While Indian Air Force ace pilot Group Captain Abhinandan Varthaman was accorded the Vir Chakra, Army Major Vibhuti Shankar Dhoundiyal, who was killed in the 2019 Pulwama terrorist attack, was accorded the Shaurya Chakra (posthumously) by President Ram Nath Kovind in an investiture ceremony on Monday.
The apex court also pulled up the Gujarat government for extending the deadline till July next year for hospitals to rectify the building by-laws violations, and said the "carte blanche" notification was in teeth of its order of December 18 last year and people will continue to die in fire incidents.
Taiwan says it detected multiple Chinese aircraft and naval vessels taking part in military drills around the Taiwan Strait on Saturday, in what could be a possible simulated attack against the island.
In the mid-1980s, India and the US struggled to arrive at sufficient confidence for Washington to even sell a supercomputer to India for monsoon prospecting. Now, the most sensitive military technologies, data, and intelligence resources are being shared. This would not have happened without that one, big deal that changed the fundamentals of India-US relations, notes Shekhar Gupta.
United States President Barack Obama on Friday ordered a "comprehensive" safety review of all the nuclear power plants in the country in light of the current situation in Japan where high levels of radiation from quake-crippled reactors are threatening to spew-out disaster.
India on Wednesday said the terror attack on a naval base in Karachi was a cause of serious concern, particularly with regards to the safety of nuclear arsenal in Pakistan, but it does not want to overreact.
The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant suffers from lack of safety measures and is plagued by several other "serious issues". It must not be commissioned till they are resolved, anti-nuclear activists told the Supreme Court on Thursday. Appearing before a bench of Justices K S Radhakrishanan and Deepak Misra, they submitted that the safety measures recommended by the Atomic Energy Regulation Board have not been put in place.
India's nuclear operator has started loading enriched uranium fuel in the first reactor of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project after getting the final clearance from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) on Tuesday.
Continued instability in Pakistan could impact safety of its nuclear weapons and materials, a latest US Congressional report has said as it described the sale of two nuclear reactors by China to Pakistan a violation of the NSG guidelines.
The government is expected to defer the mega initial public offering (IPO) of LIC to the next financial year as the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has dampened fund managers' interest in the public issue, market experts said on Sunday. The government was looking to sell 5 per cent stake in Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) this month, which could have fetched over Rs 60,000 crore to the exchequer. The IPO would have helped meet the curtailed divestment target of Rs 78,000 crore this fiscal.
Dr Suresh Moses Lee, who was one of the members of the panel of experts constituted by the Centre to examine the reactors of Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project, talks to rediff.com's Shobha Warrier about the safety aspects of the controversial plant.
Giving a thumbs up to the Koodankulam nuclear power project, former President A P J Abdul Kalam on Sunday said he is "fully satisfied" with the safety measures incorporated in the mega power project.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday told a delegation that a high-level committee would address their concerns on safety of the Kudankulam nuclear power project.
President Francois Hollande's visit to India on Thursday saw a protest against French-assisted Jaitapur nuclear power plant by activists who alleged that proper safety measures had not been adopted in the project to prevent a Fukushima like disaster.
It was meant to be the start of a triumphant march to the Tokyo 2020 Games: the torch relay would begin on Thursday in Fukushima, battered by the 2011 earthquake and nuclear disaster, as a poignant symbol of the "Recovery Olympics." But instead, it was like any other day for this prefecture in northeast Japan after the relay was scrapped following the Games' postponement due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Trying to contain the unjustified, yet growing sudden spurt of apprehensions against nuclear energy production in India, experts from radiation safety, nuclear technology and nuclear medicine explained in Mumbai at a seminar how the nuclear power technology in India and the world is 'mature and safe'.
The reactors that exploded at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami are similar to those at Maharashtra's Tarapur atomic power plant. But does India need to worry?
In an email to the ITF on Monday, AITA chief Hironmoy Chatterjee said India had full confidence the ITF and Pakistan Tennis Federation would organise an "excellent" Asia/Oceania Group 1 tie but said more security checks might be in order.
