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The Indian Air Force has operationalised its No.18 Squadron, the "Flying Bullets", at Sulur near Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, equipping it with the fourth generation Mk1 LCA (Light Combat Aircraft) Tejas.The indigenous tailless compound delta wing aircraft was inducted at an official ceremony in the presence of Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria at the Sulur Air Force Station today.The No.18 Squadron will be the second one to have the home-made Tejas fighter jet, after the 45 Squadron based in Coimbatore.

Indian authorities are helping farmers mount a pesticide spraying campaign to fight the swarms of desert locusts which have already devastated crops across Pakistan and East Africa.As many as 700 tractors, 75 fire engines and almost 50 other vehicles are engaged in spraying pesticides to kill the locusts, Trilochan Mohapatra, director general of the state-run Indian Council of Agricultural Research in New Delhi said on Tuesday. Drones will also be employed."At this point it's manageable, but if it continues it will be a problem" for monsoon-sown crops, said Mohapatra, who's also the top bureaucrat at the department of agricultural research…

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday paid tribute to former Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on his 56th death anniversary and recalled him as "a brave freedom fighter and the architect of modern India".Remembering his great grandfather, Mr Gandhi tweeted, "Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Ji was a brave freedom fighter, the architect of modern India and our first Prime Minister. A visionary, he is immortalised in the world-class institutions he inspired, that have stood the test of time. On his death anniversary, my tribute to this great son of India."Jawaharlal Nehru was born on November 14, 1889 in Allahabad. In 1919,…

A two-day meeting of senior Army commanders, presided by Army Chief General MM Naravane, is underway at Ministry of Defence offices in Delhi. The Army Commanders' Conference will discuss issues pertaining to the security of India's borders, including recent Chinese aggression in Ladakh.The conference comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a high-level meeting to discuss the stand-off with China. National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat were among those at that meeting.

The customary exchange of Eid sweets between the Border Security Force (BSF) and its Pakistani counterpart, Pakistan Rangers, did not not take place along the India-Pakistan border on Monday, officials said. The event was given a miss as the relations between the two countries are strained at present, they added. However, the force exchanged sweets with its Bangladeshi counterpart, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), all along the eastern front. India and Bangladesh share a 4,096-km-long international border. “BSF and BGB share a very cordial relationship. Both the countries share a similar culture, traditions and festivals. “The warmth and bonding between the…

Rejecting reports on the detention of a joint patrol party detained by Chinese forces in Ladakh, the Indian Army said on Sunday that these were "inaccurate". It was claimed that an Indian patrol party comprising Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel was detained by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) last week after skirmishes in Ladakh. On Friday, Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) General M M Naravane visited the headquarters of the 14 Corps based in Leh in the Union Territory (UT) of Ladakh amid growing tensions between the Indian and Chinese armies at multiple locations along the Line…

Even more than three years after demonetisation and all-out efforts to make most transactions through electronic, cash is still king, as it thrives in a digital India, said fintech start-up Paytm founder Vijay Sekhar Sharma. "While cashless economy is not possible in India, less cash economy will be in the future. Less cash is the only solution, not the elimination of cash," Sharma told IANS in an interview after unveiling an all-in-one payment gateway on Tuesday. India’s leading financial services company Paytm has today announced that‘Business Khata’ has become India’s fastest-growing e-ledger service. As more kiranastores are adopting digital transactions to avoid cash, Paytm has recorded…