SOURCE: PTI

Four terrorists were on Thursday given life imprisonment in a terror conspiracy case related to the banned Babbar Khalsa International outfit by a NIA special court in Mohali, according to an official statement.

The terrorists convicted and sentenced by the court include chief conspirator Kulwinderjeet Singh alias Khanpuria, involved in several terror cases, including a bomb blast at Connaught Place and a grenade attack at Red Fort in Delhi, in the nineties, said the statement issued by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

SOURCE: PTI

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday defended the Agnipath scheme underlining that the future of youths joining as Agniveers would not be impacted, even as he said the government was “open” to bring any change in it “if required”.

During a fireside chat on the concluding day of the Times Now Summit here, Mr Singh, while responding to a question on the criticism of the scheme, said such questions have “no standing” and underlined that everyone will accept that the armed forces should have a young profile.

SOURCE: ANI

India sees the UN Security Council resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza and the “unconditional” release of all hostages by Hamas, as a “positive development”, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal reiterated India’s position on the Israel-Gaza conflict and said that New Delhi condemns terrorism, calls for safe and timely aid to Palestinians, and also believes in a two-state solution.

SOURCE: ANI

The Manipur Police has arrested four persons in possession of a significant cache of arms from the Bishnupur district of Manipur, police said on Thursday. The four arrested persons have been identified as Salam Rameshwor Singh, Tongbram Gyanjit Singh, Pukhrem Ingocha Singh, and Thokchom Temba. Alongside the arrests, authorities seized a significant cache of items, including three SLR Rifles and four empty magazines.

Additionally, they confiscated twenty live rounds, seven mobile phones, one Baofeng Walkie Talkie Set, and two cars, along with bags and various other items. The police arrested the accused on Tuesday from IV Road, Moirang Thoya to Tronglaobi, Bishnupur District. A case has been registered for further investigation into the matter, the police added.

SOURCE: IDRW.ORG TEAM

The Indian aerospace industry witnessed a significant milestone today as the first production variant of the Tejas Mk-1A Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) successfully completed its maiden flight. The aircraft, designated LA5033, took off from the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) facility in Bengaluru and remained airborne for 18 minutes, marking a crucial step forward for the program.

This successful flight signifies HAL’s achievement of a critical production milestone. The accomplishment is even more impressive considering the concurrent design and development efforts undertaken alongside production. This approach reflects India’s commitment to expediting the delivery of these upgraded fighter jets.

SOURCE: IDRW.ORG TEAM

Skyroot Aerospace, the Indian private space company, has achieved another critical milestone towards the first orbital launch of their Vikram-1 rocket. The successful test firing of the rocket’s second stage, named Kalam-250, brings them a step closer to making history.

The test, conducted at ISRO’s propulsion test facility in Sriharikota, India, saw the Kalam-250 engine ignite and operate within expected parameters. The flex nozzle control system, crucial for steering the rocket during flight, also functioned successfully.

SOURCE: ANI

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) inaugurated its Indian subsidiary, AeroSpace Services India (ASI), in New Delhi on Wednesday.

“IAI proudly presents ASI as our first major milestone towards India’s Atmanirbhar Bharat vision on self-reliance. India and Israel’s partnership has witnessed state-of-the-art achievement. This growth and development will create history when our two nations will foster IAI’s technology and India’s talent and expertise in the Defence sector. Together we will make Atmanirbhar Bharat,” said IAI’s President and CEO Boaz Levy.

SOURCE: ANI

Army Chief General Manoj Pande on Wednesday emphasised self-reliance in military production, stating that it is important that the country is able to source sustenance equipment like ammunition indigenously and develops its own capabilities and adequate thrust is being laid in this direction. Speaking at the Times Now Summit, General Pande said the country’s import dependency “should be near zero”. “It will be a strategic imperative in the future to be self-reliant. It is important that we are able to source sustenance equipment like ammunition indigenously.

Even technology, if we import we will always remain one cycle behind. It is important to develop our own capabilities and adequate emphasis is being done. Our import dependencies need to be near zero,” he said. “Exercise Bharat Shakti in Pokhran was to demonstrate the ongoing efforts towards capability development through Atmanirbharta.

SOURCE: ANI

Responding to the update on the investigation regarding the killing of India-designated terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, after taking a long pause, said that they are looking to work constructively with the Indian government to get to the bottom of the matter, according to the Canada-based media channel, Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC).

Trudeau was asked, “how is India’s cooperation shaping up on the assassination investigations of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar when Canada has credible allegations and India expects Canada to complete its own investigation first?” The Canadian PM said, “The killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is something that we all should take extremely seriously.”

SOURCE: PTI

The 29th meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs has been held and the two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on how to achieve “complete disengagement” and resolve the remaining issues along the LAC, the MEA said on Thursday.

The key meeting was held in Beijing on March 27, it said in a statement. “The two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on how to achieve complete disengagement and resolve the remaining issues along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Western Sector of India-China border areas,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.

SOURCE: PIB

Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari visited Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) Delhi Campus on March 26, 2024. The C-DOT is the premier Telecom R&D centre of the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, Government of India. It is actively working on developing indigenous, secured telecom solutions, for critical infrastructure such as defence communications & Cyber Security.

CEO, C-DOT, Dr Rajkumar Upadhyay, gave a detailed presentation on diverse telecom product portfolio/solutions and key telecom security solutions such as security operation centre (real-time detection of malware in a network), enterprise security centre (real-time detection and mitigation of malicious threats and attacks at an enterprise level covering all end points), Quantum key distribution, Post Quantum Cryptography to the visiting dignitary. Other solutions such as 4G core & 4G RAN, 5G core & 5G RAN, disaster management solution using CAP, optical transport & access solution, switching & routing solution, etc were also discussed.

SOURCE: ANI

Highlighting India’s efforts to resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that India has had the opportunity to talk to Moscow “very frankly and bluntly” on the issue.

He also said that India has been used by others in ‘passing messages’ during the conflict. Jaishankar, who is on a visit to Malaysia, was interacting with the Indian community during an event. “I go back to India tomorrow, I have the foreign minister of Ukraine visiting me the day after that. We have also been the country who have the opportunity to talk to the Russians very frankly and bluntly on this issue (Russia-Ukraine conflict). On different aspects, others have used us to pass messages,” Jaishankar said.

SOURCE: ANI

 Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba who arrived in India on Thursday, said that his two-day official visit will look to boost bilateral ties between the two countries and build on the dialogue between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“I began my visit to New Delhi upon @DrSJaishankar’s invitation. The Ukrainian-Indian cooperation is important and we will be reinvigorating ties. Building on the dialogue between @ZelenskyyUa and @NarendraModi, we will pay specific attention to the Peace Formula,” Kuleba said in a post on X.

SOURCE: ANI

Reacting to the suicide attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which killed six people, including five Chinese nationals, on Tuesday, Amjad Ayub Mirza, a political activist from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), said that the attack signifies that the Pakistani Army is losing control in the region and Baloch fighters are growing in strength.

“Let us not forget that this is not the first time that the Chinese have been targeted on this route. In 2021, there was a suicide attack on a bus and nine Chinese engineers had lost lives, resulting in the escalation of discomfort between China and Pakistan,” Amjad said.

SOURCE: ANI

India is outpacing the world when it comes to adopting renewable energy, said US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti, on Wednesday, while calling for deeper collaboration between New Delhi and Washington to win the fight against climate change.

At an event, Garcetti highlighted the importance of deploying clean energy to support sustainable economic growth and protect vulnerable communities.