The defence budget was on Thursday increased to Rs 6.21 lakh crore for 2024-25 in a modest hike of 4.72 per cent from last year's allocation of Rs 5.25 lakh crore amid India's continuing border row with China in eastern Ladakh as well as concerns over evolving security situation in the strategic waterways.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah spoke to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray through video conference and took stock of the state's preparedness to tackle any eventuality, the latter's office said. 10 units of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed in vulnerable districts, while six others have been kept on a stand-by, officials said.
The 23 Tamil Nadu fishermen, set free by a court in Sri Lanka after being detained by the island navy on the charge of poaching, arrived at Mandapam coast near Rameswaram on Saturday.
Many villages were cut off as several roads connecting them were inundated.
An Indian ship sank off the coast of southern Oman, drowning five Indian sailors and leaving nine others missing.
As many as 9,000 BMC employees will be working to oversee the immersion with 53 roads in the megapolis have been closed.
The Indian Navy and the Coast Guard have intensified their patrolling off Konkan coast following intelligence inputs that a suspicious ship was heading towards Goa.
The new regional headquarter of the Indian Navy to be set up in Gujarat will help protect the porous 1660 km long coastline in Gujarat, said Gujarat leader of Opposition Shaktisinh Gohil.
Mobilisation of resources close to the ill-fated cargo vessel MSC Chitra, which collided with another cargo ship off the city coast, is underway to carry out salvage operation even as some more containers fell into the sea.
A North Korean ship, sailing to a Pakistani port, detained by the Coast Guard and the Navy after it was found anchored in Indian territorial waters off Vatakara coast without permission, is likely to be released as officials have not found any objectional cargo on board. The crew had cited internal leak in its tank as reason for anchoring in Indian waters.
The Navy and Coast Guard are rendering necessary assistance at the beaches to ensure that the celebrations pass off smoothly.
The bird was seen near the coast carried an electronic chip and an Arabic word written on its wing.
Indian navy well equipped to meet any threat : Navy Chief
A day after an FIR was filed against 35 persons on board US ship 'M V Seaman Guard Ohio,' detained for straying into Indian waters carrying weapons and ammunition, a multi-agency investigation, including officials from Research and Analysis Wing and Intelligence Bureau, has begun, sources said on Tuesday.
Guarding the Mumbai coastline has been given the most precedence since intlligence alerts hint at likely threats from the sea.
Relief Commissioner Alok Pandey told reporters that the government is constantly working to ensure that there is no loss of life due to the weather phenomenon.
With questions over Coast Guard's 'boat' operation persisting, Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said those travelling in the Pakistani vessel were suspected terrorists as per the "given circumstances".
US Vice President Kamala Harris, who is of Indian and African heritage, has formally secured the Democratic presidential nomination becoming the first Indian-American to win the nomination from a major political party, and chose Minnesota Gov Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday.
With the November 26 terror strikes exposing the vulnerabilities of India's coastline, the country's armed forces are carrying out a week-long joint exercise off the Gujarat coast in which they would validate concepts to counter such threats in the future.
Mumbai harbour, which has been affected by the recent oil spill, would be cleared for transportation by August 15, Parliament was informed on Tuesday.
In view of increased threat along maritime border with Pakistan, Navy will commission a new base near Porbandar in Gujarat to strengthen surveillance and security apparatus in the region.
After critically examining the ship 'M V Mu San' at Kakinada port, a team of scientists from Kalapakkam nuclear centre concluded that they found no 'CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radioactive and Nuclear) traces' from the ship, which was detained by the Coast Guard off the Andaman waters in the first week of last month, official sources said in New Delhi.
Afcons Infrastructure, whose chartered barge P305 with 261 personnel at the Bombay High offshore oilfield was wrecked by cyclonic storm Tauktae earlier this week, on Thursday said the weather deteriorated rapidly and reached levels far worse than forecasts.
It looks unlikely that a proper plan was in place or else the deaths could have been averted, reports Jyoti Mukul.
The extremely severe cyclonic storm, which made landfall at Puri on Friday, unleashed copious rain and windstorm that gusted up to 200 kmph, blowing away thatched roofs of houses, swamped towns and villages, before weakening and entering West Bengal
Maharashtra, which has witnessed a number of terror attacks with the latest being on Mumbai, has demanded constitution of a Central Coastal Security Authority.
The parents of Deputy Commandant Manoj K Soni are urging the PM, the defence minister to seek some international help in getting a clue about their son.
Sri Lanka on Thursday freed 33 Indian fishermen arrested for allegedly poaching in the country's waters, days after President Mahinda Rajapaksa ordered their release as a goodwill gesture.
Late last year, the Cabinet Committee on Security had cleared the proposal for the creation of the post.
With the focus now shifting from disaster mitigation of cyclone to flood relief, the defence ministry on Monday said it has pressed four helicopters into service to evacuate the marooned local population as well as to drop relief materials to Phailin hit areas.
Naim Sheikh, who knew how to swim managed to save, with the help of his friends, about 50-60 people, even though, he himself was also injured in the incident.
For the first time, NSG commando will participate in the parade.
A United States fighter jet Friday shot down an object, the size of a small car, flying with payloads at a height of about 40,000 feet off the northern coast of Alaska on the direction of President Joe Biden, officials said.
Babu after reaching there, slipped and fell and got trapped between rocks on the mountain face
Armed Somali men, helping out coast-guards in the African waters, have managed to free an Indian cargo ship with 13 sailors on board, after it was hijacked by pirates off the northern coast of Somalia.
Thousands of Chinese protesters on Saturday pelted stones at Japan's embassy in Beijing amid growing tensions between the two sides over a group of islands in East China Sea, where surveillance ships dispatched by Beijing asked Japanese Coast Guard vessels to leave the disputed area or face consequences.
The Coast Guard on Thursday found the bodies of three missing crew members of the ONGC vessel Samudrika-10, which sank off the coast in Mumbai.
The narcotics substance worth Rs 775 crore in the international market was seized from a house belonging to key drug case accused Raji Haider Zaidi's sister in Muzaffarnagar on Sunday.
Shantilal Mangal was killed off the Gujarat coast on Monday morning.
After spending 22 days in prison and working in harsh conditions in Iran, the released fishermen returned to India on Tuesday. Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar spoke to them about their extremely trying experiences