Amid growing global concern over safety of Pakistan's nuclear arsenals, India today said battlefield atomic weapons of that country were at the heart of such apprehensions.
Not taking any chance of India facing Fukushima-type nuclear disaster, the government is gearing up India's nuclear power plants and other reactors for automatic shutdown, requiring no human intervention, if any earthquakes of the least intensity strikes.
"After 20 years of war in Afghanistan, I refused to send another generation of America's sons and daughters to fight a war that should have ended long ago," US President Joe Biden.
India plans to produce about 20,000 mega watt of nuclear power keeping safety features in mind, former President A P J Abdul Kalam on Friday said as he certified the Kudankulam atomic plant as safe.
Organisers warn participants against eating out over COVID-19 risks.
The currency market won't care for our moans, groans, cries and sighs. The rupee will find its own level, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
India's ambassador to the United States, Harsh Vardhan Shringla, who was visiting The NYT editorial board, rejected Khan's criticism.
With intelligence inputs suggesting that terrorists were planning to attack India's nuclear installations, Army chief General Deepak Kapoor on Wednesday said Indian weapons were 'fully secure' and that there was no doubt about their safety. "As far as Indian nuclear weapons are concerned, I can assure you that whatever weapons we have, they are fully secure and there is no doubt about their safety," he told reporters.
US-India defence cooperation must not adversely affect the India-Russia interface, which has its own strategic meaning and content, asserts Vice Admiral Premvir Das (retd).
The Centre's announcement of setting up of an expert group to allay fears over Koodankulam nuclear plant has not been received favourably by anti-nuclear activists who have resumed their protests against the project.
Leading South Asia analysts in the United States have slammed President Obama for his stout defense of Islamabad as committed to non-proliferation and a safe steward of its nuclear weapons arsenal, and described his comparing the safety and security of US and Pakistan nuclear weapons is "unhelpful and disingenuous".
The United States and the world community are aware that Pakistan's nuclear installations are well secured, Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit told the media. Pakistanis are a progressive and moderate nation and there is no question of nuclear installations or materials falling into the hands of militants, he said.
Air Chief Marshal said his force is ready for a full spectrum operation but added that any decision on surgical strike involving the IAF has to be taken by the government.
In the wake of Japan's nuclear plants being at risk due to the earthquake and tsunami that struck the country, Maharashtra government on Friday said it would go ahead with the controversial Jaitapur nuclear power plant with additional safety measures if necessary.
'It is very significant that the president and the prime minister discussed Pakistan's efforts to take action against Lashkar-e-Tayiba and its affiliates.' 'This is something new and it demonstrates a recognition of Pakistan of the threats these terrorist groups pose to Pakistan and pose to other countries.'
'If the jihadi infiltration attempts are assisted by the Pakistan army, the Indian Army will retaliate strongly.'
Japan has decided to raise the severity level of the crisis at its tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to the maximum seven on an international scale from the current status of five.
The first 1,000 MW unit of the much-delayed Kudankulam nuclear power project could be commissioned in the next few days and every step is being taken to ensure safety, a senior official said.
Reviving their protests against the commissioning of Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant, activists of People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy on Monday said they would go ahead with their indefinite fast from Tuesday.
Taking cognisance of the threat of nuclear terrorism, 47 countries, including India, have vowed to prevent non-state actors from obtaining information or atomic technology and effectively cooperate globally to advance security in the field.
United States president-elect Donald Trump's tweet for strengthening and expansion of country's nuclear arsenal is indicating a major policy change as against the Obama Administration which had pushed for reduction and ultimately elimination of nuclear weapons.
In the letter, they have demanded the halting of the construction of the plant claiming that it violated the International Atomic Energy Agency safety guidelines as 'the nuclear plant is in a tsunami and earthquake prone region, which has also experienced small volcanic eruptions and is affected by water shortages".
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