23-05-2025
IAF, Lahore ATC denied IndiGo permission to use Pakistan airspace: DGCA
The pilots of IndiGo's Delhi to Srinagar flight that was caught in a hailstorm earlier this week were denied deviation to escape bad weather by using Pakistan airspace by both the Indian Air Force as well as Lahore's Air Traffic Control tower, the DGCA said on Friday.
However, Defence sources have refuted a part of this claim and said the IAF-controlled Northern Area Control Centre is not authorised to provide Indian aircraft permission to enter international airspace, which rests with Delhi Air Traffic Control.
The incident pertains to IndiGo's 6E 2142 flight that was caught in bad weather, including strong turbulence, on Wednesday evening. Though passengers and crew escaped without injuries, the aircraft's nose cone was damaged leading to its grounding for inspection and maintenance.
In a press statement, the DGCA said the IndiGo flight entered a hailstorm and severe turbulence near Pathankot. But before that that the Indian Air Force rejected the pilot's request for deviation towards the international border to allow the IndiGo aircraft to circumvent bad weather and later Lahore's ATC too turned down their plea.
'Crew initially attempted to return, but as they were close to the thunderstorm cloud, they decided to penetrate the weather. Subsequently, they encountered a hailstorm and severe turbulence. The crew chose to continue at the same heading to exit the weather by the shortest route towards Srinagar,' says the DGCA statement.
Among the 222 passengers onboard were also five Trinamool Congress MPs who were flying to meet people affected by the recent cross-border shelling near the LoC.
The IAF controlled Northern Area Control Centre (NACC) directs all traffic ahead of Udhampur. A 100 miles west of Pathankot is deep inside Pakistan.
The NACC is not the authority to give clearance to aircraft before entering international territory, said Defence sources. They facilitated with the patching the aircraft onto the frequency of Lahore ATC which denied clearance.
The authority for giving the Flight Information Clearance for international airspace is the Delhi area, sources explained. The pilot was provided assistance by NACC by giving ground speed information from the radar as instruments on the aircraft either failed or were inaccurate and so was unable to get aircraft speed which is essential for landing.
The notice to airmen issued by Pakistan imposing flight restrictions for Indian aircraft continues to be in place.
India's foreign policy collapsed: Rahul Gandhi takes swipe at Jaishankar
Targeting External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Friday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi claimed that India's foreign policy has 'collapsed' and asked why India has been hyphenated with Pakistan.
Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, asked why no country had backed India during the recent conflict. He also questioned who had asked U.S. President Donald Trump to 'mediate' between the two South Asian neighbours.
On X, he shared a Congress post of an edited video clip from Jaishankar's interview with Dutch broadcaster NOS. Gandhi asked: 'Will JJ explain: Why has India been hyphenated with Pakistan? Why didn't a single country back us in condemning Pakistan? Who asked Trump to 'mediate' between India & Pakistan?'
On Thursday, Gandhi had targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a post on X, saying, 'Modi ji, stop giving hollow speeches. Just tell: Why did you believe Pakistan's statement on terrorism? Why did you sacrifice India's interests by bowing to Trump? Why does your blood boil only in front of cameras? You have compromised with the prestige of India!'
The Congress has been repeatedly slamming the External Affairs Minister, calling him 'Jaichand Jaishankar' or JJ, in an allusion to a medieval ruler depicted as a traitor. This comes after Jaishankar said that India had made it clear to Pakistan 'at the start' of Operation Sindoor that it would target only terrorist camp and not military installations. However, as Gandhi interpreted this to mean that India informed Pakistan 'before' Operation Sindoor, the External Affairs Ministry termed his statement as an 'utter misrepresentation of facts'.
Since then, the war of words between the Congress and the BJP has escalated, with the ruling party calling Gandhi a 'modern age Mir Jafar', in a reference to the Bengali commander who betrayed the Nawab of Bengal in the Battle of Plassey, paving the way for British rule.
