New Delhi, Aug. 15 -- A military medical team arriving in earthquake-hit Venezuela, warships carrying relief to cyclone-ravaged Sri Lanka, and an Indian field hospital treating victims in Myanmar, India's Armed Forces have increasingly found themselves deployed not only to defend the country, but to save lives far beyond its shores.

As India celebrates its 80th Independence Day on August 15, this expanding humanitarian footprint offers another measure of the country's growing global role: the ability to move troops, doctors, aircraft, warships, and relief supplies at short notice when disaster strikes abroad.

The latest chapter in this expanding global humanitarian footprint came in June-July 2026 with Operation Amistad in Venezuela, wh...