Ch Sushil Rao

The exercise began at Training Node Aisha Bibi, Kazakhstan. This is the 5th Edition of Annual bilateral joint exercise of both Armies and will continue till 10th September 2021. The fourth edition of the exercise was held at Pithoragarh, India in September 2019.  The contingent comprises 120 troops from Kazakhstan and 90 soldiers from the Indian Army. Meanwhile, a 200-personnel contingent of Indian Army will participate in Exercise ZAPAD 2021, a Multi Nation exercise being held at Nizhniy, Russia from September 3rd to 16th. 

The Multi-Mode Hand Grenades were manufactured by Economic Explosives Limited (EEL) following Transfer of Technology from Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory of Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO). They were  handed over to the Indian Army in the presence of Union defence minister Rajnath Singh in Nagpur, Maharashtra on August 24, 2021. The grenade is not just more lethal, but is safer to use. It has a distinctive design that gives flexibility of employment in both defensive (fragmentation) and offensive (stun) modes. It has a highly accurate delay time, very high reliability in usage and safe for carriage. These new grenades will replace Grenade No 36 of World War I vintage design, which had been continuing in service till date.

INS Airavat has brought 10 Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) containers, based on the requirement projected by the Government of Indonesia. On completion of disembarkation of the medical supplies and, as part of the ongoing Mission SAGAR, INS Airavat will continue onwards to deliver medical supplies to other friendly nations in the region.

They have returned to India but the future appears bleak.  Ganesh Biragouni Goud is a specialist locksmith. He served with NATO forces in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban for the last 10 years. After NATO troops and the US army decided to move out of Afghanistan, the 35-year-old Ganesh had to come back to India on July 16. “My dreams of providing good education for both my children and taking care of my family have been shattered,” Ganesh told TOI from Mamidiapalli village in Armoor mandal of Nizamabad. In 2011, in a terror attack by the Taliban, he his leg was fractured. “By the time I could reach the bunker for security cover after the siren was sounded, a bomb blew up,” he recalled. After his treatment, he was sent to India and he went back to work in Afghanistan the next year. Prior to going to Afghanistan for the first time he served with the US forces in Iraq for five years.

A Selection Board of the Indian Army cleared the way for the promotion of five women officers to Colonel (Time Scale) rank, post completion of 26 years of reckonable service. This is the first time that women officers serving with the Corps of Signals, Corps of Electronic and Mechanical Engineers (EME) and the Corps of Engineers have been approved to the rank of Colonel. Previously, promotion to the rank of Colonel was only applicable for women officers in the Army Medical Corps (AMC), Judge Advocate General (JAG) and the Army Education Corps (AEC).

Naidu said the technologies have to be developed indigenously to make India self-reliant in defence technology and emerge as an export hub of modern military hardware. Addressing scientists and engineers of Hindustan Aeronautical Limited and Aeronautical Development Agency at HAL complex, Bengaluru, the Vice President said indigenous products would play a key role in leapfrogging India as an Aerospace and Defence powerhouse in the coming years. While noting India’s capability to manufacture the state-of-the-art missiles, satellites and space vehicles, he said, “the paradox remains that we are still among the largest arms importers in the world”. He called for changing this situation by quickening the pace of indigenous development of critical technologies.