THE SPOKESPERSON

  The Indian Air Force is trying to keep up its strength of fighter squadrons as its fleet struggles with the gradual phase-out of existing jets as well as delays in the order and procurement of new jets. It is also placing much hope in indigenously manufactured aircraft.  Against the sanctioned strength of 42 fighter squadrons, we are today at 31 squadrons which won’t go up in the next decade, but on the contrary can go further down by 2029, an Indian Air Force (IAF) representative informed the Parliamentary standing committee on defence as per a report tabled in Parliament last month. This sums up the conundrum faced by one of the world’s largest Air Forces in modernising its fleet which has been beset with unending delays in procurement. “As far as going from 31 to 42 squadrons, I will not be able to say by when it can be accomplished”, the representative added noting that they have been trying for the past many years to move forward, but there are certain procedur...

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) on Saturday successfully placed two Singaporean satellites, TeLEOS-2 and Lumelite-4, in orbit aboard the trusted Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, while also carrying out experiments with seven payloads attached to its PS4 upper stage, the space agency said. PSLV- C55/TeLEOS-2 mission is accomplished successfully. In a textbook launch, the vehicle placed TeLEOS-2 and LUMELITE-4 satellites precisely into their intended 586 km circular orbit,” Isro tweeted on Saturday evening. The launch took place from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Saturday at 2.19pm. The mission marked the 57th flight of PSLV and the 16th mission using the PSLV Core Alone configuration, the lightest version of the launch vehicle as it has four core stages and no strap-on boosters to provide an added thrust, Isro said. Science minister Jitendra Singh congratulated the space agency for another successful mission. “Kudos to Isro for the successful launch of PSLV-C5...

  The DRDO and Indian Navy on Saturday successfully conducted a maiden flight trial of sea-based endo-atmospheric interceptor missile off the coast of Odisha. The  Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)  and  Indian Navy  on Saturday successfully conducted a maiden flight trial of a sea-based endo-atmospheric interceptor missile off the coast of Odisha in the Bay of Bengal. According to a statement by the defense ministry, the purpose of the trial was to engage and neutralize a hostile ballistic missile threat, thereby elevating the country into the elite club of nations having Naval Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) capability Prior to this, DRDO has successfully demonstrated land-based BMD system with capability to neutralize ballistic missile threats, emerging from adversaries,” the statement added. Defense minister Rajnath Singh congratulated DRDO and Indian Navy for achieving the feat. DRDO chief Samir V Kamat also complimented the team...

  Residents of Sangiote village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district will not celebrate Eid on Saturday. The village was the destination of the ill-fated Army truck that was ambushed on Thursday, leaving five soldiers dead. The vehicle was carrying fruits and other items for an iftar gathering meant to be held in Sagiote later that evening. According to locals, invitations had gone out to several people in the village of 4,000 for the 7 pm event, and arrangements were being taken care of by the Rashtriya Rifles unit. The truck was carrying materials from the RR headquarters at Basooni in Balakote, and had picked up more items en route from Bhimber Gali area, where the RR has a significant presence owing to movement of Army convoys between Poonch and Rajouri. Around 3 pm, when the loaded vehicle crossed Tota Gali, and was just 7-8 km short of its destination, unidentified terrorists who had already laid an ambush attacked it from multiple sides. When Army troops and v...

  NEW DELHI :Offshore Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)- the prestigious institutions of India are set to take the demeanor beyond the Indian peninsula following recommendation from the National Education Policy (NEP). These offshore campuses will be mentored by the Indian higher educational institutions. According to news agency  PTI , the institutions are likely to be called "India International Institute of Technology". The report further informed that faculty from the Indian counterpart can be transferred to the branches set up abroad.  Name of offshore IIT According to news agency PTI, the name of the  offshore IIT s would be 'Indian International Institute of Technology'. They further clarified that the ‘international’ bit would be added in the name in order to avoid confusion. The difference in name with sufficient similarity will allow the newly established IITs to evolve their own identity and ethos, while drawing up the strength of existing IIT...

  NEW DELHI  :Back in 1981, when Indian space scientists were gearing up for the launch of its first communication satellite APPLE from the Guiana Space Centre in France, they had loaded the satellite onto a bullock-cart. This was at a time when only telephone and telex (a network of teleprinters) were available for domestic and international communication and one had to book and wait for one’s call to come through. This was a time, when  ISRO  did not even have mainframe computers and setting up Ariane Passenger PayLoad Experiment (APPLE) Mission Control Centre at Sriharikota was posing great challenges. The pioneering mission, which marked an important milestone in India’s space programme and laid the foundation for indigenous development of INSAT and GSAT series, was facing setbacks on various fronts. The satellite’s antenna had to be tested as there were some problems detected in the Telemetry, tracking and control (TT&C) links which are crucial fo...

  Combat Tanks of Indian Army: Knowing country war power is very important, hence this article is regarding the combat tanks that our Army has. Indian Army is one of the largest armies in the world. Below we have listed the combat tanks of Indian Army. 1. T-90M Bhishma Main Battle Tank (MBT) The T-90M Bhishma is a indigenously built Indian Army variant of the Russian T-90 Main Battle Tank. 2. DRDO Arjun (Lion) Main Battle Tank (MBT) The main aim of the Arjun Mk II is to vastly improve the overall capabilities of the original Arjun MBT 3. DRDO Tank EX / MBT Ex (Karna) Main Battle Tank (MBT) Project It is one of the important combat tank of Indian Army 4. BMD-2 (Boyevaya Mashina Desanta) It is also known as Airborne Amphibious Light Tank and Infantry Fighting Vehicle The BMD-2 is air-droppable infantry fighting vehicle. It is next logical evolution of the BMD line of vehicles. 5. BMP-2 (Boyevaya Mashina Pekhoty) Infantry Combat vehicle ICV BMP II is amphibious infantry figh...