Monthly Archives: October 2022

28-year-old PLA ‘captain’ allegedly part of team that killed Colonel Viplav Tripathi, his family and four personnel

Security forces have arrested a militant belonging to a proscribed outfit from Manipur’s Thoubal district for his alleged involvement in an ambush on an Assam Rifles convoy in 2021, police said on Sunday.

The 28-year-old accused is a self-styled ‘captain’ in the Peoples’ Liberation Army, they said.

He was arrested on Saturday from Lilong Ushoipokpi in Thoubal district based on a tip-off.

“Through further questioning, it was revealed that he was part of the team that ambushed the CO of 46 AR (Assam Rifles) and 6 others in Behiang, Churachandpur on 13/11/2021,” a police statement said.

In a post on X, the Army’s Eastern Command said: “The apprehended individual is a key accused in the 2021 #Churachandpur ambush case of Colonel Viplav Tripathi, his family members and security forces. The successful operation reaffirms the resolve of security forces to disrupt insurgent networks and safeguard peace and stability in #Manipur.”

On November 13, 2021, militants ambushed a security convoy carrying Tripathi, the commanding officer of the 46 Assam Rifles, near Sehken village in Churachandpur district.

Tripathi, his wife, their young son, and four paramilitary personnel were killed in the attack.

Singh was accompanied by West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari during the foundation-laying ceremony

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday asserted that India is capable of becoming a global shipbuilding hub, as he virtually laid the foundation stone for five expansion projects of the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers, and Yantra India Ltd, from Kolkata. 

Singh was accompanied by West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari during the foundation-laying ceremony here.

Speaking on the occasion, Singh said foundation was laid for five projects worth nearly Rs 3,500 crore in West Bengal.

“India is capable of becoming a global shipbuilding hub. There is a vacuum occurring in the global shipbuilding industry, and India can capture this opportunity,” he said.

The projects comprise three facilities of GRSE and two of Yantra India.

Singh also said that the West Bengal government will take steps to usher in a “new renaissance of development”.

“The news of closures and lockouts of factories in West Bengal has now been replaced by the launch of new projects,” the defence minister said.

A GRSE official said that as part of its capacity expansion, the company has signed lease agreements with the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, Kolkata (SMPK) for two small shipyards on either bank of the Hooghly, along with a 32-acre riverside property at Raichak, to enhance capabilities in warship construction and refit.

“These projects will strengthen the capabilities of GRSE, while supporting the revival of West Bengal’s industrial ecosystem through employment generation and increased opportunities for ancillary industries, particularly MSMEs,” he said.

Operation Safed Sagar: The Untold Story of the Kargil War” has been one of the most acclaimed shows on Netflix this year. Actor Mihir Ahuja has stepped into the shoes of an Indian Air Force officer, taking on the role of Flying Officer CH Bal Reddy, popularly known as “Baldy”. 

IndiaNews Focus

The aerial actioner on the Kargil War released on August 7 and focuses on Number 17 Squadron, the “Golden Arrows”. Ahuja is among the young officers at the centre of the story, alongside actors Siddharth, Abhay Vermaand Taaruk Raina.

According to accounts of the real officer, Bal Reddy was initially handling administrative responsibilities and manning the Operational Readiness Platform in Bathinda when the war broke out. He subsequently joined the squadron in Srinagar as the conflict intensified.

The cast had the opportunity to hear firsthand accounts from soldiers who had experienced the war and also spent time at Air Force stations during the making of the series.

Mihir Ahuja shot inside real MiG-21s used in Kargil

One of the most unusual aspects of the shoot was Ahuja and other actors getting inside actual MiG-21 fighter jets that had been used during the Kargil War.

For Ahuja, the role was not simply an opportunity to portray a military officer. He has described the experience as humbling and said that being exposed to the stories of serving and former Air Force officers changed his understanding of the risks faced by pilots.

Instead, passengers travelling abroad will have to produce an e-boarding pass on their smartphones for immigration clearance

Passengers flying out of Indian airports will no longer be required to carry a physical boarding pass as immigration authorities have decided to do away with the stamping of this document from September 1, officials said on Saturday. 

IndiaNews Focus

Instead, passengers travelling abroad will have to produce an e-boarding pass on their smartphones for immigration clearance, the officials told PTI.

