President Mukherjee presents gallantry awards to defence personnel

President Pranab Mukherjee presented the Gallantry Awards and the Distinguished Service Decorations to defence personnel and martyrs posthumously at a ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

•  Sepoy Jagdish Chand who made the supreme sacrifice during terror attack at Pathankot Air Base was awarded Kirti Chakra posthumously. 
• Subedar Mahendra Singh who displayed exemplary leadership despite grievous injury was also awarded Kirti Chakra. 

Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba appointed as Chief of the Naval Staff

 Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba has been appointed as next Chief of the Naval Staff. 

• He will be 23rd chief of Indian Navy and 21st as an Indian. 
• He will assume the charge on 31 May 2016 and shall have full three-year-term in office till 31 May 2019.
•  He will succeed incumbent Navy Chief Admiral Robin K. Dhowan, who will superannuate from the post on 31 May 2016.

India’s first Scorpene class submarine INS Kalvari undergoes first sea trial

INS Kalvari, Indian Navy’s first indigenous Scorpene-class stealth submarine, has recently launched for the first sea trial in the Mumbai naval dockyard.

•  It is a diesel-electric attack submarine which is built under the strategic Project 75 by Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL) in collaboration with French naval defence and energy company DCNS.

 About INS Kalvari :

• INS Kalvari is also known as Tiger Shark (or S50).
•  It is expected to be commissioned into Indian Navy by September 2016.
•  It has superior stealth capability and is designed to operate in all theatres including the tropics.
•  It is built using special steel that can withstand high yield stress that can withstand high hydrostatic force and enabling to dive deeper.
• The submarine, over the next few months, will undergo a barrage of sea, surface, diving, weapons, noise trials, etc testing her to the extremes of its intended operating envelop.
• She will be later commissioned into the Indian Navy, giving a major boost to the 'Make In India' initiative of the government.

Indian Naval Ships Veer and Nipat decommissioned

Indian Naval Ships (INS) Veer and Nipat were decommissioned at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

•  The decommissioning ceremony of these ships was held in the presence of Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Naval Command. 
• Both the ships belonged to the 1241 RE class missile vessels. 
• They had served under 22nd Killer Squadron and have completed 29 and 28 years of commissioned service respectively. 
• The ships had played a significant role as the guardian of International Maritime Borderline off west coast of India. 
• These ships are also the first of Veer Class of ships to be decommissioned from the Indian Navy.
•  In their service, they have participated in numerous operations and successfully completed many deployments. 
• They were extensively deployed during the Operations Vijay (1961) and Parakram (2001–2002) of the Indian Navy.

ISRO successfully launches 7th navigation satellite IRNSS-1G

The seventh and final satellite of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System, the IRNSS 1G, was launched into a sub geosynchronous transfer orbit with a perigree (nearest point to earth) of 284 km and an apogee (farthest point to earth) of 20,657 km. The satellite was launched on board the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), which took off from the Sriharikota launch pad.

With this launch, the IRNSS constellation of seven satellites is now complete. 

• This will allow the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to focus on the process of designing front end chips which will receive the navigational signals sent out by the satellites.
•  The system will be similar to the Global Positioning System (GPS) operated by the United States with 24 satellites and the Glonass, Galileo and BeiDou systems of Russia, Europe and China respectively.
• All satellites will undergo stabilisation testing and verification of their performance over the next few months before being pushed into use.
• An area of 1,500 km from Indian boundaries will be covered under the navigational system. 
• The Prime Minister invited other countries to make use of this system as well. “We have seven neighbours who rely on technology provided by other countries.