
Shashi Tharoor, Supriya Sule among MPs leading multi-party delegations for diplomatic outreach on India-Pakistan conflict
The government will send seven all-party delegations to key partner countries, including members of the United Nations Security Council, later this month to convey India's message of zero tolerance against terrorism following the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor.
A statement issued by the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry on Saturday said, 'The all-party delegations will project India's national consensus and resolute approach to combating terrorism in all forms and manifestations. They would carry forth to the world the country's strong message of zero tolerance against terrorism.'
The Government has made a careful selection of leaders who will head the delegations, as they come from parties across the political divide and are considered articulate voices.
BJP MPs Ravi Shankar Prasad and Baijayant Panda, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, JD(U) MP Sanjay Jha, DMK's Kanimozhi, NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule, and Shiv Sena's Shrikant Shinde will be heading a delegation each.
While four of them are from the ruling National Democratic Alliance, three are from the opposition INDIA bloc.
After Tharoor picked to lead delegation on Operation Sindoor, Congress says govt 'playing games'
The Congress on Saturday accused the government of 'playing games' with a 'mischievous mindset' by announcing names of heads of diplomatic outreach delegations after Operation Sindoor other than the four given by the party.
The Opposition party's attack came after Shashi Tharoor, not part of the four leaders nominated by the Congress, was named as the head of a delegation to key partner countries to convey India's message of zero tolerance against terrorism following Operation Sindoor.
In an apparent swipe at Mr. Tharoor, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, 'Congress mein hona aur Congress ka hona mein zameen-aasmaan ka antar hai [There is a difference between being in the Congress and of the Congress].' Mr. Ramesh said senior party leader Salman Khurshid was also approached by the government and he told them that the party has to decide.
The Congress said it was asked by the government to submit names of four MPs for the all-party delegations to be sent abroad to explain India's stance on terrorism from Pakistan, and it nominated Anand Sharma, Gaurav Gogoi, Syed Naseer Hussain and Amrinder Singh Raja Warring.
Madhya Pradesh HC modifies earlier order, allows declaration of NEET-UG results nationwide
The Madhya Pradesh High Court has modified its May 15 order putting an interim stay on the declaration of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test - Under Graduate (NEET-UG) results nationwide and allowed that the results can be announced for all centres across the country, barring 11 odd test centres in Indore where students faced a power outage.
The modifications were made by Justice Subodh Abhyankar on Friday after Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, appearing through video conferencing, assured the court that a reply on the details of the centres affected by power outage will be filed within two days.
Earlier on May 15, Justice Abhyankar, hearing a petition filed by a medical aspirant, had put an interim stay on the nation-wide result declaration while noting that the authorities failed to provide proper conditions to the girl student during the entrance examination held on May 4.
Power supply had been disrupted in various parts of Indore on May 4 due to bad weather, after which the student moved the High Court saying that her performance was affected due to an about two-hour-long power failure at her centre.
Mr. Mehta, appearing for the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the Central Government, submitted that the power problems were faced at 11 odd centres in Indore and hence the NTA may be allowed to declare results for other centres.
Haryana YouTuber Jyoti Rani held on espionage charge
A woman travel vlogger in Haryana's Hisar has been arrested on charges of spying, wrongful communication of information for the benefit of a foreign power and endangering the sovereignty, integrity and unity of the country for allegedly passing on secret information to Pakistan intelligence operatives.
Jyoti Rani, a resident of Agarsen Extension, was arrested following an input and 'suspicious things' were found in her mobile phone and the laptop, said Kamaljeet, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Headquarters, Hisar. 'She was continuously in contact with a Pakistani national. She has been arrested under the Official Secrets Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita,' said the officer, adding that the woman was taken on five days remand.
She was called for interrogation following inputs from the Punjab Police through a letter on May 7 and was later arrested.
According to the FIR, the woman purportedly told the police during interrogation that she ran a YouTube channel, 'Travel With JO', and came in contact with Ehsan-Ur-Rahim alias Danish two years ago when she went to the Pakistan High Commission seeking a visa to the country. She stayed in contact with Rahim over phone and twice visited Pakistan, where she met his acquaintance Ali Ahwan, who arranged for her stay and travel in the country.
Chinese national held for in-flight theft, suspected to be part of global syndicate
A Chinese national, suspected to be a member of an organised global in-flight theft syndicate, has been arrested for allegedly stealing debit and credit cards from fellow passengers during a flight from Hong Kong to New Delhi, police said on Saturday.
