Profit And Loss Year To Date Fill In Excel: Fill & Download for Free

Sorry about the length of this but bear with me - this is the kind of question that makes a conservative take a deep breath and type.Well, let me preface this with the fact that I used to be a staunch conservative. Limited but effective government used in conjunction with private corporations to ensure government services are brought to you in an economical way.I want my roads fixed quickly and right. I like clean water, safe cities, good schools, parks big and small, as well as other services. I worked for the government a few decades ago. Bureaucrats are not motivated by efficiency or profit - they don’t look at their gigantic permitting process and think how can they make this more efficient.For example, by law I had to give several departments in State and Federal Government 90 days to comment on a portion of a NEPA document and I couldn’t do get it all at one time as one agency wanted to see the document before another. Then that one wanted to see it before it went to the feds and then they wanted to see what the feds had to say. Many times, my 90-day period would end and because their legal time ran out and they hadn’t processed it yet, they would simply deny the document and start the process over again.I would hand deliver documents to keep the process going and would change the permit any way possible to avoid resubmitting. Many times, issues such as using the incorrect font were used to deny approval, other times, they would take broad interpretations of state or federal law like requiring bat remediation on a street with no trees. I’ve dealt with stuff for decades in many states and ironically, Indiana is one of the better states to deal with this in. I’ve actually found people in government that want to protect legitimate features - sometimes. Then my calculations get rejected because I forgot to sign the check by tab on page 447 of 595. I have more personal history - but I hope you get my gist.I found many conservative republicans that shared my views and thus formed allegiances with the republican party here. I was tired of expecting 90-day reviews from the same people that needed me to turn that around the same day to re-apply in order to meet a schedule they set. Before I left the state agency in the 90’s, I turned around reviews the same day I received them and took on more projects than the rest of the compartment combined. But then I started to get the feeling I wasn’t being well received by many, so I left to ply my wares in the private sector.Well - when Bush 2 was elected all I wanted was the option of separating a portion of my social security from the government pension that was not returning anything. In case you’re interested, if you had steadily put money in a Dow Jones Fund at any time over the last 100 years over any 40-year period you would outperform the measly return on your Social Security account. Even the Great Depression. Heck, I would have been happy if we had separated SS into separate private accounts that the government couldn’t touch. Funny thing was, Al Gore was made fun of for promising to do that when he used the term “lock box.” I’ve been around friends that make fun of him saying that and I’ve snapped at them stating that was a fantastic idea to pull the control of that fund away from the government so it could actually be saved (or invested). Sounds fiscally conservative or so I thought.When you’re looking at 40–45 year annualized returns you can’t lose. Loss just doesn’t happen over the time scale. Many argued that people would take that money and invest irrationally - which is why I was OK with only taking half of the amount to invest. And I would have been ok with government selected mutual funds - as long as there were plenty of choices. The government could vet them but I wanted control over my retirement.Then Iraq came along and I thought it was an awful idea. All my friends wanted to do was shove a cruise missile up Saddam’s ass - they didn’t care that he had nothing to do with 9/11. I sat back and said, this is going to cost a lot of money - and what are we getting out of this? Ohh…. a stable middle east full of democracy. Right…. I cringed and swallowed it hoping that smarter people than I knew what was for the better.After voting for Bush twice, I was tired of the shit show and liked what I heard from Obama. I was part of the movement in Indiana to give the state to the democratic nominee for president for the first thing since 1964. I was naive enough to see this as a transcendent moment in American history in which we as a country had turned a corner of racism. After all we were 50 years away from segregation and Jim Crow and in my rose-colored glasses, I never really saw the problems that were still simmering under the surface. I definitely did not understand the concept of privilege, after all, in my world everyone looked like they were starting to get along.Then Obamacare came and the honeymoon was over. I had been pushing the republicans to push for price transparency and open ratings between all the hospitals and pharmacies. Between 2004 when my first daughter was born and 2009 when my second daughter was born, I witnessed a runaway train in undisclosed medical costs. I went to pick up a prescription at a pharmacy after I was first introduced to the concept of a high deductible plan in 2005 and was mortified when the cashier rang it up for over $900! I melted down - what the hell - all I needed was 10 pills - $100 a pill! After scrounging around town, I actually found the drug at a Walmart pharmacy for $60 for 10 pills. I sat there and wondered why there was such a big difference - then it occurred to me that under the old insurance system you only saw the $20 copay. We were getting ripped off.I had a nice emergency at the beginning of 2008 that sent me to the hospital for emergency surgery