15 June 2022 Daily Defence Current Affairs And Updates [DOWNLOAD PDF]

Divyanshu Pandey
June 15, 2022
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In today’s 15 June 2022 Defence Current affairs and updates, we are going to see the latest defense-related updates national and international current affairs topics. These current affairs questions and major events will be really helpful for your upcoming NDA, CDS, AFCAT, TA, INET, MNS, ACC exams, and other SSB interviews and AFCAT interviews like SSC Tech, TGC, TES, NDA, CDS, AFCAT, and more. Download the current affairs PDF file at the end of this article.

Daily Defence Current Affairs 15 June 2022

Cabinet clears ‘AGNIPATH’ Scheme For Recruitment Of Youth In The Armed Forces

The Union Cabinet today approved an attractive recruitment scheme for Indian youth to serve in the Armed Forces. The scheme is called AGNIPATH and the youth selected under this scheme will be known as Agniveers. AGNIPATH allows patriotic and motivated youth to serve in the Armed Forces for a period of four years.
The AGNIPATH scheme has been designed to enable a youthful profile of the Armed Forces. It will provide an opportunity to the youth who may be keen to don the uniform by attracting young talent from the society who are more in tune with contemporary technological trends and plough back skilled, disciplined and motivated manpower into the society. As for the Armed Forces, it will enhance the youthful profile of the Armed Forces and provide a fresh lease of ‘Josh’ and ‘Jazba’ whilst at the same time bring about a transformational shift towards a more tech savvy Armed Forces – which is indeed the need of the hour. It is envisaged that average age profile of Indian Armed forces would come down by about 4-5 years by implementation of this scheme. The nation stands to immensely benefit by infusion of highly inspired youth with deeper understanding of self-discipline, diligence and focus who would be adequately skilled and will be able to contribute in other sectors. The dividends of a short military service to the nation, society and the youth of the nation are immense.
This is a major defence policy reform introduced by the Government to usher in a new era in the Human Resource policy of the three Services. The policy, which comes into immediate effect, will hereafter govern the enrolment for the three services.

Benefits to the Agniveers

Agniveers will be given an attractive customised monthly package along with Risk and Hardship allowances as applicable in the three services. On completion of the engagement period of four years, Agniveers will be paid one time ‘SevaNidhi’ package which shall comprise their contribution including accrued interest thereon and matching contribution from the Government equal to the accumulated amount of their contribution including interest as indicated below:
The ‘Seva Nidhi’ will be exempt from Income Tax. There shall be no entitlement to gratuity and pensionary benefits. Agniveers will be provided non-contributory Life Insurance Cover of Rs 48 lakh for the duration of their engagement period in the Indian Armed Forces.
During this period of service to the nation, the Agniveers will be imparted with various military skills and experience, discipline, physical fitness, leadership qualities, courage and patriotism. Post this stint of four years, the Agniveers will be infused into the civil society where they can contribute immensely towards the nation building process. The skills gained by each Agniveer will be recognised in a certificate to form part of his unique resume. Agniveers, on completion of the four-year tenure in the prime of their youth, will be mature and self-disciplined with the realisation to become better version of himself/herself both professionally as also personally.
The avenues and opportunities that will open up for their progress in the civil world after Agniveer tenure would certainly be a big plus towards nation building. Moreover, the ‘Seva Nidhi’ of approximately Rs 11.71 lakh would aid the Agniveer to pursue his/her future dreams without the financial pressure, which is normally the case for young people from the financially deprived strata of society.
The individuals, selected for enrolment in the Armed Forces as regular cadre, would be required to serve for a further engagement period of minimum 15 years and would be governed by the existing terms and conditions of service of Junior Commissioned Officers/Other Ranks in Indian Army and their equivalent in Indian Navy and Indian Air Force and that of Non-Combatant enrolled in the Indian Air Force, as amended from time-to-time.
The scheme will lead to much more youthful and technically adept war fighting force by ensuring a fine balance between youthful and experienced personnel in the Armed Forces.

Advantages

A transformative reform of recruitment policy of the Armed Forces.
A unique opportunity to the youth to serve the country and contribute to Nation Building.
Armed Forces profile to be youthful and dynamic.
Attractive financial package for the Agniveers.
Opportunity for Agniveers to train in the best institutions and enhance their skills & qualifications.
Availability of well-disciplined and skilled youth with military ethos in civil society.
Adequate re-employment opportunities for those returning to society and who could emerge as role models for the youth.

