Bengaluru: Rajnath Singh becomes first defence minister to fly in LCA Tejas

Agencies
September 19, 2019

Bengaluru, Sept 19: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday flew in the Tejas fighter aircraft from the HAL airport in Bengaluru, becoming the first defence minister to fly in the indigenously-built light combat aircraft (LCA).

He was accompanied by Air Vice Marshal N Tiwari, who is also the Project Director, National Flight Test Centre, ADA (Aeronautical Development Agency) in Bengaluru.

The minister flew a sortie in the twin-seater version of Tejas from HAL airport in Bengaluru. Wearing a G-suit, Rajnath Singh had earlier on Thursday posted photos on Twitter saying he was "all set" for the big day.

A defence ministry official had on Wednesday said the minister would be "taking a sortie" in order to boost the morale of officers who have been involved in the development of "indigenously-made Tejas".

"It will also boost the morale of IAF pilots who are flying these aircraft," the official had said.

 In a major milestone in the development of a naval version of Tejas, the aircraft had earlier successfully carried out an "arrested landing", a key performance demonstrating its ability to land on board an aircraft carrier.

IAF PILOTS TO ACQUAINT DEFENCE MINISTER WITH THE FIGHTER

Designed and developed by the Bengaluru-based Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) of the state-run Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and built by the aerospace behemoth Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), the single-engine, delta wing, multi-role fighter will be flown by a senior IAF pilot.

Before taking off for a 30-minute sortie, the pilots of the 45 Squadron Flying Daggers will acquaint the Defence Minister with the air prowess of the home-grown fighter, its avionics, controls and radar in the glass cockpit and the weapons it carries for strike power," an official told news agency.

The squadron is based at the Sulur air base near Coimbatore in southern Tamil Nadu.

Rajnath Singh will later attend an exhibition of products of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in Bengaluru on Thursday, he had said

ABOUT LCA TEJAS

With final operational clearance (FoC), the IAF has inducted 16 weaponised LCAs into its combat fleet since June 2018 after its pilots validated its earlier version with initial operational clearance (IoC) by the military aviation regulator Cemilac here in December 2013.

Though the IAF will initially have two squadrons of Tejas with 18 fighters each, it plans to have more squadrons with an additional 83 of them as Mark-1 version.

Initially, the IAF had placed an order with the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for 40 Tejas aircraft. Last year, the IAF issued the request for proposal (RFP) to HAL for the procurement of another batch of 83 Tejas at a cost of over Rs 50,000 crore.

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News Network
February 29,2020

Mysuru, Feb 29: More than 7,000 industrialists and entrepreneurs have left the country due to a deficit of trust, and incidents like the violence that rocked northeast Delhi will only affect the economy further, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder of Art of Living Foundation, said on Friday.

Sri Sri was speaking at a corporate wellness conference on the theme, 'Wellness and Wellbeing for a Progressive Nation', hosted by CII in Mysuru. He said an atmosphere of fear and mistrust pervades the country and does not augur well for the economy.

"Bankers, too, are suspicious of everyone and not extending loans to industrialists. This has posed lots of problems," he said. "This attitude among bank officials should go as life depends on trust. When there is a deficiency of trust, there is a possibility of the economy slowing down," Sri Sri added

He said society is now facing two important issues - aggression and depression. "Some people stage protests and pelt stones which happened recently in Delhi. This is really unfortunate," he said, adding, "Fear lurks in the nation's capital, which is being used by many to create terror. This will affect the economy. No country will prosper without peace."

Wellness is the need of the hour, he said, adding, "Corporates used to spend half their health to gain wealth and spend half their wealth to regain their health. This isn't good economics. We have to talk and convince people to invest in wellness."

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News Network
July 10,2020

Bengaluru, July 10: The Karnataka government has decided to hold examinations only for the final semester students of undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) in various universities of state and promote other semester students to the next level without holding any examination.

The decision was taken to safeguarding the students' interest as well as academic career of lakhs of students during the time of Covid-19 pandemic. The significant move by the Higher Education department was announced by Deputy Chief Minister Dr CN Ashwath Narayan who is also the minister for Higher Education.

The DCM announced that the examination for final semester UG and PG students will be conducted as per the guidelines issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC) by the end of September 2020.

As per the latest decision, all students who are either at the beginning or middle semester of their UG and PG courses will be promoted to next semester without any examination. The state government further made it clear that the latest decision would only be applicable for this academic year--2019-20.

The students will be promoted to the next semesters based on academic performances during the previous assessment.

Giving details of the decision, Dr CN Ashwath Narayan told media persons that the decision was taken in the interest of the students. "Keeping in mind the safety of students during Covid-19 pandemic times, the government has taken the decision. We have also discussed with education experts, former Vice Chancellors before arriving at this decision," he said.

The DCM also revealed that Governor Vajubhai Vala who is the Chancellor of all the universities has also given his consent for the decision. Students can call up on the department helpline 080-22341394 for any academic queries.

How will students be promoted?

The students who are pursuing UG and PG courses at mid semester levels will be evaluated internally based on their academic performance along with the marks scored during the previous semester or year.

"Based on this comprehensive evaluation, we will promote the students to next semester. But for the first semester students, they will be promoted entirely based on internal evaluation on academic performance," the Deputy Chief Minister explained.

In case if the students wish to improve their marks further, they can take the exams separately later. This apart, students with backlog subjects have also been allowed to carry those subjects further into the next semester subject to only the present academic year.

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News Network
January 6,2020

Hyderabad, Jan 6: AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday expressed solidarity with students of Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, following violence in the campus and said the "cruel attack" was meant to "punish"the students as they "dared to stand up".

"In solidarity with the brave students of JNU. This cruel attack is meant to 'punish' JNU students because they dared to stand up. It's so bad that even Union Ministers are tweeting helplessly. Modi Sarkar must answer why cops aresiding with goons," the Hyderabad MP tweeted.

The AIMIM has also tweeted expressing solidarity with the "students of JNU". "AIMIM stands in solidarity with the students of Jawaharlal Nehru University. Who feels threatened by the voice of students?," the party said in a tweet.

Violence broke out at the JNU on Sunday night as masked men armed with sticks and rods attacked students and teachers and damaged property on the campus, prompting the administration to call in police which conducted a flag march.

At least 28 people, including JNU Students' Union president Aishe Ghosh, were injured as chaos reigned on the campus for nearly two hours.

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