SOURCE: PTI

The last rites of Colonel (retd) Waibhav Anil Kale, a former Indian army officer who was killed in Rafah region of Gaza earlier this week while working with the United Nations (UN), were performed here on Friday with full state honours.

The body of the 46-year-old former infantry officer were flown here earlier in the day, and kept at his residence in Kalyaninagar for some time before they were taken to the crematorium in Pune Cantonment. Besides family members, his colleagues in the army, course-mates from the National Defence Academy (NDA), friends and government officials were present at the crematorium.

SOURCE: ANI

Indigenisation in the defence sector under the Make in India policy has helped the Indian Army significantly cut down its dependence on imports to meet its requirements.

Senior defence officials said the rise of the private sector industry in the field of ammunition has helped the force in a big way to achieve this. The Indian Army has stated that in the next couple of years, it wants to completely stop the import of ammunition other than a few types, which would not be commercially viable to be produced in the country.

SOURCE: UNI

India and Mongolia reviewed progress on various bilateral defence cooperation initiatives and identified means to further enhance cooperation. They exchanged views on the current geopolitical situation at the 12th Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting between the Defence Ministries of India and Mongolia that took place in Ulaanbaatar on May 16-17, a Defence Ministry statement said here.

The meeting was co-chaired by Joint Secretary, MoD, India Amitabh Prasad and State Secretary of MoD, Mongolia Brigadier General Gankhuyag Davagdorj. India’s Ambassador to Mongolia Atul Malhari Gotsurve also attended the meeting.

SOURCE: IANS

After Manipur, the Mizoram government is likely to initiate biometric enrollment for refugees, particularly from Myanmar, officials said on Thursday. After the military junta seized power in Myanmar on February 1, 2021, at least 34,350 people including women, elderly people and children from the neighbouring country took shelter in 11 districts of Mizoram.

A Mizoram government official on Thursday said that Chief Minister Lalduhoma, during a meeting with the leaders of the state’s influential NGO Young Mizo Association (CYMA), indicated the state government’s plan for biometric enrollment for refugees.

SOURCE: ANI

Reacting strongly to Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader KT Rama Rao’s remarks on the North-South divide, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said considering the South as a separate country was ‘highly objectionable.’ In an interview with ANI, Shah said, “This country can never be divided again. A senior Congress leader had said that divide North India and South India, and Congress did not distance itself from this statement.

The people of the country should think about the agenda of Congress.” “If someone says that the South is a separate country then it is highly objectionable,” Shah said. Asserting that the BJP will perform better in South India in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, the Home Minister said, “The BJP is going to become the largest party in five southern states – Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka.” Speaking to ANI last week, BRS leader KT Rama Rao said ‘North India is a different country altogether.’ “It is a different country altogether. It is a different world. I am not saying it literally but it is practically a different country.

SOURCE: PTI

Senior officials from the Indian Embassy here, the United Nations, and the Israel government on Friday paid their last respects to the mortal remains of former Indian Army officer Colonel Waibhav Anil Kale who was killed in Gaza.

Kale, 46, was killed, and another staffer from the UN Department of Safety and Security (DSS) from Jordan was injured when their UN-marked vehicle was struck when they were travelling to the European Hospital in war-torn Rafah in Gaza on Monday morning.

SOURCE: ANI

In a major terror bust, the Gujarat Police claimed to have busted a module that was planning to kill prominent political leaders across the country.

Briefing media persons on the breakthrough, on Friday, Commissioner, Gujarat Police, Anupam Singh Gehlot said a maulvi (cleric), identified only by his first name Sohail, was arrested in connection with the matter and disgorged more leads on the terror module on being interrogated.

SOURCE: ANI

An Air India flight bound for Delhi experienced a collision with a tug truck while taxiing towards the runway at Pune Airport yesterday. The incident occurred when around 180 passengers were onboard.

“The aircraft, carrying around 180 passengers, suffered damage to its nose and a tyre near the landing gear. Despite the collision, all passengers and crew on board are reported to be safe,” an airport official told ANI.

SOURCE: IANS

Thousands of people took part in two rallies — organised by the Zo Re-Unification Organisation (ZORO) — in Mizoram on Thursday to protest the Central government’s decision to fence the India-Myanmar border and scrap the Free Movement Regime (FMR) between the two countries.

The peaceful protest rallies were held at Zokhawthar and Vaphai villages in Champhai district bordering Myanmar, and many people from the neighbouring country also took part in these rallies. Numerous people from Myanmar also participated in the protest rallies.

SOURCE: IANS

Captain Gopichand Thotakura, a pilot, is set to become the first Indian to travel to the edge of space on Blue Origin’s next flight on May 19, the company announced on Thursday.

He will become the second Indian to visit space, after Rakesh Sharma’s iconic journey aboard Russian Soyuz T-11 in 1984. After Rakesh Sharma, only people of Indian origin have been in space — Kalpana Chawla (1997), Sunita Williams (2006), and Raja Chari (2021) as NASA astronauts.

SOURCE: REUTERS

India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) reported a rise in fourth-quarter profit on Thursday, helped by demand for its aircraft from the country’s defence ministry.

Consolidated net profit rose 52% year-on-year to 43.09 billion rupees ($516.2 million) for the three months ended March 31. Capital goods and manufacturing companies have benefited throughout fiscal 2024 from the Indian government’s push for higher capital expenditure. This extended into the fourth quarter.

SOURCE: ANI

India, a mega generator of digital data, is set to enhance its computational capabilities significantly by procuring 10,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) within the next 18 months, informed the country’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant on Thursday.

In a post on his X timeline, the India G20 Sherpa asserted that the country, which is the world’s highest in terms of population, generates 20 per cent of the world’s data. India also holds the position of having the second-highest number of GitHub AI projects globally, accounting for 19 per cent of worldwide AI projects, Kant said in his X post.

SOURCE: ANI

 In a veiled swipe at the country’s first prime minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and the Congress, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday said India lost its hold on Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) due to “someone’s weakness or mistake”.

Jaishankar made the remarks while addressing a programme event titled ‘Vishwabandhu Bharat’ To a question on what would China’s response be if India crossed the ‘Lakshman Rekha’ and integrated PoJK to the Union of India, given that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor passes through Pakistan-occupied Gilgit Baltistan, the External Affairs Minister said, “I don’t believe there’s any such thing as a ‘Lakshman Rekha’. I think PoJK is a part of India, and due to someone’s weakness or mistake, it’s temporarily slipped away from us.”

SOURCE: PTI

Reiterating that they would continue to raise the issue of human rights in India with its leadership, Indian American lawmakers on Thursday, however, said that lecturing New Delhi on this issue is unlikely to work and they favoured entering into a conversation with the Indian leadership on their concerns with them.

“India was colonized for over 100 years. So, when we’re having a conversation about human rights, and you’re having a conversation with (External Affairs Minister S) Jai Shankar or someone else, you have to understand that just coming in from a perspective of lecturing India. When they say that we’ve had colonial powers lecture us for hundreds of years is not going to be productive,” Congressman Ro Khanna told members of the Indian American community during the “Desi Decides” Summit of Indian American Impact.

SOURCE: ANI

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, also the BJP candidate from Lucknow, highlighted remarks from Pakistani leaders acknowledging India’s growing power. He said that our neighbour Pakistan, which has never spoken favourably about our country, is acknowledging India’s growth as a powerful nation.

Addressing a public meeting in Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow, Rajnath Singh said, “By 2027, India will rank third globally in terms of wealth. One of our neighbours, who has never spoken well of our country, and today their leaders are India is becoming a powerful country, and Pakistan is still backward.”