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** Indian Navy’s ‘Killers’ squadron, that sunk Pak warships, to get President’s Standard

This year also marks 50 years of inception of the Missile Vessel Squadron, also known as the ‘Killers’, which over the past five decades has maintained the capability of delivering a credible offensive punch from the sea, a Navy official said on Sunday.

** Successful flight test of VL-SRSAM paves way for integration onboard Indian Naval Ships

Resuming pending tests of its key missile systems, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Tuesday successfully flight-tested Vertical Launch Short Range Surface to Air Missile (VL-SRSAM) from a defence test facility off Odisha coast.

The indigenously developed missile was test-fired from a static vertical launcher positioned at the Integrated Test Range (ITR) on Tuesday afternoon. Launched from a canister, the missile, which is yet to get a formal name, intercepted an electronic target at a very low altitude.

** Out of 17,726 registered pilots in India, 2,764 are women; the highest percentage in the world

India has a total of 17,726 registered pilots out of which the number of women pilots is 2,764.

Globally, according to the International Society of Women Airline Pilots, around 5 percent of pilots are women. In India, the share of women pilots is significantly higher – at over 15 percent, Minister of State in the Ministry of Civil Aviation VK Singh said in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on Monday.

** Uttar Pradesh: Plastic surgeon performs 37,000 free surgeries to make kids smile

Plastic surgeon Dr Subodh Kumar Singh struggled in his childhood days to become a doctor; he now offers free corrective surgeries to kids born with cleft lip/palate.

He was a meritorious student, who along with his studies also sold goggles and washed soaps to support his family in Varanasi in 1979. Today, Dr Subodh Singh has earned fame as a plastic surgeon by performing free corrective surgeries (under the worldwide initiative Smile Train) on kids born with cleft lip/palate. Till date, he has brought back smiles in the lives of 25,000 families through 37,000 free cleft-palate surgeries.

** Former CEC Arora joins board of advisors of International IDEA that supports sustainable democracies

The Election Commission said in a statement on Tuesday that Mr. Arora was invited to join the International IDEA’s board of advisors.

Former Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora has joined the board of advisors of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), an inter-governmental organisation based in Stockholm.

While serving as the chair of the Association of World Election Bodies (AWEB) and Forum of the Election Management Bodies of South Asia (FEMBoSA) under Mr. Arora’s tenure, the EC ensured further enhancement of capacity building.

** Three Indian companies in Top 100 defence manufacturers grew by 1.7%, says report

Global arms sales increased even as the world economy contracted in 2020, according to a report by Swedish think tank Stockholm Institute Peace Research Institute.

Combined arms sales by the three Indian companies in the Top 100 defence manufacturers worldwide grew by 1.7%, according to the latest report by Swedish think tank Stockholm Institute Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which also said that international arms sales increased even as the global economy contracted by 3.1% during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. companies accounted for 54% of the Top 100’s total arms sales in 2020 followed by Chinese firms which accounted for 13%.

The three Indian companies in the SIPRI Top 100 for 2020 rankings are Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Ordnance Factory Board and Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL). “Their aggregated arms sales of $6.5 billion were 1.7% higher in 2020 than in 2019 and accounted for 1.2% of the Top 100 total,” according to the report ‘The SIPRI Top 100 arms-producing and military services companies, 2020’ released on Monday.

** Fellowship conferred on K.S.Rangappa

K.S.Rangappa, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mysore, has been elected as Fellow of the Biotech Research Society of India (BRSI) for 2021, according to a release.

The fellowship is given to Indian scientists in recognition of their significant research contributions in the field of sciene and Prof. Rangappa was recognised for his work in the areas of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry, the release added.

** The ‘dragon’ woman of Behar Jaswan

It is only this year that Sood has been able to take her message of medicinal farming to the common farmer with the help of the district administration.

The ground under Behar Jaswan Panchayat was actually prepared for medicinal plants by Reeva Sood, who loves to be called a woman agro entrepreneur. In her heart she carries love for medicinal farming and Himachal Pradesh — based in Delhi, she came all the way to do medicinal farming in the hilly state — and in her eyes she carries a dream of turning this area into a dragon valley. Dragon is an exotic fruit. She has planted 3,000 saplings of this fruit here.