision was taken after a recent visit of Union Minister of State for Telecom and IT Sachin Pilot to the North Eastern border areas where it was brought to his notice that ''jawans'' were required to pay Rs 5 per minute for using the satellite phones to make calls to their families.

Pilot, in a separate statement, said, "We have decided to reduce the call rates for satellite phones used in the border areas, from Rs 5 to Re 1."