Reliance to invest ₹75,000 cr in North-Eastern States: Mukesh Ambani
Oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries Limited will invest ₹75,000 crore in North Eastern States in setting up 350 biogas plants, expanding its telecom services, retail footprint, and clean energy projects, Chairman Mukesh Ambani said on Friday.
Speaking at the Rising NorthEast Investors Summit, Reliance Industries Ltd Chairman and Managing Director said his group will invest in factories for high-quality FMCG products in the region and setting up a 150-bed cancer hospital in Manipur. 'Reliance has invested around ₹30,000 crore in the region in the past 40 years. In the next five years, we will more than double our investments, with our target at ₹75,000 crore,' he said.
This will create over 2.5 million direct and indirect employment opportunities as the conglomerate aspires to touch the lives of most of the 45 million population in the North-East.
Ambani said he is making six commitments to the Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.
The group's telecom unit Jio has already covered 90% of the population with over 5 million 5G subscribers. 'We will double this number this year,' he said. 'Jio's priority will be to bring the revolutionary power of Artificial Intelligence to all schools, hospitals, enterprises and homes.' When talent meets technology and competence meets connectivity, our North-East will surge ahead, he said.
Ambani said Reliance Retail will vastly increase its procurement of staples, fruits, and vegetables to boost the income of farmers. 'We will also invest in factories for high-quality FMCG products in the region and promote the region's fabulous artisan economy,' he said.
In clean energy, Reliance will look to 'greatly' enhance generation of solar power in the region, he said without giving details. In line with the vision of converting waste to wealth, Reliance will convert the region's vast 'wasteland into wealth-land', by setting up 350 integrated compressed biogas plants which will turn organic waste into gas which could be used as CNG for transportation as well as fuel in industries and cooking in kitchens, he said.
Ambani said Reliance Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the group, will bring the best of cancer care to the North-East. 'To begin with, we have established a 150-bed comprehensive cancer hospital in Manipur. We are collaborating with Mizoram University on the care of breast cancer using genomic data. In Guwahati, we have built an Advanced Molecular Diagnostics and Research Lab. It will be among the largest Genome Sequencing Capacities in India,' he said. 'We will help transform the North-East into a healthcare hub and a research powerhouse'.
Stating that the North-East is a treasure-house of world-class talent in multiple sports, he said Reliance Foundation will work with all eight states to set up Olympic Training Centres, which will prepare our youth to be tomorrow's medal-winners in Olympics.
'For Reliance, it is a matter of privilege to fulfil the dreams of a region that has the fastest rate of economic growth with the youngest population in India,' he said.
Trump threatens Apple with 25% tariffs if iPhone assembly doesn't move to U.S.
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Apple, Inc. with 25% tariffs on iPhone imports if the company didn't make them domestically. Repeating his insistence that he didn't want iPhones to be assembled in India, Trump said in a post on Truth Social, 'I have long informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone's [sic] that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else,' adding that if that doesn't happen, 'a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S.'
This is not the first time Trump has lashed out at Apple's phone assembly operations in India, largely contract manufacturers with facilities in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. 'We're not interested in you building in India,' Trump said he told Apple CEO Tim Cook. 'They can take care of themselves,' he said, adding that he expected the company to start assembling iPhones in the U.S. instead.
Apple and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology did not immediately respond to a request for comment. When Trump first remarked on Apple's manufacturing in India, a senior official told The Hindu that the government was not too 'concerned' that the U.S. president's words would have any impact on existing manufacturing commitments the company has made in Tamil Nadu and elsewhere.
Ajay Srivastava, founder of the Global Trade Research Institute and a former Additional Director General Foreign Trade, offered an unconventional take on the matter. He said, 'If Mr. Trump wants Mr. Cook to assemble iPhones in the U.S., the Apple CEO should deliver.'