The accused, 30-year-old Benlai Pan, was arrested upon arrival at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport on May 14 following complaints from multiple passengers aboard Air India flight AI-315, they said in an official statement.
Pan was travelling with three other Chinese nationals — 51-year-old Meng Guangyang, 42-year-old Chang Mang, 45-year-old and Liu Jie — all of whom were detained and questioned, officials said.
According to authorities, the group is suspected to be operating together as part of an international in-flight theft racket.
In Brief
U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday went on to reiterate his claim of India offering a zero-tariff deal to the United States, as he sought to yet again highlight his role in the reducing tensions between India and Pakistan. In an interview to Fox News, Mr. Trump picked up the tariff topic as he was discussing the cessation of military action between India and Pakistan. The U.S. President, who has taken to emphasising his role in the understanding reached between India and Pakistan, said that he put a pause in the tensions by bringing up trade.
The Evening Wrap will be back tomorrow
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India Gazette
31 minutes ago
- India Gazette
Enemies of Telangana: Revanth Reddy hits out at KCR family amid chaos over Kaleshwaram project
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Indian Express
33 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Drone warfare came home during Op Sindoor. Where does India stand?
On July 1, 2021, then Army Chief General M M Naravane had warned: 'While we pursue our quest for niche technologies, including AI, it would be prudent to remember that future wars will also involve low technology, which is easy to obtain but difficult to defeat.' These words ring truer than ever in the context of two recent events. On June 1, Ukraine bombed five airbases deep inside Russia using cheap First Person View (FPV) drones, underlining the need to fundamentally reimagine air defences in the age of asymmetric drone warfare. Weeks earlier in May, during the hostilities in the wake of Operation Sindoor, Pakistan had attacked towns and military facilities across India's western front, from Baramulla to Barmer, with swarm after swarm of relatively low cost, low tech drones for four straight days. Apart from inflicting damage, these attacks were meant to overwhelm India's air defences, clutter radars, exhaust ammunition, gather intelligence, and probe for vulnerabilities. Drones, a brief history Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) date back to World War II and the Korean War, where they were used for training anti-aircraft gunners and in specific offensive missions. Their modern military usage took off in the 1990s, after being successfully deployed in the Gulf War of 1991. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict of 2020 marked a turning point in drone warfare: Azerbaijan's use of Turkish Bayraktar TB2 and Israeli Harop drones devastated Armenian defences, decisively shifting the conflict's dynamics in favour of Baku. 🔴 Yemen, where Houthi rebels targeted Saudi oil infrastructure using drone swarms; 🔴 Gaza, where Israel has deployed high-tech drones for surveillance and strikes, and Hamas has used drones for grenades and observation; and 🔴 Ukraine, where both Moscow and Kyiv have deployed commercial quadcopters (DJI drones), military drones (Bayraktar TB2, Orlan-10, Shahed-136), and loitering munitions. Ukraine has notably used 'first-person view' (FPV) racing drones to target tanks, chase individual soldiers and small units, and, most notably, bomb Russian air bases. On June 1, Ukraine carried out Operation Spider's Web, one of the most sophisticated drone operations in history, using 100–150 FPV drones, transported clandestinely in trucks deep into Russia. The target: five key Russian airfields. Ukrainian officials claim to have hit more than 40 Russian aircraft, including strategic bombers like the Tu-22 and Tu-95, and inflicted losses of around $7 billion. Meanwhile, Russia throughout the war has used Iranian-made Shahed kamikaze drones in swarms to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses, and target critical infrastructure such as energy grids. Not one, not two… Swarm drones are autonomous or semi-autonomous UAVs that operate in coordinated groups, much like swarms of birds or fish. They communicate via wireless networks and adjust in real time to achieve shared objectives. Swarms are more resilient than traditional drones due to in-built redundancy — even if one drone is intercepted, others can continue on the mission. Drone swarms are thus used to saturate air defences (a few payloads may sneak through even robust defences), gathering intelligence, and attacking high-value targets. Countries are already developing even more lethal AI-driven swarm drones, capable of making real-time decisions, adapting tactics mid-mission, and coordinating more complex manoeuvres. These are expected to become integral to combined arms warfare, functioning alongside infantry, armour, and cyber units. According to Fortune Business Insights, the global military drone market stood at $14.14 billion in 2023, and is projected to hit $47.16 billion by 2032. Threat of swarms Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan, in a lecture in Pune, flagged the rising drone threat: 'Now we have drones as small as water bottles — and in swarms,' he said, calling these 'undetectable' and 'untargetable'. Air Marshal Anil Chopra (retd), former head of the Centre for Air Power Studies, said that while drone swarms deployed by Pakistan were not particularly effective, the Ukraine example offers some major learnings. 