SOURCE: PTI

Deputy National Security Adviser Vikram Misri, widely regarded as an expert on China, was today appointed as India’s next foreign secretary. Mr Misri, a 1989-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, will succeed incumbent Vinay Kwatra who is likely to be appointed as India’s ambassador to the US.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the name of Mr Misri, the deputy NSA in the National Security Council Secretariat, to the post of foreign secretary with effect from July 15, an official notification said.

SOURCE: PTI

The Special Task Force (STF) of West Bengal Police on Friday arrested one person from Chennai for his alleged links to banned Bangladesh-based terror outfit Shahadat-e al Hiqma, an official said.

The person, identified as Anwar Sheikh, was working as a mason in Chennai. “We are bringing him back to Kolkata. Today, we produced him in a court in Chennai and secured a transit remand,” the official said. Sheikh’s name surfaced after grilling five arrested people of the same outfit, including a computer science student.

SOURCE: PTI

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) Friday conducted searches in Gujarat and Maharashtra on the premises of those suspected to have received money from Pakistan to spy on Indian defence establishments.

The searches were conducted in a case registered by the NIA in June last year. The agency filed a charge sheet in July 2023 against two accused including an absconding Pakistani national. This was followed by two more charge sheets against three others, including a Pakistani national, a statement issued by the NIA said.

SOURCE: ANI

The third India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission (IRIGC) Sub-Working Group meeting was held in the national capital to further enhance defence cooperation and joint exercises between the two nations.

The two-day meeting was held on June 26-27, with the Indian Army and Russia’s Land Forces participating in it. The meeting focused on defence cooperation, military training, military education and joint exercises between the two Armies.

SOURCE: BLOOMBERG

In the months that followed its invasion of Ukraine and punitive Western restrictions imposed in response, Russia amassed a shadow fleet to ferry its oil around the world. Now there is growing evidence Moscow has begun to do the same for liquefied natural gas.

Gas is key to the Kremlin’s plans to boost exports, replenish government coffers and fund its war machine — but that requires a larger share of the global LNG market, now that the once-lucrative European pipeline trade has been almost cut off. To date, expansion plans have been hampered by US sanctions that have kept foreign companies away and stopped delivery of the specialized, ice-ready carriers that are vital to reach Arctic facilities.

SOURCE: PTI

Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police R R Swain said on Thursday that the public, security forces and police are united in their effort to defeat terrorism in the Union Territory. During his visit to Ramban district to review the security situation, Swain highlighted the recent encounter in Doda district as a significant achievement.

“It is a significant achievement. We said yesterday that we would win this battle,” he told reporters.

SOURCE: PTI

The top UN human rights official on Thursday voiced concern over the use of anti-terror law in India to silence critics and urged authorities to drop cases against author Arundhati Roy over comments on Kashmir.

“#India: We are concerned by the use of #UAPA anti-terror law to silence critics. Repeat call for review of law & release of human rights defenders detained under it. Urge authorities to drop cases against Arundhati Roy and Sheikh Showkat Hussain over comments on Kashmir, the UN Human Rights Office, led by High Commissioner Volker Turk, said in a post on X.

SOURCE: ANI

The security forces have been preparing to conduct anti-naxal operations in the dense forests of Dantewada district during the monsoon. “In the past years, security forces have carried out anti-Naxal operations during monsoon and it has yielded positive results. In view of that experience, operations will be carried out continuously through special forces and central paramilitary forces during the monsoon period of the year 2024,” said IG Bastar P Sundarraj. The IG highlighted that the morale of security forces is very high regarding the operation.

“Forces have gained a deciding edge in the fight against the naxals and the same will be continued further so that naxal activities will be eliminated, development works will be carried out and peace will be restored,” stated Sundarraj. “The way security forces have carried out an action against naxals and established camps by penetrating interior areas, insurgents have lost their ground,” said the IG.

SOURCE: UNI

The SSB has arrested a Chinese woman while she was trying to enter India illegally through the India-Nepal Sonauli border footpaths at 1 am on Tuesday night. The woman was trying to enter India in the dark. She was not found to have any documents to enter India.

On Tuesday night around 1 o’clock, the soldiers of SSB 66th Battalion were patrolling the footpaths of Indo-Nepal border. During this, the soldiers of border post Danda Head saw a suspicious woman on the way to the under-construction ICP near Dandapul of village Ganwaria. She was carrying a backpack. When the woman appeared suspicious, she told that she was Chinese, but she did not have any document of any kind. Women members were called and she was arrested.

SOURCE: PTI

The Indian Navy and the Coast Guard carried out a joint medical evacuation of four critically-ill patients, including two infants, from Agatti Island in Lakshadweep on Thursday amidst challenging weather conditions, a Defence release said.

The patients — two infants and two adults — were successfully evacuated following a request from the Lakshadweep administration, the release said.

SOURCE : PIB

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has successfully completed six consecutive developmental trials of High Speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT) ‘ABHYAS’ with improved booster configuration from the Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur, Odisha. With this, ABHYAS has successfully completed 10 developmental trials demonstrating the reliability of the system.

?The trials were carried out with improved Radar Cross Section, Visual and Infrared augmentation systems. During the trials, various mission objectives covering safe release of booster, launcher clearance, and endurance performance were successfully validated. Two launches were conducted back-to-back within a gap of 30 minutes, demonstrating the ease of operation with minimum logistics. Representatives from the Services witnessed the flight trials.

SOURCE : IANS

The Indian Minorities Foundation (IMF) has issued a strong condemnation of a report prepared by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). In a statement released on Thursday, the IMF emphasised that USCIRF’s attempt to categorise India alongside authoritarian regimes such as Afghanistan, Cuba, North Korea, Russia, and China disregards and overlooks the country’s democratic structure, robust civil society, and rich pluralistic heritage.

“This mischaracterisation undermines USCIRF’s credibility and understanding of India’s religious freedom landscape,” the statement said.

SOURCE : ANI

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an organisation India has strongly criticised in the past, has again raised ‘concerns’ over religious freedoms, citing the alleged rise in ‘hate speech’, demolitions and anti-conversion laws.

The report annually surveys religious freedoms around the world and aims to provide a “fact-based, comprehensive view of the state of religious freedom” in nearly 200 countries and territories. The findings come a few weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his third term in office and India and the United States agreed to strengthen cooperation in high technology areas during a visit by White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan to New Delhi.

SOURCE : ANI

Philippines’ Ambassador to India, Jose Francisco Ignacio, expressed pride in President Droupadi Murmu mentioning the BrahMos project between India and the Philippines during her address to the joint sitting of Parliament on Thursday.

Highlighting the project as a crucial element of bilateral relations between the two nations in their 75th year of diplomatic ties, Ambassador Ignacio remarked positively on the current trajectory of India-Philippines relations.

SOURCE : PTI

India is now the world’s third largest domestic aviation market and the increase in flight routes in the last 10 years has benefitted Tier 2 and 3 cities, President Droupadi Murmu said today.

In her address to the joint sitting of Parliament, President Murmu said the country has grown at an average rate of 8 per cent annually from 2021 to 2024. She emphasised that in 10 years, India has risen to become the 5th largest economy from the 11th position.