and an 8 day stay in the hospital with another 3 weeks of nursing to get me to walk under my own power again. Never underestimate what a burst appendix can do when ignored. My bad - I was ready to pay the bill until it came in at $93,000. My high deductible plan kicked in but I still had to pay $9000 out of pocket. I asked the hospital if they had a payment plan and they laughed like I should have known better. They showed me the terms of a high interest loan through a third party at 28% interest and that’s when I raided my emergency savings account - and drained it. I usually used it for vacations but I had burned through all my PTO that year and I wasn’t going to get a vacation. That hurt.I actually asked the hospital for a tally of my bill and was given the most unorganized book of charges totaling over 300 pages with no date/time of any of the charges. There was no way to cross check it - how was I supposed to find errors. I just payed it knowing that I had no control. I found out later that the insurance talked the hospital down to $40,000 but I didn’t see any of that savings - no wonder the hospital was wanting to stick it to me.When my wife was pregnant with my second daughter, I called around to all the hospitals in town to ask them what a standard natural birth cost without complications. I figured I could at least get a base rate. Instead I was laughed at. How could anyone know that until it happened, I was told. It was like checking out at the store only to be told the bill was 20x higher than expected because nobody could know how much all that stuff cost together. It was ridiculous.I also thought that by forcing price transparency in the hospital and pharmaceutical industries, we could rein in the rapid inflation that was occurring in the medical industry. I kept thinking that would be an excellent platform for a conservative to espouse for president. But it never happened - the lobbyists had gotten too cozy with Washington and they ensured their constituents in the pharma, medical, and insurance industries could keep the waters muddy - nobody needed to know what they were paying for. So, when my daughter was born, we were in and out in a single day. Total cost $34,500! For one day - no complications. No epidural, nothing I could see that would drive the cost up. By this time, I had slightly better insurance and ended up only paying $8,000 out of pocket - but this time I had finally built up our HSA to cover it. I actually think HSA’s and high deductible plans are a wonderful idea as they allow more price transparency to bring the costs of items down.Just last year, I noticed my old employer still offered the original PPO insurance plans for families at the State Government of Indiana. They showed an incredible table that broke the cost of that plan down to show that the plan cost more than $45,000 per year! The same plan I had in 1999 cost $6600 for a married couple per year - and I may have paid $1,300 out of pocket for it. Now, because it’s so expensive, the state only covers the cost of a high deductible plan which is $14,500 per year - so if you’re a state employee that still has that plan, your share is a whopping $30,500 per year or $1,175 per pay check!Look, by the time Obama had gotten into office, the system was beyond out of control so I looked at Obamacare and thought it had to be better than what we had. I just couldn’t understand why the Republicans weren’t running on a platform to bust up the system that hid the outrageous prices and where they came from. When Obamacare didn’t slow down price inflation I was mad so I voted for Mitt the second time around.I liked Mitt and he seemed like someone who might be bi-partisan enough to interject those thoughts into Obamacare. But he didn’t get elected and then I started to notice things getting nastier. The LGBTQ community made some gains later and then I started to see it from my friends and family. Outright hostility. And they were all watching Fox News at ear splitting volumes (I swear hearing loss and Fox went hand in hand).Then….Trump came along. For a split second I thought maybe this outsider could change the system and get some of the corruption out of Washington. But then I remembered that when I watched the show the Apprentice, he was an absolute moron. People on the show that showed initiative, creativity, and most of all money-making acumen were always passed over for the character that stabbed them in the back and took all the credit. Trump would call the person with the knife in his back weak and then would fire them. That’s how he got Omarosa Manigault - the last person you would want to work for you. She was quite possibly the most vicious personality the show ever saw and after that point I stopped watching. I was a budding project manager at the time and I used to think I could learn something from the show. Later I figured I learned how not to run a project at least.She actually was part of Hillary Clinton’s campaign for election and used to work in the office of Al Gore in the 90’s. She was a solid democrat.Trump was stupid enough to hire her and put her as the director of African-American outreach.Omarosa Manigault Newman - Wikipedia (Omarosa Manigault Newman - Wikipedia)After the back stabbing I saw her perform, I thought maybe it was all a gag for ratings. But then again, I saw her do things that were beyond reprehensible in that show.Now I can’t stand Hillary Clinton and got tired of the turnstile of families vying for the presidency. It shows how far we’ve slipped toward Oligarchy over the last 30 years. She has a list of scandals a mile long that hung around her neck like decaying flesh attracts flies. I hoped beyond hope we would get better choices for president but as the primaries moved along, it was obvious the Democrats put their thumbs on the scale so that Hillary could get what she always deserved…..