Terms & Conditions

Under the AGNIPATH scheme, the Agniveers will be enrolled in the Forces under respective Service Acts for a period of four years. They would form a distinct rank in the Armed Forces, different from any other existing ranks. Upon the completion of four years of service, based on organisational requirement and policies promulgated by the Armed Forces from time-to-time, Agniveers will be offered an opportunity to apply for permanent enrolment in the Armed Forces.
These applications will be considered in a centralised manner based on objective criteria including performance during their four-year engagement period and up to 25% of each specific batch of Agniveers will be enrolled in regular cadre of the Armed Forces. Detailed guidelines will be issued separately. The selection will be the exclusive jurisdiction of the Armed Forces. 46,000 Agniveers will be recruited this year.
Enrolment will be undertaken through an online centralised system for all three services with specialised rallies and campus interviews from recognised technical institutes such as Industrial Training Institutes and National Skills Qualifications Framework, among others. Enrolment will be based on ‘All India All Class’ basis and the eligible age will be in range from 17.5 to 21 years. Agniveers will meet the medical eligibility conditions laid down for enrolment in the armed forces as applicable to respective categories/trades.
The educational qualification for Agniveers will remain as in vogue for enrollment in various categories. {For example: For entry into General Duty (GD) soldier, the educational qualification is Class 10).

Exercise Sampriti X 2022

Troops of Indian Army and Bangladesh Army contingent carried out joint training of various peacekeeping operations under UN mandate during the ongoing joint military exercise between the two Armies.
As part of the ongoing India Bangladesh bilateral defence cooperation, a joint military training exercise Ex SAMPRITI-X is being conducted at Jashore Military Station in Bangladesh from 05 June to 16 June 2022.
Exercise SAMPRITI is an important bilateral defence cooperation endeavour conducted alternately by both countries which aims to strengthen and widen the aspects of interoperability and cooperation between both the armies.
The Indian contingent of company strength is being represented by a Battalion of the DOGRA Regiment and the contingent departed by road for the exercise location on 4 Jun 2022.

Appointment Of India’s 2nd Chief Of Defence Staff Soon: Rajnath Singh

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said the appointment of the new Chief of Defence Staff or CDS will be made soon and that the process for it is underway. The post of Chief of Defence Staff has been lying vacant since General Bipin Rawat’s death in a helicopter crash on December 8 last year.
- According to the new rules, any serving or retired lieutenant general, air marshal and vice-admiral under the age of 62 years will be eligible for appointment to the post of Chief of Defence Staff.
- The three-star officers are now eligible to become the Chief of Defence Staff, along with the serving chiefs of the three services, according to the changes made to the Army, Air Force and Navy Acts.
- General Rawat took charge as India’s first Chief of Defence Staff on January 1, 2020, with a mandate to bring convergence in the functioning of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force and bolster the country’s overall military prowess.

What is the Role of the Chief of Defence Staff?

CDS acts as the permanent Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee which will also have three service chiefs as members.
- His core function will be to foster greater operational synergy between the three service branches of the Indian military and keep inter-service frictions to a minimum.
- He also heads the newly created Department of Military Affairs (DMA) in the Ministry of Defence.
- The CDS will be the single-point military adviser to the Defence Minister on matters involving all three services and the service chiefs will be obliged to confine their counsel to issues pertaining to their respective services.
- As the head of DMA, CDS is vested with the authority in prioritising inter-service procurement decisions as Permanent Chairman-Chiefs of Staff Committee.
- The CDS is also vested with the authority to provide directives to the three chiefs.
- However, he does not enjoy any command authority over any of the forces.
- CDS is first among equals, he enjoys the rank of Secretary within the DoD (Department ff Defence) and his powers will be confined to only the revenue budget.
- He will also perform an advisory role in the Nuclear Command Authority (NCA).

Space Startups Sign MOUs With ISRO To Use Govt Geospatial Data

The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) has facilitated the signing of 10 MoUs between private Indian companies and the ISRO. The MoUs cover a range of applications, which include the use of Isro’s geospatial data for use in a proprietary platform.
One of the companies that signed MoUs with ISRO was private Indian geolocation startup Pataa. Pataa will use ISRO’s information to create satellite imagery-based digital addresses, as part of its mapping and navigation platform.
The platform will be used to serve various geolocation tools operated by ISRO, which include Bhuvan, a web browser-based mapping platform, Visualization of Earth observation Data– a platform that uses optical, microwave and hyperspectral satellite data to create maps of earth for use in agricultural, air quality monitoring and other purposes, and Meteorological and Oceanographic Satellite Data Archival Centre Isro’s oceanography and meteorological mapping service.

Russia Overtakes Saudi Arabia To Become India’s 2nd Biggest Oil Supplier: Industry Data

Russia has overtaken Saudi Arabia to become India’s second-biggest supplier of oil behind Iraq as refiners snap up Russian crude available at a deep discount following the war in Ukraine, industry data showed.
Indian refiners bought about 25 million barrels of Russian oil in May or more than 16 percent of all their oil imports. Russian-origin crude hit 5 percent of India’s total seaborne imports in April for the first time, rising from under 1% throughout 2021 and Q1 2022, the data showed.
India, the world’s third-biggest oil-importing and consuming nation, has long defended purchases of crude oil from Russia following President Vladimir Putin ordering the invasion of Ukraine. The Oil Ministry had last month stated that “energy purchases from Russia remain minuscule in comparison to India’s total consumption.”
Iraq remained the top supplier to India in May and Saudi Arabia is now the third biggest supplier.
After the U.S. and China, India is the world’s third-largest consumer of oil, over 85 percent of which is imported.

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