Doctors attending on him said the work exhaustion coupled with dehydration had caused dizziness, adding the minister needed to rest for some hours.

As the 114th Passing out Parade of the NDA neared its conclusion, 68-year-old Antony, who was standing throughout the around one-hour-long ceremony, slumped down.

Officials standing nearby rushed to his aid and a chair was also brought in for him to sit, but he insisted on standing till the parade was over and the cadets had marched out of the ground.

Antony vomitted and fainted again and was immediately carried from the dais, where he had taken the salute and addressed the cadets, by the officers to his car.

Officials said the Minister insisted on going back to the dais to see the parade through, which was, however, not disrupted due to his illness and continued.

Antony then kept standing next his car and refused to sit down till the cadets had marched out of the parade ground and trooped into the Science Block as is the tradition.

After the parade was over, Antony was taken to the Military Hospital in the NDA campus, where he was given liquids and subjected to a thorough health check-up.

"He is doing fine. All vital functions are normal. We have done two ECGs on him and both are normal. His blood pressure and everything else is normal," NDA Commandant Air Marshal T S Randhawa told reporters.

"The effort of yesterday's work and exertion, late travel and the restricted amount of rest he got last night and this morning was probably the cause of a little giddiness, Randhawa said.

Antony has had a hectic schedule over the last few days, returning from Berlin on Thursday and getting very little rest before he travelled to Pune, where the weather currently is hot and sultry, for the Passing Out Parade.

"It's a long parade. He had a very long day yesterday. He arrived here after 11 pm at Pune, reached NDA around 11:45 pm, after which we briefed him about the parade. So he got very little rest," Randhawa said.

Colonel Deepak Bahadur, Commandant of the Military Hospital at the NDA, said there was no reason for any apprehension and attributed the bout of dizziness to the Minister's hectic schedule, lack of sleep and exhaustion.

He said the ECGs conducted on the Minister were normal and informed that he was on constant cardiac monitor. All blood tests conducted on him are also within normal limits.

"We will ensure that he takes a little rest so we will detain him in this town for the next six to seven hours," Col. Bahadur said.

He said Antony could be moved to the Command Hospital, Pune, where better facilities are available. The doctors here have also spoken to Antony's physician Gen Matthews, Commandant, Research and Referral Hospital, Delhi, and have been told the line of treatment being given to him is correct.

Antony was to interact with the media after the passing out parade but it was cancelled.