Archive For April, 2018
India is laying claim to the club of aviation manufacturers. The aviation industry in India is still in its infancy, though Hindustan Aeronautics Limited has been working on smaller aircraft mainly for defence requirements – like Dhruv, the advanced light combat helicopter and Tejas, the light combat aircraft. These, though, are just kids on the […]
In an important move, the ‘Made in India’ Arjun Mark-2 tank project is set to see the light of the day. Chairman of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Dr S Christopher in an interview said, “We have had a meeting with the Vice-Chief of the Indian Army where it was agreed on accepting […]
The month-long winter trials of the indigenously-developed 155mm/52 calibre Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS) have achieved the desired results, an official from the Defence Research and Development Organisation has said. The weapon system is a joint effort by the DRDO and the private sector. The trials were conducted by a group of scientists from the city-based Armament Research and Development […]
It’s been a bit of a bumpy ride for India’s locally-built combat aircraft, the Tejas. The government kicked off the process to build the light combat aircraft way back in 1984, but it took more than three decades of technical challenges, U.S. sanctions following India’s nuclear tests, and domestic politics before the fighter jet was […]
State-owned defence manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd is looking to significantly increase the involvement of private companies in manufacturing Tejas combat jets even as readies for an additional order for about 200 units of the latest Tejas model, government officials said. Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) has already roped in private players including L&T to make key components for 123 Tejas Mark 1 and 1A […]
India successfully launched the GSAT-6A satellite that would provide mobile communication facilities, using its heavy rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F08), in a copy book style. The GSLV-MkII rocket slung the satellite in a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) from where it would be taken up to its final geostationary orbit by three orbit raising manoeuvres. […]
The current Economic Survey lays emphasis on the central role of science, technology and innovation (STI) in achieving India’s goal of fast, sustainable economic growth. It calls for boosting innovation by doubling of spending on research and development, greater involvement of younger scientists in decision-making bodies, increase in the number of investigator-led projects, leveraging the […]
Recall the February 2017 blaze that reduced hundreds of acres of forest land in Bandipur to ashes and devoured a forest guard? To prevent recurrence of such tragedies this summer, the forest department is all set to press drones into action. The drones which will be procured or hired by the department will hover over Bandipur forests […]
Amid intense preparations for its most challenging Chandrayaan-2 mission, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is gearing up to launch two other satellites before the lunar mission in April. Talking to TOI, ISRO chairman Dr K Sivan said, “The first launch will be of GSLV Mk II carrying Gsat-6A satellite by the end of March. Soon thereafter, we will launch navigation satellite IRNSS-1I […]
The US Military is using artificial intelligence software developed by Google in one of its drone programmes, causing internal divisions over how the company should be run. The Department of Defense’s Project Maven, commenced last April, utilises the Silicon Valley search giant’s TensorFlow AI to analyse the hours of footage shot by unmanned planes. TensorFlow scans the film for objects of interest and flags them for […]