(ughhhhh).And then Donald kept winning. And winning. And no matter what stupid thing he said my friends and family fawned all over them. The dog whistles were just in my head - I was to quit looking for things that aren’t there and stop reading all those newspapers and magazines. They’ll fill your head with all that “librul” nonsense.So, I tried watching Infowars and Fox and other Right-Wing channels to get the other side of the story, after all, I used to watch Fox back in the 90s and they’re supposed to be on our side.Good god, Infowars was batshit looneytown. Basically, Alex Jones gins people up like the best snake oil salesman I’ve ever seen exploiting every fear he can and then goes to sale his products to placate those fears. His latest is selling silver infused tooth paste that kills the Coronavirus.Infowars’ Jones Hawked ‘Nanosilver Toothpaste’ Fake Coronavirus Cure (Infowars’ Jones Hawked ‘Nanosilver Toothpaste’ Fake Coronavirus Cure)Then I watched Hannity and noticed there was no Colmes anymore to at least try to anchor the guy. Hannity has always been entertainment and opinion so I couldn’t tell why people got their news from him. Well, now without Colmes he took the train to Crazytown too. Nothing he said was based in reality and my friends and family took it all the way to the bank. It was like I was watching people I know drift further and further away from me.Today, I’m the communist “librul” from the city. I don’t know how that happened but I do embrace the term classical liberal and don’t hide it. I chucked the Republican party because there is hardly anything in there anymore that I can find common ground with. I like the libertarians but they have their own issues with conspirators that drive me nuts. Yes, Newtown happened. Yes, the World Trade Center was brought down by softened steel in a raging inferno - I can show you a table of the yield strength of A36 structural steel vs temperature that shows the stupidity of the government implosion theory.Now, with Trump I find myself alone until I strike up a conversation with another Gen X dad that is terrified to talk politics until we realize we’ve both noticed the craziness that has broken politics.We all agree: Trump was supposed to drain the swamp. Instead he became the biggest crocodile.I used to enjoy discussing politics. Now if a conversation starts floating that direction, I try like hell to steer it away. “Did you hear what that Communist Bernie said the other day” (I interject) “whoa, I see your daughter is in softball - what position does she play.” 180 degrees in 3 seconds.The other day I caught myself discussing the screwed relationship that Great Britain put us in with Iran back in the early 50’s. Basically, if we wanted the British to pay us back after WW2, we had to help them topple Iran’s democratically elected socialist leader - to get their oil profits back to pay off their debt to us. It’s more complicated than that but many people in the US only know Iran from the hostage crisis. Anyway, a third person (who likes Trump) popped in and started talking Jewish conspiracy theories (you know George Soros a.k.a. Satan himself), and his influences to destroy western civilization through globalization.Conjecture, Whataboutism, and just straight-up made up shit used to fill in the gaps. I moved the conversation away to his kids so that he didn’t show himself as a nutcase to the others and we could keep everything civil. There’s no longer hope in ever trying to dissuade people anymore from crazy shit now that Trumps in office - nothing is ever as it seems. Up is down. Black is white, the Coronavirus is a nothingburger, then he knew it was a pandemic since the beginning, to finally, we will get back to normal in 15 days.Nothing, I repeat, nothing the man says makes any sense and has no basis in reality.Remember Omarosa? Remember how Trump blamed the Deep State for all his leaks the first year of his presidency. Well the Deep State was who he brought in - yep the back stabber couldn’t resist - Omarosa was responsible for most of his leaks the first year of his presidency. I mean, for Christ’s sake, she used to be a democrat and still is. But Trump can’t get past just using inflammatory name calling, still using terms like Fake Media when they literally report exactly what he says in context (I’m not talking about CNN). But then my friends chuckle and state “well he calls it like he sees them. No more PC bullshit.”And that leads me to my last point. The last couple of years has lifted the veil off my head when it comes to exposing the soft racism America still has. There were good people on both sides…. I mean the Nazi’s had every right to the beaches at Normandy. Jeez…why didn’t the fake news ever allow the Nazis to be interviewed by Fox to get their side of the story. I mean every side deserves to be heard…right. I mean there’s probably a good explanation for the holocaust…..we need to explore both sides. Ugh!I’ve called people out when they use the term “those people.” And yes, they don’t get it. Actually, they always turn it around on me because I just don’t get it.Then I tried to discuss what I started to notice about police shootings and how the police always got out of sticky situations on video. In the last year I started to do a little research on police shootings and noticed a startling similarity between all police camera footage. I pointed that out to other people that police use a script when confronting someone so that when it escalates, they can claim self-defense. Just watch all the videos of cop shootings. They all start the same. “PUT THE WEAPON DOWN (there is no weapon), Show me your license……. STOP MOVING YOUR HANDS!!! Stop (But officer you asked for my license) put the knife/gun down (officer I don’t have any…) BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM. They always empty their clip. They’ve been trained to narrate their videos to ensure everyone knows the police officer was always fearing for his life and empty their clip to ensure everyone knows they feared for their life. Its obvious to me but not to anyone that argue the police are just defending themselves. Sigh… and so it goes….”Shawn it’s obvious he feared for his life so lethal defense was necessary.”I can’t explain anything to anyone or get a healthy back and forth anymore. Trump has poisoned the well and I feel like I’m hiding in the closet waiting for sanity to come back - but Trump is not the problem. He’s only a symptom.Thanks to Avijit Bandyopadhyay & Koulja Koudar for the edits!

