Tarmak007 -- A bold blog on Indian defence: Impact Series

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Impact Series

Following are some of the popular series\campaigns on Tarmak007 which created an impact among the blog followers\members, media and the defence clan in general.

Tracking the Tejas: On December 26, 2000, the blogger broke the story of LCA’s maiden flight in The Times of India and within a week (January 4, 2001),  LCA took to the skies with Koti in the controls. Since then, I have followed every bit of Tejas triumphs religiously. With the birth of Tarmak007 in 2009, it was very clear from the responses that articles on Tejas were in huge demand, that too if the stuff was authentic. Tracking the Tejas is the first series on Tarmak007. (Keyword on the blog: Tracking the Tejas)

India Thought Leaders (ITL): This is an interview series anchored from Bangalore by the blogger for Aviation Week’s India Microsite. Initially, it appeared every Fridays only to get scattered owing to increased traffic on the site. Almost, all the leading Indian aerospace and defence heads have come onboard ITL, making it a popular column on the AW site. (Keyword on the blog: ITL)

Agni Sakshi: This was a spin-off set of articles following the blogger’s visit to Wheeler Island in Orissa to witness the maiden launch of A2P. Though the missile failed in its first test-flight, the blogger witnessed the kind of struggle Indian missile scientists undergo ahead of a launch under not so friendly weather. Agni Sakshi became a blog-buster series within no time and a search in Google would give you a glimpse of its reach among different web communities. (Keyword on the blog: Agni Sakshi)

Justice for Jetly: This was probably one of the most emotional and tough campaigns the blogger undertook as a Journalist. The series focused on the state of affairs of Late Wg Cdr Vikas Jetly’s family, who had to run from pillar to post to get their dues. Vikas died in 2010 January following the injuries he suffered during a Dhruv crash at Aero India in February 2007. He was in a state of coma for close to four years. The constant campaign by Tarmak007, along with other media colleagues, saw the IAF, defence minister and other officials finally waking up and ending the sad plight of Jetly family. (Keyword on the blog: Justice for Jetly)

Cracking the Missile Code: This was an exclusive series that went live  in The New Indian Express soon after the blogger joined the paper in 2011. The 14-part series virtually captured all the ongoing missile projects of India and contained a mix of news-breaks and tech-upgrades on current and futuristic missile programs of India, in addition to human-interest stories. In addition to these 14 reports, there were couple of stories written outside the series, including Agni 5, Agni-6 and RCI's new tech-shelter in Hyderabad. This long-range series gave the blogger huge  learning opportunity, irrespective of what happens after DRDO fired their missiles. (Keyword on the blog: Cracking India's Missile Code.)

Intelligent India: Another exclusive series that went live  in The New Indian Express with 15 parts to boot. The series captured some first-time facts of India's silent mission in developing a robust artificial intelligence and robotics tools. Bangalore-based Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR) was the focus point of this series. (Key words on the blog: Intelligent India, CAIR)

Strike to Win: Though not a planned series, Strike to Win is the blogger's efforts to get you inside stories of India's Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) naval programme. Though the programme is delayed by over an year, the technological benchmarks set by scientists at ADA, engineers at HAL and  the expert naval teams in Bangalore and Goa will augur well for all future home-grown naval fighter programmes. Strike to Win is a simple effort by the blogger to bring out inspiring stories from India's maiden naval fighter jet in-house project. (Key words on the blog: LCA Navy, NP-1, SBTF)

In 2013, Tarmak007 ran an extensive series on Army commandos stationed in Karnataka's Belgaum. During this visit, said to be first by a print journalist in over 3 decades, The Making of a Commando Series captured some rare insights of one of India's elite military establishments -- the Junior Leader's Wing (JLW). Possibly the best writing missions undertaken by me so far, this 6-part series was truly informative, thanks to the support given by Indian Army. (Key words on the blog: Commando Series, Making of a Commando)

In 2013, another series that caught the attention was on the Maratha Light Infantry Regimental Centre (MLIRC), based out of Belgaum in Karnataka. Through this 6-part series called Close Combat, some of the untold facets of MLIRC were captured, making it yet another inspiring series -- especially for those waiting to join the Army.  The Low Intensity Conflict Operation (LICO) village -- built on the lines of those in the Kashmir Valley was one of the star attractions in the series.  (Key words on blog: Close Combat Series, MLIRC)

Spending two days with an elite Special Forces (SF) unit of Indian Army at a not-so-visible and not-so-popular location in Bangalore was one hell of an experience. To begin the reporting assignment as early as 5 am and carry on with the same non-stop till night, was a memorable one. The series named The Predators was the first-of-its-kind ever done by a print media journalist on 2PARA SF. “You cannot be a passenger in SF. We will push the boys beyond their limits here,” the CO's words are still fresh in my minds. Some eye-catching videos too were produced from this mission. (Key words on the blog: Making of Predators, India's Special Forces)

For regular updates, visit: https://www.facebook.com/Tarmak007