'Shifting iPhone assembly from India to the U.S. could unlock over 60,000 new jobs, immediately rising to 300,000 if production also moves out of China,' Srivastava wrote earlier this month. 'These are not high-tech desk jobs, but hands-on factory roles that once built America's middle class. It's a rare opportunity to turn elite tech into broad-based employment — and breathe life back into U.S. industrial strength,' he said.
'It will also nudge India to focus on deep manufacturing and not be happy with superficial assembly jobs,' he added.
Israeli Embassy killings suspect told police: 'I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza'
The man accused of fatally shooting two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington outside a Jewish museum told police after his arrest, 'I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,' federal authorities said Thursday in announcing charges in the killings they called a targeted act of terrorism.
Elias Rodriguez (31) shouted 'Free Palestine' as he was led away after his arrest, according to charging documents that provided new details of the Wednesday night shootings in the nation's capital that killed an American woman and an Israeli man who had just left an event at the museum. They were set to become engaged.
The attack prompted Israeli missions to beef up their security and lower their flags to half-staff. It came as Israel pursues another major offensive in the Gaza Strip in the war with Hamas that has heightened tensions across the Middle East and internationally, and that law enforcement officials have repeatedly warned could inspire violence in the U.S.
Rodriguez faces charges of murder of foreign officials and other crimes and did not enter a plea during a perfunctory court appearance. Additional charges are likely, prosecutors said, as authorities continue to investigate the killings as both a hate crime against the Jewish community and terrorism.
'Violence against anyone based on their religion is an act of cowardice. It is not an act of a hero,' said Jeanine Pirro, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. 'Antisemitism will not be tolerated, especially in the nation's capital.'
The two people killed were identified as Yaron Lischinsky, an Israeli citizen, and Sarah Milgrim, an American. They were a young couple about to be engaged, according to Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S.
An FBI affidavit presents the killing as calculated and planned, with authorities alleging that Rodriguez flew to the Washington region from Chicago on Tuesday with a handgun in his checked luggage. He purchased a ticket for the event about three hours before it started, the affidavit said.
The couple were leaving the Capital Jewish Museum when the suspect, who witnesses said had been behaving suspiciously by pacing outside, approached a group of four people and opened fire. Surveillance video showed Rodriguez advancing closer to the two victims as they fell to the ground, leaning over them and firing additional shots. He even appeared to reload before jogging off, the FBI said.
After the shooting, the suspect went inside the museum and stated that he 'did it.' He was no longer armed by the time he was taken into custody, according to the affidavit.
'I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza, I am unarmed,' he spontaneously said. He also told detectives that he admired an active-duty Air Force member who set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in February 2024, describing the man as 'courageous' and a 'martyr,' court documents said.
Investigators said they were still working to corroborate the authenticity of writings purported to be authored by Rodriguez, an apparent reference to a document circulating online that expressed outrage over Israel's conduct in the war. The FBI is also contacting associates, family members and co-workers.
Rodriguez appeared in federal court in Washington in a white jail suit and listened impassively as the charges and possible punishments, which include the death penalty, were read. At a home listed in public records for Rodriguez's mother in suburban Chicago, a sign taped on the door Thursday afternoon asked for privacy.
In Brief:
RBI to pay Government record dividend of ₹2.69 lakh crore for FY25
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday approved the transfer of ₹2.69 lakh crore as surplus to the Central Government for the accounting year 2024-25. Under the the Chairmanship of RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra, the decision was made in the 616th meeting of the Central Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of India.
Harvard sues the Trump administration over ban on enrolling foreign students
Harvard University is challenging the Trump administration's decision to bar the Ivy League school from enrolling foreign students, calling it unconstitutional retaliation for defying the White House's political demands. In a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in Boston, Harvard said the government's action violates the First Amendment and will have an 'immediate and devastating effect for Harvard and more than 7,000 visa holders.' 'With the stroke of a pen, the government has sought to erase a quarter of Harvard's student body, international students who contribute significantly to the University and its mission,' Harvard said in its suit.
Evening Wrap will return tomorrow.