ITR is income tax return and you have to file when you have income, depending on the slab stated by the government of India. It is the complete data about the incomes and investments of a person in a financial year.For different source of income, 9 ITR forms are available. You should file any one of these forms giving your income details, tax payment details and other basic details. You can download (Income Tax India) these forms and fill them by yourself or you can directly e-File.ITR 1 - This is also known as Sahaj (meaning easy) and this form would be applicable to the majority of the tax payers. This form can only be filed by an individual, whose source of income is salary and interest but not business. Even a pensioner can use this form. It is simple and applicable if you have following:Income from Salary / PensionIncome from One House PropertyTax free capital gainsIncome from Other sources which includes taxes on bonuses, savings bank account, recurring bank account, fixed deposits with bank and post offices.You should not file ITR-1 if you have any of the followings:More than one house propertiesWinning from lottery, race horses, etc.Capital gain IncomeIncome exceeding Rs. 5000 from agricultural businessIncome exceeding Rs. 5000 from Exempt Income from Business or profession.Losses which has to be carried forwardAny resident having any asset located outside India or singing authority in any account located outside India.Has claimed any relief of tax under section 90, 90A or 91ITR 2A - This is a newly introduced form and an extended version of ITR 1, which can be used only if you do not have business income or capital gains and any foreign asset or have foreign income. It should be used by an individual or Hindu Undivided Family whose gross total income for the assessment year derives from the following sources:Income from Salary / PensionIncome from House Property;Income from Other Sources (including Winning from Lottery and Income from Race Horses).Any Exempt Income is more than Rs 5000 Like Agricultural IncomeYou should not file ITR-2A if you have any of the followings:Income from Business or Profession and Capital Gains andHold foreign assets and have foreign incomeITR 2 - It can be used in case you have income taxable under the head “capital gains” in addition to the income taxable under the head “salaries” and “income from other sources”. Those who doesn’t fall under ITR 1 + for individuals and Hindu Undivided Family who doesn’t have Business Income.Income from more than One House PropertyAgricultural income exceeding Rs 5,000Capital gainsIncome from Other sources which will include lottery, race horses, etc.Capital Losses from previous yearsAny foreign asset or any income from foreign source.etc.You should not file ITR-2 if you have any of the followings:Income taxable under the head “profits and gains of business or profession” howsoever small the amount taxable under this head.ITR 3 - For partners in firms (but doesn’t have any personal business)ITR 4 - For individual’s and Hindu Undivided Families’ having business income, which is assessable under “Profits and Gains from Business and Profession” (http://www.efiler.in/incometaxforms/InstructionITR4.pdf). It is advised to consult with experts before filing.In case the annual turnover/receipt of the assesses exceeds Rs 1 crore than he is required to get his accounts audited and the tax return filing date is extended to 30th September.Even if the assesses is carrying on the business or profession under presumptive income as per section 44AD & AE but the turnover or gross receipt exceeds Rs 1 crore, he is required to file ITR-4 not ITR-4S.Apart from incomes business and profession, income from house property, capital gains, salary/pension and interest incomes are also to be reported in ITR-4ITR 4S - This is commonly called Sugam. It can be filed by a person who is otherwise entitled to file his return of income in the ITR 1, but cannot file as he has certain business income taxable at predetermined way. This form can be filed by any individual or an Hindu Undivided Family who has business income which is taxable at certain predefined basis either as certain percentage of your gross receipt/sales or your income is presumed at fixed amount per income yielding asset owned by you such as truck etc. For individuals and Hindu Undivided Family having income from presumptive business as per Section 44AD and Section 44AE of the Income Tax Act.You should not file ITR-4S if you have any of the followings:You have capital gains incomeAgricultural income exceeding Rs 5,000Own any foreign asset or have income from any foreign sourceYou have income from lottery or horse race.Income from commission or brokerageAgency businessRelief claimed by taxpayer under Section 90, 90A or 91If the turnover of the business mentioned above exceeds Rs 1 crores, the tax payer will have to file ITR-4.ITR 5 – shall be used by firm, LLPs (Limited Liability Partnership), AOP (Association of Person), BOI (Body of Individuals), artificial juridical person referred to in section 2(31)(vii), cooperative society and local authority. For persons other than Individual, Hindu Undivided Family, Company and for whom ITR 7 is not applicableITR 6 - For companies other than companies claiming exemption under