SOURCE: ANI

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi engaged in a brief conversation on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. They were seen having a brief interaction when Wang Yi was going off stage and Mr Jaishankar on stage. Mr Jaishankar is currently in Munich, Germany, to attend the Munich Security Conference (MSC) 2024 from February 16-18.

Moreover, Mr Jaishankar also met his counterpart from Norway, Espen Barth Eide, on Saturday and had a “big picture chat” with him in Munich, on the sidelines of the ongoing security conference in the German capital.

SOURCE:

 A Chinook helicopter of the Indian Air Force made a precautionary landing following a “technical snag” in Punjab’s Sangrur district on Sunday, police said. The helicopter landed on an open ground in the Dhadrian village of Longowal in Sangrur around 1 pm, a police official said, adding both crew members and the helicopter were safe.

SOURCE: ANI

After the Pakistani and Iranian crew expressed gratitude towards the Indian Navy for saving them from Somali pirates, Indian Navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar on Sunday emphasised that they are determined to help anybody who’s in distress, adding that they need to ensure that region is safe, secure, free and open.

The navy chief further told ANI that in the process, they realized that there were some fishing vessels with different nationalities, like Iranians, and Pakistani crew were getting hijacked by the Somali pirates, and they were being used thereafter to carry out piracy attacks on other bigger ships.

SOURCE: PTI

A Chhattisgarh Armed Force (CAF) personnel was killed by Maoists at a village market in Chhattisgarh’s insurgency-hit Bijapur district on Sunday, police said. The attack occurred around 9.30 am in a village under Kutru police station limits, where a CAF team was deployed for security at a market, a senior official said.

“A small group of Maoists attacked company commander Tijau Ram Bhuarya, who was leading the CAF team,” he said. The Maoists hacked Bhuarya to death with an axe before fleeing the scene, he said.

SOURCE: UNI

Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Jammu, the top security brass on Sunday went into a huddle in this capital city. The meeting was chaired by Inspector General of Police Kashmir, V. K. Birdi. Prime Minister Modi is visiting Jammu on Tuesday to inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of several developmental projects in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The security forces have been put on high alert in the Kashmir valley to ensure that militants do not carry out any subversive activities during the high-profile visit to Jammu and Kashmir.

Today’s meeting was held at the Police Control Room in Kashmir and was attended by senior officers of various security agencies, including the police, Army, BSF, CRPF, SSB, and CISF, as well as state and central intelligence agencies. The meeting aimed to comprehensively review and strengthen security arrangements in anticipation of visits by VVIPs to the UT of J&K, as well as other events in the offing, a police spokesman said.

SOURCE: IDRW.ORG

India has ramped up its defense export push to the Philippines, offering local manufacturing of attack helicopters, artillery guns, and bulletproof vests during recent talks. This comes after India secured an order for BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles and offered its LCA-Tejas fighter jets and ALH-Dhruv helicopters. To incentivize the deal, India has also offered a soft loan with a low interest rate and a long repayment period.

This move highlights India’s growing ambitions in the defense export market and its efforts to forge closer military ties with the Philippines.

SOURCE: AFI

The high-powered committee led by K. VijayRaghavan has encountered turbulence as a group of senior defense scientists opposes its January 2024 report titled ‘Redefining Defence Research and Development.’ The report, submitted to Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, has sparked dissent among some senior scientists at the DRDO, who have expressed doubts about its feasibility.

A contingent of top defense scientists has sought an audience with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the ultimate authority in the matter, to voice their concerns regarding the report’s contents. Key points of contention include proposals to bring the DRDO under the PMO’s purview and grant the armed forces a greater role in technology development. The panel asserts that the DRDO’s involvement in expansive defense projects has led to significant delays and resource wastage. Disagreements have also arisen over proposed changes to staff recruitment practices, favoring campus hiring through interviews over direct recruitment.

SOURCE: ANI

In the pursuit of advancing the Defence Sector through the ‘Make in India’ initiative, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) held deliberations with Swedish marine engine maker, Marine Jet Power (MJP). The Indian Coast Guard has persistently aimed at the indigenisation of spares for foreign-origin equipment installed onboard ICG ships in partnership with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM).

Over the past year, extensive discussions regarding propulsion systems have unfolded.On February 14, 2024, Jonas Tegstrom, the CEO of Marine Jet Power (MJP) Sweden, visited the Indian Coast Guard Headquarters in New Delhi to reaffirm his company’s commitment to enhancing indigenous content in waterjet systems.

SOURCE: PTI

ISRO was holding discussions ‘internally’ on its plan for the launch of the Chandrayaan-4 mission and was involved in developing a ‘novel design’ and ‘high-end technology’ in this connection, a top official said on Saturday.

After successfully launching the Chandrayaan-3 rocket on the south pole of the Moon in August 2023, ISRO has drawn up a more “complex” mission of bringing back the soil from the surface of the Moon to the Earth.

SOURCE: AFI

The Arakan Army (AA), an armed ethnic group fighting Myanmar’s military junta, has surprisingly expressed support for the Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project (KMMTTP) in a recent interview. This project, spearheaded by India, aims to connect the two nations through a waterway and road link, offering significant economic benefits.

Despite ongoing conflict with the Myanmar military, the AA spokesperson, representing the United League of Arakan (ULA), stated that the project would be “totally safe” after they “re-capture Kaladan and Laymro river deltas.” This signals a potential shift in stance, given prior concerns about the project’s impact on local communities and potential exploitation by the junta.

SOURCE: PTI

The joint satellite mission ISRO has undertaken with US’ NASA was not for surveillance purposes, but aimed at studying the Earth with a focus on sustainability, the space agency chief S Somanath said on Saturday.

The Bengaluru-headquartered ISRO is involved with The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, for developing a Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite to study the Earth following the impact of climate change, he said.

SOURCE: ANI

The Houthis, a group of armed rebels based in Yemen and backed by Iran, claimed responsibility for a new missile attack on a British oil tanker amid Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza, Al Jazeera reported. The targeted vessel, identified by the United States as a Panamanian-flagged tanker carrying crude oil bound for India, faced a barrage of naval missiles on the Red Sea.

Yahya Saree, the group’s military spokesperson, said in a televised statement on Saturday that a “large number of appropriate naval missiles” were used to target the Pollux tanker in the Red Sea in “accurate and direct” hits, Al Jazeera reported.