New Delhi, Oct 20 : Defence Minister A K Antony today said in the Lok Sabha that the Armed Forces are facing a shortage of 13,830 officers.

“There is a shortage of 11,119 officers in Army, 1,359 officers in Navy and 1,352 officers in Air Force. Armed Forces have 53,849 officers against a sanctioned strength of 67, 679,” Antony said.

The Defence Minister listed the various steps taken up to tackle the shortfall of officers by the government.

These steps include extension of Short Service Commission (SSC) officers, implementation of both phases of A V Singh Committee report and implementation of the Sixth Central Pay Commission (CPC) report, he added.

New Delhi, Oct 20 (ANI): The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), India’s premier defence research organization, is facing attrition problems, as 785 defence scientists have resigned in the last three years.

The Lok Sabha was informed today that the government has offered various incentives to scientists in the Sixth Central Pay Commission (CPC) report.

Raigarh, Oct 20 : The filing of nominations for the first phase of Chattisgarh assembly polls on November 14 began today in the state, for elections to 39 seats out of a total of 90.

New Delhi, Oct. 20 : The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has welcomed the Reserve Bank of India’s decision to cut the repo rate by 100 base points to bring it down to eight percent.

Director General of CII Chandrajit Banerjee described the announcement as a step in the right direction.

"We are thankful to the RBI Governor for agreeing to this suggestion made by CII in view of the credit crisis that was starting to manifest in the Indian system, following the global liquidity crunch," he said.

New Delhi - At least seven police officers were killed Monday in an ambush by suspected Maoist rebels in India's central state of Chhattisgarh, a news report said.

One of the militants was also killed in the shootout, which took place in the Bijapur district, about 550 kilometres south of the state capital, Raipur, officials told the PTI news agency.

The police belonged to a battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and most of the victims died on the scene.

New Delhi, Oct. 20 : India''s "Look East Policy" came in for severe criticism from South East Asia experts while discussing Asian security architecture here today.

Initiating the discussion on "Regional Security Architecture in Asia: Role of CSCAP in ARF Track 2 Process" at Observer Research Foundation, Professor Tony Milner, a prominent member of Australia''s Foreign Affairs Council, said India could have done "much better" while "deep changes are on the way" in the region where the security architecture in a messy situation. He opined that India''s soft power could have been used for better results.