sec.11ITR 7 - For persons including companies required to furnish returns under various sub-sections of 139.Requirement of disclosure:Don’t attached documents with the ITRDetails of all bank accounts: bank name, IFSC code and account number of all your bank accounts whether saving or current account. It seems you are not required to furnish details of your recurring account or fixed deposits with banks held by you during the year. You do not have to furnish the details of such dormant bank accounts. Moreover you are not required to furnish the details of balances at the year end and the details of the joint holder of the accounts.Details of foreign travels and expenses: The forms notified earlier had provisions for disclosure of foreign travels undertaken with details of expenses incurred by you. However the revised forms have done away with this requirement and you are only required to give details of your passport number.You have to E-file if income exceeds Rs 5 lacs.31 st July is due date for filing tax return.ITR V should be sent within 120 days unless e-verified.Make sure you have 26AS form before filing your tax return.ITR Java/Excel UtilityFree Income tax software by income tax department for every year.ITR 1 and ITR 4S can be furnished online on the income tax website.Java utility is new and users’ friendly as it fetches lot of details automatically and uploading returns is easier.Create your account Registration if not already. Logon to and select the income tax return form for your type of income.Download the ITR Java/ Excel Utility.Fill up the details and cross check Form 16, 16A, 16B and 26ASUpload return through Java utility directly after logging in your Income tax or you can create XML file of the income tax return and upload on the income tax website.Acknowledgement details would be displayed.ITR-V will be automatically generated.Digitally signatures or linking the Aadhar card.

We have the bravest soldiers, bravest pilots and bravest navy officers.Best in the world.But, unfortunately we have to use them with out dated defense equipment.Why. Not because we have no funds. Not because we have no technical inability.The only reason is because of our corrupted politicians.There is a process called phasing out.Suppose you are using a computer and still using windos xp with 2000 manufactured laptop and your boss says that the rival company has more projects than our company.You have been requesting time and again to up grade your computer to windows 10 and newer version of, but the the request is not acted upon due to corruption at top. Can your boss blame you?Any organization will slowly in a phased manner replaces all the out dated machinery, technology and gadgets with newer one in a phased manner and the older one is dismantled. Till such time the older one will have to be used for un interruption of the work. If it can not be done, then we will be in a back seat with our competitors, though you may be much more competent than them.IAF has to maintain so many (I do not know the exact number) squadrons at any point of time, and on rotation each squadron is given certain responsibilities.In recent incident of bringing down F-16 of Pakistan, India has to use 1960’s made Mig 21 as part of rotation procedure. Has it been phased out , we should have used a better air craft to bring down F 16 and that would have saved the capture of our pilot.With his statement many may feel that I am politicizing the incident. But whether to politicize or not, the real fact remains the same. From 2000 to 2014 practically the process of phasing out out dated air crafts has stopped due to reasons best known to then rulers. Even now even the present government is facing problems due to criticism by opposition on any defense deal.And now the same opposition parties who are unable to procure defense equipment are criticizing the failure of present equipment.Does make any sense? Is national defense is not important compared to acquiring corrupted wealth?{The India Air Force (IAF) is one of the best funded in the world, however, paradoxically it is one of the most underfunded for its allocated task. In order to defend the country against potential hostile actions and provide deterrence against both Pakistan and China, the IAF is increasingly ill equipped. One of its largest drawbacks in terms of operational efficiency—that it operates more types of fast jet simultaneously than almost any other air force—is also paradoxically an indication of how well funded it is compared to many air forces, which think of themselves as “reference air forces”. A victim of political interference in procurement efforts, the IAF has been relatively unsuccessful in convincing politicians to move towards an air power-centric approach taken by most global powers, and it still competes for funding with a huge Army and an increasingly strident Navy with blue water power projection ambitions. Despite a target strength of 44 squadrons of fast jets, the IAF is at present well below its authorized minimum safe figure of 39.5 squadrons.In fact, almost a quarter of its intended numerical strength has been lost to obsolescence in a little over a decade, even without considering normal attrition, which remains high in its older fleets.In terms of fast jets, India currently flies the Hawk, Mig-21, Mig-27, Mig-29, Jaguar, Mirage 2000, Su-30MKI and Tejas; and will soon fly the Rafale. In addition, the current ambition is to procure another lightweight fighter, most likely the Saab Gripen E/F or Lockheed Martin F-16 ‘Block 70/72’, as well as a fifth generation derivative of Russia’s troubled PAK FA/T-50 stealth fighter. With such a staggering diversity, ranging from extremely old and on their way to retirement to cutting edge and expensive multi-role aircraft, the IAF faces daunting logistics, training standardization and force design challenges. Moreover, partly due to the