India and France are to sign a pact on securing communication links between their top military officials, a sign of their deepening defence partnership especially in the Indian Ocean region that comes against the backdrop of an increased Chinese footprint and the persistence of threats like the Islamic State.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Intelligence Israel Katz met India’s external affairs minister S Jaishankar on the sidelines of the Meditteranean dialogue last week and shared the “Tracks for Regional Peace” initiative. In November, Israel had shared its connectivity project with Oman.
Claimed to be a first-of-its-kind initiative in India, the department will make the information available on its official website. “These state-protected monuments include palaces, forts, heritage buildings, inscriptions, archaeological sites, temples, mosques, and dargahs. Monuments located in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Kalaburagi and Belagavi divisions will be included in this project,” an official said.
Metal cutting, the first step in the start of commercial production, of the of indigenously made single-engine fighter plane Tejas (Mk-II) is scheduled for February 2020, according to Dr Girsh S Deodhare, director of the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and head of the Tejas programme.
“Under MKSP, 36.06 lakh mahila kisans have been benefited through 84 projects in 24 states/UTs in the country, out of which 1.81 lakh women have been benefited in Maharashtra. A total central allocation of Rs 847.5 crore has been made towards implementation of the approved projects,” the minister said.
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), through its constituent laboratories namely CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal & Aromatic Plants (CSIR-CIMAP), Lucknow; and CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute (CSIR-NBRI), Lucknow developed scientifically validated herbal product NBRMAP-DB as anti-diabetic formulation and the knowhow for the product was licensed to M/s AIMIL Pharma Ltd., Delhi who are manufacturing and marketing it as BGR-34, across the country.
With focus on connectivity of North eastern region, UDAN 4.0 scheme under the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has invited bids for 6 underserved and 24 unserved airports/airstrips in the North-East states of India. The ministry has also recognized 1 Water Aerodrome location that is up for bidding in the region.
This fossil was unearthed in 2003 by Rajeev Patnaik (Panjab University) and Parth R. Chauhan (IISER Mohali) who spent days studying the fossiliferous silt near the river Narmada. “We believed that the species was older than 50,000 years and did not study it fully. Recently, I analysed the date using accelerator mass spectroscopy (AMS) in Taiwan. It revealed that the specimen was quite young and could possibly be among the last ones that lived in India,” Dr. Patnaik says.
Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Monday met top defence officials from Vietnam and Bangladesh and an Australian diplomat and held talks on issues of mutual interest. The Army chief met Admiral Aurangzeb Chowdhury, chief of Naval Staff of Bangladesh Navy, and Lieutenant General Ngo Minh Tien, deputy chief of the General Staff, Vietnam People’s Army.
The relationship between the two countries was elevated to a Strategic Partnership in 2009, and had also adopted a Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation.