The Bureau of Immigration (BOI) under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has recently communicated the official directive to airport authorities after the agency found that the physical stamping of boarding passes for immigration purposes was causing “inconvenience” to passengers.

Instances of errors in reading boarding passes due to “improper or incorrect” stamping were also being reported and, hence, it was decided to do away with this procedure, the officials said.

“The matter has been examined by the BOI and it has now been decided to do away with the mandatory requirement of physical boarding passes and the stamping of boarding passes at immigration counters at all international airports in the country,” the officials said quoting the directive.

They, however, said physical boarding passes will continue to be accepted but will not be stamped by the immigration authorities from September 1.

Security officials added that boarding passes of international travellers were also not being stamped by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) during individual frisking and they were supposed to be only produced for clearance by immigration authorities.

The boarding pass stamping by CISF for both domestic and international passengers was stopped many years ago, they added.

The officials said a pilot project to do away with the stamping of the immigration entry and exit for Indian passport holders is also planned to be done away with after a pilot exercise in this context is completed. The measure is soon expected to be operationalised across Indian airports, they said. 

https://www.tribuneindia.com/videos/india-leases-2-more-predator-drones-from-us-for-navy

The Ministry of Defence on Monday inked a contract with US company General Atomics for leasing of two additional long range surveillance UAV’s, named the Predator, to be used by the Navy. The Navy has been using two such UAV’s on lease since 2020. The drones from General Atomics are officially called ‘MQ-9B Sea Guardian’ and have ‘high-altitude and long-endurance’ ability to fly upto 40 hours while transmitting to base, real time imagery and videos. The Ministry of Defence said on Monday it signed the lease and its operational contract for a period of 30 months and is valued at approximately Rs 1,943 crore. The MQ-9B Sea Guardian is equipped with advanced systems, state-of-the-art sensors and sophisticated payloads, will significantly enhance the Indian Navy’s maritime domain awareness capabilities”. The systems will provide persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance coverage over vast areas at sea, strengthening India’s ability to monitor and respond to developments across the Indian Ocean Region, the statement said. Separate from the leasing contracts for the UAV, the Ministry of Defence had, in October 2024, inked a contract with the US Government for procurement of 31 ‘MQ-9B’ UAV’s. India wants the armed version of the drone which will be dual tasked for attack as well as surveillance. The contract is under the Foreign Military Sales route between the two governments. The General Atomics will provide certain types of maintenance, repair and overhaul of these drones will be done in India. The deal will cost $4 billion. The Indian armed forces will start getting the drones over four years, that is from 2028 onwards . The Indian Navy will get 15 of the 31 drones while the Army and the IAF will get eight drones each. The MQ-9B, is adapted for operations over sea and over land. The US armed forces use the same MQ-9B platform and it carries missiles to do precision strikes at targets.

Tiangong Ultra’s time faster than 9.58-second human world record

A Chinese humanoid robot ran 100 metres in 9.39 seconds in a preliminary heat at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing on Saturday, faster than the men’s world record held by Jamaican sprinting great Usain Bolt.

Tiangong Ultra, developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, won its heat at the opening of the Games’ second edition, organisers said.

The robot overtook smartphone maker Honor’s Lightning near the finish after falling behind early in the race. Lightning finished in 9.47 seconds, also faster than the 9.58-second record Bolt set at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin.

The two robots lacked Bolt’s flair, slamming straight into a thick mat designed to stop them in their tracks, with Tiangong stumbling wildly into the sidelines, forcing onlookers to move out of the way. Lightning was carried away on a stretcher after collapsing to the ground.

The results nevertheless marked a sharp improvement from last year’s inaugural games, when Tiangong Ultra won the 100 metres in 21.50 seconds. Tiangong also won the world’s first humanoid robot half-marathon, held in Beijing last year.

Earlier on Saturday, Chinese state media reported that Lightning had run 100 metres in 9.32 seconds in a preparatory test, reaching a peak speed of 14.5 metres per second.

Lightning won this year’s humanoid half-marathon in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, faster than the pace of the elite men’s human world record.

Lightning stood 169 cm tall and had 95-cm legs during the half-marathon. Its researchers later lengthened its legs by 10 cm, to 1.05 metres, ahead of the games, according to broadcaster CCTV.

The 100 metres is among 51 events at the games, which include football, dancing and industrial-task contests.