expense of supporting and operating so many different aircraft fleet, the IAF is seriously under strength with only 32 squadrons as of early 2016.The fast jet components of the IAF will be examined here in terms of its air defence and strike capabilities as against Pakistani and Chinese airpower trends.At present, the IAF is undergoing a phase out its ageing and accident-prone Mig-21, which was a fine interceptor in the 1960s and 1970s but is now laughably outclassed by every hostile aircraft it might encounter in the region.This leaves the bulk of Indian air defense duties to the large and growing Su-30MKI multi role fighter fleet, alongside the exclusively air-to-air Mig 29s and the small but capable multi role Mirage 2000-5 fleet. The endogenously produced Tejas Mark 1 has so far proven inadequate for IAF’s needs; and so development of an improved Mark 1A is a matter of priority in order to minimize the numerical shortfall created by the final retirement of the remaining Mig-21s by 2017. The 36 Rafale swing-role fighters being procured directly from France will certainly help meet India’s air defense requirements, given the potent air superiority capabilities of the type, but it is too small a number to provide much of an answer to India’s requirements for defending its vast airspace from intruders and potential hostile strikes. Further, the Rafale will be the only remotely credible type operated by the IAF for an airborne nuclear delivery mission against Chinese and even eventually Pakistani air defenses in the years to come. So it is likely that the majority of the Rafale fleet will concentrate on the nuclear deterrence mission unless the order number expands in future to the detriment of its capability to maintain pilot proficiency in the conventional multi role and air defense domains.The Su-30MKI needs to be discussed in some depth since its numerical dominance in the makeup of the IAF into the 2020s means that the latter has staked a huge gamble on the type, remaining viable and competitive against rival air forces for some time to come. India has ordered 272 Su-30MKIs and has, so far, received over 240 of the heavy fighters. This large fleet size contrasts with an envisaged strength of around 55 Mirage 2000s, 70 Mig-29s and 36 Rafales, as well as somewhere in the region of 200 light fighters—most likely a mix of Tejas Mark 1A/2 and Gripen/F-16s.The Su-30MKI shares almost all standard strengths and weaknesses of late-model ‘Flanker’ family. It is extremely maneuverable in a close-range turning fight, although it bleeds energy fast in high-alpha man oeuvres and does not have the thrust-to-weight ratio of the latest Western or Russian fighters. It has a large and powerful radar, can carry a wide variety of missiles and ground attack munitions, and has an impressive range on internal fuel. On the downside, it has a huge radar cross-section (RCS) and is thus liable to be detected long before it can detect opposing fighters—whether operating under active or passive search methods. The thrust-vectoring engines significantly increase maneuverability at high angles of attack, low air speeds and very high altitudes. However, at the same time, it increases maintenance complexity and decreases reliability. With a mix of long and short-range missiles and different seeker heads, the Su-30MKI is a dangerous opponent for non-stealth fighters of the fourth and 4.5 generations. However, against fifth generation fighters such as the F-22 Raptor and F-35, as well as China’s developing J-20A, the aircraft has few answers. Stealth aircraft will always detect the Su-30MKI from very long range, and can take position to either avoid it or engage under the best possible launch parameters.For the task of carrying the main weight of policing India’s airspace and conducting multi role air superiority and strike missions against Pakistan in a future conflict, the Su-30MKI is likely to give the IAF a capable and potent core fleet for the next 10-15 years. However, against Chinese Su-35, J-10B and J-11 fighters, it is at least equaled in most scenarios; but the J-20A and future Chinese stealth aircraft will significantly outclass it. Further, the Su-30MKI is not credible against modern air defense networks, due to very high RCS, heat signature and, at best, average electronic warfare and jamming capabilities. This means that, for deterrence purposes, it is not credible against China and will slowly lose its capability to conduct deep strike missions in Pakistan as the latter improves its defenses. With the air-launched Brahmos supersonic cruise missile integrated, however, the type does give the IAF a formidable anti-ship capability, especially with the long range inherent in the ‘Flanker’ design.The IAF’s other air defense types do not offer much that the Su-30MKI cannot either. The Mirage 2000-5, currently being upgraded and modernized at the Indian Mark 2 standard, remains a capable and efficient lightweight fighter but cannot offer any BVR improvements over the Su-30MKI. It is a rough analogy in capability terms at medium and short ranges with China’s J-10A, Pakistan’s F-16 Block 52+ and FC-20 (J-10 derivative), and only provides a marginal superiority over the Sino-Chinese JF-17. Meanwhile, the Mig-29 is an ageing design, which remains formidably manoeuvrable within visual range but shares Su-30MKI’s drawbacks of huge RCS and lack of super cruise, besides being desperately short legged on internal fuel. It remains a limited capability interceptor for the IAF with little technology-growth potential. The Rafale could certainly be a highly capable air combat capability for the IAF but, as previously mentioned, 36 is a very small fleet to defend such a large airspace; and the IAF’s nuclear deterrence mission will most likely take priority for the type. Essentially, the IAF is equipping itself with air defense types that are at least adequate to face