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NDA Convocation 2025 The Convocation Ceremony of the 149th Course of the National Defence Academy (NDA) was held at Habibullah Hall on 29 November 2025. The Chief Guest for the occasion was Dr. Ajay Kumar, Chairman, Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). The Chief Guest was received by Vice Admiral Anil Jaggi, Commandant, NDA. Dr. Vinay […]

Indian Navy Day 2025 Navy Day in India is celebrated every year on 4th December to honour the courage, achievements, and role of the Indian Navy in safeguarding the nation’s maritime borders. But this date holds a deeper historical significance. It marks one of the most successful naval operations in India’s military history: Operation Trident during the 1971 Indo-Pak War. The […]

President’s Medal at NDA This year’s autumn term NDA passing out parade saw a historic milestone. Siddhi Jain, a cadet from the 149th course, became the first woman ever to win the President’s Medal, awarded to the cadet with top overall merit at the academy. Before Siddhi Jain was selected for the 149th course of the […]

Meet Deepak Kandpal Cadet Adjutant Deepak Kandpal from Garud in Uttarakhand’s Bageshwar district has emerged as the best cadet of the National Defence Academy’s 2025 batch, earning the President’s Gold Medal at the 149th Passing Out Parade in Pune. Deepak grew up in modest circumstances where his father worked as a taxi driver, and the […]

AFCAT 1 2026 Notification AFCAT (1) 2026 Notification. Indian Air Force has release the notification for the courses commencing in January 2027 for grant of Commission in Flying Branch and Ground Duty (Technical and Non-Technical) Branches. Online applications are also invited for NCC Special Entry Scheme. Eligibility Conditions: (a) Nationality: Candidate must be a citizen of India. (b) Age: (i) Flying Branch through AFCAT and […]

This is a mundane post about Medals in the armed forces –  to observe the uniqueness of the current Chief of Army Staff’s Medal entitlement.  Medals offer a fascinating insight into a soldier’s career. As a historian it is fascinating to ‘read’ the medals of an officer and to guess what his service life was. […]

Something long overdue, and two years after our major re-design, we have updated our front page to a new look. The front page is a fully ‘Responsive’ Design, that will render both in a Desktop mode or in a mobile phone mode. The 2015 look was not mobile friendly in the first place, and over the […]

The nation grieves the loss of Marshal Arjan Singh (IND/1577), who died in Delhi on 16 Sept 2017. His loss will be keenly felt. The editor of the IAF site and author of “The India-Pakistan Air War of 1965” recollects his brief but memorable encounter with the Marshal of the AF three years ago.. Losing […]

Where is the Bharat-Rakshak Website hosted? Who Runs it? What is the the privacy policy? Who pays you off? Why are you so secretive? Whats your agenda? Are you snooping on us? etc etc… A short primer on the first and the oldest web portal on the Indian Armed Forces.&nbsp The Bharat-Rakshak.com web portal, as […]

Georg Hegel says we learn from History that we have never learnt from History. In the context of Indo-Sino relations, this couldn’t be more true. 58 years after getting our tail tweaked, not so much by the Chinese but by our own inept handling of the situation, we as a people and a nation are […]