Rescue and relief operations continued in full swing in Chennai with over a hundred people taken to safety by teams of Army, IAF and NDRF, including a seven-month pregnant woman who was airlifted on Thursday from one of the worst-affected areas in the flooded city.
'IAF is expanding at a rapid pace'
INS Kochi, the second ship of the Kolkata-class (Project 15A) Guided Missile Destroyers, will bolster the Indian naval fleet when it is commissioned on Wednesday.
Security agencies are also working in close coordination with the US Secret Service, officials said. In Ahmedabad, over 10,000 policemen from different parts of Gujarat have been deployed at strategic locations as part of the elaborate security arrangements, officials said.
Navy chief Adm. Sunil Lanba said that by 2050, India will have 200 ships, 500 aircraft.
With cyclone Phailin expected to make landfall in Odisha on Saturday, the state government mounted a massive operation to evacuate two lakh people from six coastal districts on Friday night
'The government has belied the hope that many harboured of change, efficiency and dismantling old practices as the defence ministry continues to pursue the same well trodden and wasteful path.'
'The India-France relationship has been that of the elites of two countries, who appreciate each other's philosophical traditions -- whether it is ancient Indian civilisation and Sanskrit texts or the French tradition of Rene Descartes, Albert Camus, (Jean-Paul) Sartre... This is a drawback. It doesn't create the buzz, the excitement necessary for a relationship. We need more people-to-people contact, especially among students,' says former Ambassador to Paris, Rakesh Sood.