the current threat types, which it is likely to encounter. However, it remains numerically in a state of under strength; and consecutive delays in modernization efforts mean that by the time the new force composition is fully in place, China will most likely to operating fifth generation J-20s in relatively large numbers, for which the IAF will have no adequate answer. Pakistan has also expressed interest in both the Su-35 (a more capable ‘Flanker’ in the air superiority role than the Su-30MKI) and the Chinese FC-31 stealth fighters. However, the FC-31 is still very much an unknown quantity and the J-31 on which it would be based has not found favour with the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) in China so far. It would be unwise, therefore, to suggest Pakistan is on the verge of operating fighters which could seriously threaten the IAF over Indian territory.In the medium term, the IAF needs to decide whether it is aiming to offer a serious challenge to the growing might of the Chinese PLAAF or not. If the main effort is to remain focused on Pakistan, then the current acquisition programme for Indian combat airpower is probably technologically adequate but remains short on mass. If offering a serious aerial challenge to Chinese freedom of action in India’s backyard is the intention however, the IAF is on course to fall seriously short in both the quality and quantity of its fighter force by the mid-2020s. Indigenous fighter development efforts are unlikely to solve this problem. The Tejas saga has exposed some uncomfortable realities for India’s defence aviation industry. While it has proven to be capable of upgrading existing airframes with a variety of avionics, weapons and engines—for example, the Jaguar and Mirage 2000 upgrade programmes—HAL has taken 30 years, huge resources and a great deal of political backing to produce a lightweight fighter with modest conventional capabilities and serious quality control issues. The inability to reach a satisfactory set of arrangements to manufacture the 4.5 generation Rafale in India was not simply a matter of price, but also a result of HAL’s unsuitability in its current form to ensure sufficient quality control for manufacturing modern high performance fighter aircraft. The task of producing a fifthgeneration fighter—or sixth—will be a far more formidable undertaking.India has placed its hopes in the fifth generation sphere on the Russian PAK FA/T-50 program, and has been a longstanding partner and funder of the aircraft’s development. However, this is beginning to look like a poor investment decision since Russia is discovering what China and US also discovered with the J-20 and the F-35 programs, respectively. The fact is that while it is comparatively simple to develop flying prototypes that look like fifth generation fighters, it is exceedingly difficult to transition to produce something in quantity that performs like a fifth generation fighter, both in low-observability and sensor fusion-enabled situational awareness. There are many reasons to criticize the manner in which US and Lockheed Martin (an American global aerospace, defense, security and advanced technologies company) have managed the F-35 program, but the core reason why the aircraft’s delivery is so delayed and expensive—compared to initial assumptions—is because of the features US wants in the aircraft and its extremely difficult systems engineering.Another path might be to purchase Russian long-wavelength frequency agile ground radars such as the Nebo-series in order to provide a credible anti-stealth capability for the five regiments of long range S-400 air defence systems, which India agreed to purchase from Russia in October 2016 for deliver by 2020.This combination, far more than any aircraft which the IAF has in the procurement or development pipeline at present, is likely to remain a serious threat to any low-observable would-be intruders into Indian airspace.In terms of offensive conventional striking power, the IAF will have to rely increasingly on the same multirole fighters as it does for air defence—the Su-30MKI and Rafale. This is because India’s two dedicated strike and interdiction fast jets, the Jaguar and Mig-27, are both long past their prime against peer-competitors in spite of several engine, avionics and weaponry upgrade programmes during their long service lives. Following a spate of crashes due to technical failures, the IAF is aiming to retire its entire Mig-27 fleet by 2024, and has already started decommissioning individual airframes.In contrast, the Jaguar has recently been upgraded again and, particularly in the case of these newest DARIN III standard aircraft, possesses a respectable payload capacity, excellent range on internal fuel at low level, and the ability to deliver a range of precision munitions. However, the essential limitation for both the Jaguar and Mig-27 in terms of current and future combat effectiveness is that generational improvements in fighter and air defence radars have rendered their core concept of operations—flying very low in ground clutter to avoid detection on deep-penetration strike operations—at extremely high-risk in the face of modern opposition. Pakistan’s F-16 fleet, as well as China’s Flanker derivatives and J-10 family are all equipped with radars capable of good detection and tracking performance in look-down, shoot-down mode against ground-hugging intruders. Both the Mig-27 and upgraded Indian Jaguar DARIN III have very limited self-defence capabilities, so would have to be closely escorted by dedicated fighter types during medium-level sorties into hostile airspace, thereby further reducing the number of Indian fighters available for air defence/superiority missions. The ill-fated MMRCA programme was supposed to provide a powerful supplementary and, eventually, replacement capability for IAF strike squadrons. However, as