CHINA SEES HUMANOID ROBOTS AS STRATEGIC INDUSTRY

China has promoted humanoid robots as a strategic emerging industry, with policymakers and companies betting that advances in AI and hardware will accelerate their use in manufacturing, logistics and consumer applications.

Investor enthusiasm for the sector was on display earlier this week when shares in Unitree, China’s best-known humanoid robot maker, jumped more than five-fold in its Shanghai trading debut on Wednesday, giving the company a market value of about $50 billion.

This year’s games have drawn 2,056 robots from 666 teams across 16 countries and six continents, up from 280 teams at the inaugural event.

The games, held at Beijing’s National Speed Skating Oval, run through Wednesday.

Search ops underway to trace 22 crew members after Panama-flagged vessel sinks in Bay of Bengal Bhubaneswar, Aug 23 (PTI)

Three ships have been deployed by the Indian Coast Guard to intensify search for crew members of Panama-flagged bulk carrier which sank in the Bay of Bengal off Odisha coast on August 22. 

The vessel, MV Ocean Winner, lost communication with the base, triggering a major search and rescue operation by the Indian Coast Guard and Indian Navy.

MV Ocean Winner was carrying 20 Chinese, three Myanmarese and one Bangladeshis on board.

In the immediate search launched, two sailors were found alive on a life raft on Saturday night.

The ICG has now deployed three ships to conduct surface searches for the remaining crew members, it said in a post on X on Sunday.

The ICG ships are ‘Varad’, ‘Anmol’ and ‘Vijit’, the ICG official said.

The ship had left the Odisha coast on Friday and was carrying iron ore bound for Singapore. The Coast Guard received information about the loss of communication with MV Ocean Winner before the vessel sank, officials said. (with PTI inputs)

Late Sajjan Kumar was never alone nor was his destiny his own.

While Kumar, 80, has passed, many survivors of the communal carnage continue to relive the horrors of those dark days till the last breath of their lives.

One such survivor is the Amritsar based Jagdish Kaur who spoke to The Tribune about her pain and despair. 

It was her chilling testimony in the murder case against Sajjan Kumar that led to his first ever conviction in the riots.

It was on December 17, 2018, that the Delhi High Court overturned a trial court acquittal of the former Congress MP who was charged with the murder of Jagdish Kaur’s husband, her 18-year-old son and her three cousins.

The case famously came to be called the Delhi Palam Colony Raj Nagar murder case.

Kaur recalls the court testimony she gave — the statement that led the High Court to order the first conviction of a high profile Congress politician in a matter in which ex-minister Kamal Nath and ex-MP Jagdish Tytler were also embroiled though nothing was ever proven against them.

“The fight has been very excruciating. The system tried to break me several times. I was offered Rs eight crore, a plot and a resettlement abroad in lieu of withdrawing the case against Sajjan Kumar. But I told them all that I am a Sardarni and I fear no one,” Jagdish Kaur says a day after Sajjan Kumar died a broken and lonely man serving his life sentence at Delhi’s Tihar Jail.

The testimony of Jagdish Kaur also proved the complicity of Delhi police in the murders.

The Delhi HC judgment records this fact in the case of murders of five members of Jagdish Kaur’s family in Raj Nagar on November 1, 2, 1984.

The judgment records: “At around 9 am on November 2, 1984, when Jagdish Kaur went to lodge a report at the police post, she saw that a public meeting was taking place which was attended by Sajjan Kumar who was the local MP. She heard him declare Sikh sala ek nahin bachna chahiye, jo Hindu bhai unko sharan deta hai, uska ghar bhi jala do aur unko bhi maro. She stated that she also heard the officer-in-charge of the police post ask mobsters “kitne murge bhun diye”.

The judgment adds: “At this point Jagdish Kaur said that she had lost faith in humanity”.

Speaking to The Tribune on Friday, Kaur said she persisted with her struggle for justice and did all it took. 

“I did odd jobs to raise my children and continued to fight for justice with dignity,” says the woman, her eyes still weary from years of anguish and struggle even as the perpetrator has now gone.

With drone swarms potentially involving 1,000 units, India is stepping up procurement, including a ₹20,000 crore drone plan and ₹52,000 crore defence approvals, opening new opportunities in drone warfare.

https://www.financialexpress.com/market/stock-insights/rs-72000-crore-drone-pipeline-3-indian-defence-stocks-riding-the-fast-track-surge/4319826/?ref=hometop_hp