'When you use very cheap drones that carry warheads barely weighing a kilo — like Pakistan did — nothing much happens. They're jammed easily… Only a fool would fire expensive missiles at them,' Chopra told The Indian Express. But swarm drone attacks can be carried out anywhere, and at any time. 'If someone moves a truck full of drones near an airbase and launches them [like in the case of Op Spider's Web], defending becomes very difficult. In countries like India, with porous borders and diverse populations, the threat is real,' he said. Chopra emphasised upon the need for integration across the security establishment. 'Your intelligence setup, even the local police, matter. Even a traffic constable could make a difference,' he said, adding that the success of the Ukraine op was predicated on Kyiv being able to transport its drones thousands of kilometres inside Russia undetected. 'Strategic thinking, inventory management — everything must evolve. A $1,000 drone damaging a $200 million aircraft is our new reality,' Chopra said. Countering drone threats Defence against drones begins with detection. Modern systems employ a mix of AESA radars, electro-optical and infrared sensors, acoustic detectors, and AI-powered fusion systems. Once detected, one option is for drones to be neutralised through kinetic means, that is, with missiles and anti-aircraft guns. But traditional kinetic air defences, especially surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), are costly, and less effective against swarms. Automated gun systems such as C-RAM and Phalanx, which track targets and fire autonomously, are preferred in this role. Even more cost-effective alternatives include: Directed Energy Weapons (DEWs): Lasers and microwave pulses that disable drones by damaging sensors or frying electronics; Electronic Warfare (EW): Jamming GPS signals or communication links; Spoofing: Misleading drones about their location or issuing false commands; Cyber Attacks: Taking control of drones and crash them by exploiting software vulnerabilities; and Interceptor drones & nets: For close-range neutralisation, protecting critical assets. The asymmetry in cost remains the central challenge in anti-drone warfare. A drone swarm costing roughly $100,000 might take millions of dollars to neutralise with currently available technology. This is why nations, including India, are investing in more cost-effective solutions like EW and DEWs. The ideal defence is a layered system, integrating multiple modes of interception for redundancy and cost-efficiency purposes. Examples include Israel's Iron Dome and the US's Directed Energy M-SHORAD. India's capabilities Since 2020, India has ramped up its counter-drone infrastructure, deploying a layered defence that blends indigenous technology, EW, and air defence systems. Key systems include: Akashteer Air Defence Control System: Developed by Bharat Electronics Ltd, it integrates with the Indian Air Force's integrated command network for real-time tracking; Bhargavastra: Solar Defence and Aerospace Ltd's weapon system fires 64 micro-rockets in salvos to eliminate drone swarms; DRDO's Anti-Drone System: It offers 360-degree radar coverage, with both jamming (soft kill) and laser (hard kill) capabilities. Drones can be detected up to 4 km away, and neutralised within a 1 km radius; and Indrajaal: An AI-powered grid from a Hyderabad startup that combines jammers, spoofers, and intelligence to protect areas up to 4,000 sq km. Already deployed at naval sites in Gujarat and Karnataka. During the May 2025 swarm attacks, the IAF activated its Integrated Counter-UAS Grid, alongside conventional radars, guns, and missiles, neutralising attempted strikes on 15 military bases and several urban targets. Looking ahead There is currently a race to develop both drone and anti-drone capabilities. 'Even the Iranians are producing more than 20 Shahed drones per day. And these are powerful. India too has set up an ecosystem with 550 startups in the field. Some tech is acquired, but we're developing our own tech too,' Chopra said. The future of warfare is here, and it's unmanned, AI-driven and asymmetric. India's response to the May 2025 drone swarms signals it is rapidly adapting to this future. As CDS Chauhan put it: 'We are at a cusp where war may be between humans and machines — and tomorrow, between machines themselves. Machines that are autonomous, intelligent, and make decisions. We may need a layered and resilient defence system [to counter] this.' With inputs from Amrita Nayak Dutta


Indian Express
33 minutes ago
- Indian Express
In Bhopal, a bridge with 90-degree turn draws criticism, minister says will look into it
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