with air defence tasks, the 36 Rafales will be extremely capable in the strike role, but are being bought in completely insufficient numbers to replace the 125 Jaguars and around 85 Mig-27MLs still in IAF service. A purchase of either F-16 ‘Block 70/72’ Vipers or Gripen E/Fs to complement the Tejas in the light-fighter niche and fill some of the void left by the failure of MMRCA would certainly go a long way towards addressing the obsolescence of India’s strike fighter fleets.None of the types at present operational in the IAF can hope to survive long inside a Chinese HQ-9 missile engagement zone (MEZ). Therefore, it seems logical for the IAF to accept that maintaining conventional deterrence capabilities against the might of a rising Chinese superpower is unlikely to remain possible in the next 20 years, based on current trends. However, it should be well within the capabilities of the IAF to adequately defend Indian airspace and provide a powerful deterrent against Pakistan, given its level of technical competence and funding, provided it accepts that its fighter aircraft will not be able to detect and destroy stealth threats, and continues to invest in modern air defence missile and radar systems optimised for these difficult targets.The IAF as a highly proficient service which, unlike many of its Western counterparts, operates in the vicinity of, and trains to fight against, two peer competitors in high-end operations. Pakistani and Chinese aerial capabilities present very different levels of threat to India’s ability to defend its own airspace, and likewise, their respective air defence capabilities present greatly differing levels of threat to India’s own offensive power-projection capabilities. India stands to benefit from an effects-based measurement of capability requirements, rather than the older practice of ‘counting airframes’. Instead of chasing an unrealistic target of 40-44 squadrons of modern combat aircraft, or even the current minimum target of 39.5 squadrons, the IAF should try to eliminate much of the costly duplication of platforms for various missions and focus on defending its airspace from potential Chinese intrusions in future, and maintain credible offensive strike capabilities to ensure stable deterrence at the sub-nuclear level against Pakistan. These two tasks might be effectively attained by developing a modern and potent ground-based integrated air defence system (IADS) focused on counter-stealth capabilities for defence against China, paired with a smaller number of fourth and 4.5 generation multirole fighters to provide flexible air defence and strike capabilities to counter Pakistan. This sort of approach, however, would mean accepting a loss in airframe numbers and a cull of older, less effective types to allow rapid acquisition of modern multirole types in sufficient, but not equivalent numbers. An example of this approach is that against modern opponents such as the Chinese and Pakistani Air Forces, replacing the 14 squadrons of Mig-21s and Mig-27s with three or four squadrons of modern F-16 ‘Block 70/72s’ or Gripen E/Fs would certainly represent a significant growth in capability, despite a large numerical decrease in airframes available.Given the lack of credible fifth generation fighter options for the IAF in the foreseeable future, India’s most profitable avenues for capability enhancement of its existing fourth and 4.5 generation types in the face of Pakistani and Chinese threat technologies are likely to be found in long-ranged, high-speed standoff weaponry and electronic warfare. These approaches both hinge around reducing the vulnerability of non-stealthy air assets—by allowing engagements at longer ranges in comparison to threat system engagement envelopes—and offer the potential to significantly prolong the operational usefulness of the fourth generation types against high-end threats for all air forces. It is, therefore, encouraging to see the progress being made in the IAF’s Su-30MKI fleet, for example, in terms of integrating the capable Israeli Elta EL/M-8222 jamming pod and Brahmos cruise missile. The eventual incorporation of the Zhuk-AESA radar on the fleet should also enhance situational awareness, survivability and electronic warfare capabilities.Equally, the Rafale will bring the formidable and impressive SPECTRA electronic warfare suite, SCALP EG cruise missiles and the Gripen NG (should India opt to purchase it). Electronic warfare-based approaches to aircraft survivability require a sustained tempo of investment in software development to remain viable but, due to this higher refresh time, are inherently more flexible than a reliance on airframe-shaping for stealth properties.Luckily, part of the IAF’s core strength, partly as a result of its practice of operating so many different types of aircraft in so many different roles simultaneously, is its institutional capacity for flexible and novel ways of approaching problems. The IAF also stands at a fascinating crossroads between Eastern and Western approaches to airpower, a position which brings great logistical challenges but also great opportunities to harvest from technology and concepts of operations. A mix of Russian-style modern IADS development, with Western models of airpower for power projection, offers huge promises for India’s defence and deterrence needs. However, before embracing a radical modernisation and restructuring programme, the IAF must overcome entrenched political interference in military procurement decisions, as well as the fixation on solutions which have been ‘made in India’, otherwise it risks continuing along its current path of trying to catch up with outdated acquisition plans to fight yesterday’s wars.}(1)If the equipment matches our soldiers bravery and efficiency , no one can beat India in years to come.JAI JAWAN JAI KISAN1.Present and future challenges for the Indian Air Force | ORF