Left, Right & Centre

After a trial by fire in court, the Indian Air Force finally gets its first Rafale fighter jets. The first batch of Rafale fighters are on their way to India. In an interview to NDTV, Air Marshal Raghunath Nambiar, Former Chief of the Western Air Command, says: "Rafale is a fully integrated aircraft. I took over as the Deputy Chief, 2-3 months after the negotiations were completed and contract had been signed. I had the opportunity to defend the Rafale and I was sure in my mind we had done nothing wrong."

Squadron Leader Dalip Singh Majithia has turned 100. In an exclusive interview to NDTV, India's oldest fighter pilot says: "I still feel that I am a part of the Indian Air Force when I meet officers."

In 1999, as the Kargil war was winding down, we had the opportunity to fly with Flight Lieutenant Gunjan Saxena, India's first woman combat aviator. Flight Lieutenant Saxena flew Cheetah helicopters during the war and participated in daring missions observing the damage caused by India's artillery fire. Her Cheetah helicopter was vulnerable and completely defenceless. The story that we put together in 1999 inspired the film Kargil Girl, which has been produced by Karan Johar's Dharma Productions. We are delighted at being a small part of the process that made Flight Lieutenant Saxena and her exploits be known to the rest of India and are thrilled that this is now a film being released on Netflix. This is the story of Flight Lieutenant Gunjan Saxena (retd).

Over 3,000 COVID-19 patients in Bengaluru are untraceable, the authorities have said. "These people are missing for a reason. Are they afraid of being ostracised, are they worried about BBMP (civic agency)? This needs to be addressed," said Dr Ravinder Mehta, chief of Pulmonology and Critical Care, Apollo Hospital, Bengaluru, tells NDTV. As many as 3,338 people infected with the novel coronavirus are untraceable in Bengaluru, which is 7 per cent of total coronavirus positive people in the city. A search is underway to trace them.

The battle lines are drawn in Rajasthan; while the Ashok Gehlot cabinet passed a proposal to convene the assembly, the BJP met with the Rajasthan Governor. Is the state heading towards a constitutional crisis, after the rebellion by Sachin Pilot and MLAs loyal to him?

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has submitted a list of 102 MLAs to the Governor. This as the Governor wrote to the Chief Minister saying, neither justification nor any agenda has been proposed to call the session on such a short notice. He also spoke of explanation being sought on how to convene the session amidst coronavirus pandemic.

The aviation sector in the country is in the middle of an unprecedented crisis. There have been job losses, massive retrenchments and no clear signs of when our airlines will return to some sort of profitability. In the midst of this, there are new opportunities as well. SpiceJet, in association with Actor Sonu Sood, has been bringing back Indian nationals stranded in Kyrgyzstan and the airline today announced that it has secured the rights to fly to the United States of America.

Government sources have told NDTV that the momentum in the disengagement process in Ladakh appears to have lost steam with a stalemate emerging in the Depsang Plains region, Gogra and the Fingers region along the Pangong Lake, where India and China had started a mutual disengagement by creating a buffer zone between both sides. What then are the options available to India?

Speaking on the border tension between India and China, Lt Gen DS Hooda, former Northern Army Commander, tells NDTV that the ball is in India's court and "we need to rely on diplomacy, economic pressure but we cannot completely rule out the military option."

On Left, Right & Centre: Analysing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech at the US-India Business Council, as he reached out to US investors with a message - this is the best time to invest in India.