India has successfully manufactured and test-fired its first fully indigenous AK-203 assault rifle, named 'Sher', at the Korwa facility in Uttar Pradesh, marking a significant milestone in defence self-reliance with 100 per cent Indian components.
The decomposed body of a 65-year-old man, Sakal Korwa, who had been missing since last Saturday, was recovered from a forest in Jharkhand's Garwah district.
Three people have been killed in separate incidents involving wild elephants in the West Singhbhum and Garwah districts of Jharkhand, India, within a 24-hour period.
HAL helicopters will be equipped with an 'Obstacle Avoidance System' that warns pilots of any obstacles in their flight path.
Last month, Bhatt said Kalashnikov AK-203 rifles for Indian armed forces were under manufacturing and testing stage at an Indo-Russian joint venture at Korwa in Uttar Pradesh.
HAL's sustained, long-term income will come from the design, development, manufacture, overhaul, and upgrade of a family of helicopters designed for deployment on India's 21,000-foot-high Himalayan frontier with Pakistan and China.
AK-203 assault rifles, with an effective range of 300 meters, are lightweight, robust and easy to use modern assault rifles with proven technology.
In the summit as well as in the inaugural '2+2' defence and foreign ministerial talks, the two sides are also expected to focus on the situation in Afghanistan and the rising threat of terrorism including from groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.
Singh, who arrived in Moscow on Wednesday on a three-day visit to attend a crucial meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), pressed for expediting supply of a number of weapons systems, ammunition and spares to India by Russia under contracts which were concluded earlier.
The meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in Bishkek is their first interaction after Modi's re-election following the stunning victory of the BJP in the general elections last month.
Modi was addressing a public rally after laying the foundation stone of a factory to manufacture advanced AK-203 rifles in Amethi, represented by the Congress president in Lok Sabha.
Russia -- already India's biggest arms supplier from 2014-18, accounting for 58 per cent of India's defence imports -- eyes more, reports Ajai Shukla.
