Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat's tour to Jaisalmerin Rajasthan has been cancelled and he will remain in New Delhi. General Rawatwas scheduled to go to Jaisalmer for the fifth edition of Army Scout MastersCompetition, which will be held from August 5 to August 16.

Apart from the Indian Army, the forces of Armenia, Belarus,China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Uzbekistan and Sudan are taking part in thecompetition. The participating teams arrived in India between July 24 andAugust 3. The opening ceremony is on August 5 with the schedule as follows:August 6-7 Stage I - Infiltration & Ambush Exercise By Night, August 8-9Stage II - Scout Specialist's Course (Morning & Evening Sessions), August10-11 Stage III - Scout Trail Obstacle Course (Morning & Evening Sessions),August 12-13 Stage IV - Small Arms Firing (Morning & Evening Sessions),August 14 Stage V - Exfiltration & Flotation Swimming & Flotation byDay & Exfiltration march by Night. August 15 is a reserve day with theclosing ceremony on August 16.

According to the Indian Army, the Army Scout MastersCompetition is designed to promote co-operation, collaboration and team spiritamong the contestants and facilitate sharing of best practices, technology andhardware. The five stages of the competition will test the marksmanship,navigation skills, endurance and teamwork amongst the teams under aninternational panel of judges, experts and arbiters.

The Army Scout Masters Competition will be conducted underthe established format of competition amongst Scouts and will offer uniquechallenges and opportunities keeping in mind the spirit of adventure, courage,comradeship and true spirit of the Army Games.

Its aim is to enhance international military to military andtechnical co-operation between the countries participating in the Scout MastersCompetition. The competition promotes the prestige of military service ingeneral and scouts in particular and assists the proliferation of bestpractices in field training amongst the participant states.It also developscompetitiveness amongst scouts participating in the competition, display combatcapabilities and characteristic of modern type of weapons, military equipmentand technical means of reconnaissance.