In a significant step towards strengthening military ties with India the UK’s Littoral Response Group (LRG) arrived in Chennai on Tuesday as the first engagement of its deployment to the Indian Pacific region. These are part of the plans to raise the complexity of the exercises.

In a statement British High Commission said, “The Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) Argus and RFA Lyme Bay conducted maritime exercises with the Indian Navy as they entered the Arabian Sea and will now undergo essential maintenance at the Larsen & Toubro shipyard in Kattupalli near Chennai.”

This is the first time a Royal Navy vessel will undergo maintenance at an Indian shipyard – a direct result of the logistics-sharing agreement signed between the UK and India in 2022.

Telecom industry body COAI has sought a ban on the sale of wifi 6E routers which utilise 6 Ghz spectrum band for data transmission as the government is yet to decide on the use of these frequencies. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has alleged that such routers are being sold through various e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Flipkart and Moglix and by offline traders. The COAI, whose members include Reliance Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea, in a letter to the Department of Telecom on April 15 said the sale of equipment for 6 GHz band utilization, which has not yet been assigned for this purpose or has not been declared as licence-exempt by the government, is illegal and should be banned immediately in the country.

"We would like to submit that DoT is yet to take a policy decision related to the 6 GHz band utilization. Therefore, any sale of such Wi-Fi 6E products, which utilizes the 6 GHz spectrum band in delicensed manner, is illegal and such sale would only result in unauthorized transmissions in our country," COAI Director General SP Kochhar said in the letter.

India's Bharat 6G Alliance and European telecom industry body Industry Alliance 6G are set to form a partnership that will pave the way for cooperation in developing 6G technology, people aware of the matter said.

One of the persons said Bharat 6G and Industry Alliance 6G would sign an agreement soon. A second person said both sides were looking to define the contours of the collaboration quickly, but the actual agreements would be signed in the coming quarter.

The partnership could be in the form of a memorandum of understanding, similar to the one Bharat 6G signed with the US last September.

Public sector Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) Friday said the government had granted it the 'navratna' status, according to a company filing with the stock exchanges.

This takes the total number of navratna PSEs to 17.

These companies have the autonomy to invest up to ₹1,000 crore. IREDA is a Non-Banking Financial Institution engaged in promoting, developing and extending financial assistance for setting up projects relating to new and renewable sources of energy and energy efficiency/conservation. Ireda scrip closed at ₹170.65, 2.03% higher from Thursday's close, on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday.

The launch of ‘Ammunition Cum Torpedo Cum Missile Barge, LSAM 20 (Yard 130)’, 6th Barge of 11 x ACTCM Barge Project, built by MSME Shipyard, M/s Suryadipta Projects Pvt Ltd, Thane for Indian Navy, was undertaken on 29 Apr 24 at M/s Suryadipta Project Pvt. Ltd. (launch site of M/s SPPL). The launching Ceremony was presided over by Shri Madhusudan Bhui, INAS, GM NAD (Karanja).

The contract for building 11 x ACTCM Barge was signed between MoD and M/s Suryadipta Projects Pvt Ltd, Thane on 05 Mar 21. The availability of these Barges would provide impetus to operational commitments of IN by facilitating Transportation, Embarkation and Disembarkation of articles/ ammunition to IN Ships both alongside jetties and at outer harbours.

These Barges are indigenously designed and built under relevant Naval Rules and Regulation of Indian Register of Shipping. The model testing of the Barge during the design stage was undertaken at the Naval Science and Technological Laboratory, Visakhapatnam. These Barges are proud flag bearers of Make in India initiative of Government of India (GoI).

Praveen Ranjan (IDAS) has been selected for the appointment as Director in the Department of Expenditure under the Ministry of Finance.

According to an order issued from the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT), Ranjan has been selected for the appointment under the Central Staffing Scheme (CSS) for a period of five years from the date of taking over charge of the post or until further orders, whichever event takes place earlier.

Ranjan is an Indian Defence Accounts Services (IDAS) officer of 2010-batch. “He may kindly be relieved of his duties immediately with instructions to take up his new assignment in the Department Expenditure,” the order further said.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on April 28 appointed World Cup-winning Gary Kirsten as their head coach for ODIs and T20Is, while former Australian pacer Jason Gillespie will take over that role in Test cricket.

Along with them, former Pakistan all-rounder Azhar Mahmood was appointed as the assistant coach of the team across the formats.

"The appointment of (Gary) Kirsten and (Jason) Gillispie who are high-profile coaches shows how much value is given to the Pakistan cricket team and how much potential foreign coaches see in our players," PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi said during a media conference.

The Indian economy is expected to achieve “higher” than 7% growth in 2024-25, the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) on Monday said pointing at strong high-frequency indicators, an above normal monsoon forecast and a benign global outlook.

The think tank’s outlook is a bit more optimistic than the 7% real gross domestic product (GDP) growth projected by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its monetary policy review on April 5. While the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on April 11 projected India’s GDP growth for FY25 at 7%, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on April 16 raised India’s growth forecast the fiscal year to 6.8% from 6.5%.

Tata Motors on Monday said it has tied up with South Indian Bank to offer financing solutions to its commercial vehicle customers and dealerships.

As part of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), South Indian Bank will offer financing solutions across the auto major’s entire commercial vehicle portfolio, Tata Motors said in a statement.

“For our customers, easy access to financing solutions for their commercial vehicles is one of the key priorities for their operations. Our alliance aims to empower fleet owners and dealerships to achieve their business goals,” Rajesh Kaul, Tata Motors Commercial Vehicles Vice President & Business Head Trucks, said.

Humza Yousaf, the Pakistani-origin Scottish National Party (SNP) leader who took over as Scotland's first Muslim leader in March last year, on Monday announced his resignation after days of political turmoil for the devolved SNP-led government.

Yousaf, 39, who was also the region's youngest First Minister, had ended a power-sharing agreement with the Scottish Green Party last week amid growing policy differences and plunged his leadership of a minority government into crisis. His former Green Party allies then teamed up with the Opposition Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties to back two non-confidence motions one in Yousaf's leadership of Scotland and the second regarding the Scottish government as a whole.

While a route through this week's motion of no confidence was absolutely possible, I am not willing to trade my values and principles or do deals with whomever simply for retaining power, said Yousaf. Therefore, after spending the weekend reflecting on what is best for my party, for the government and for the country I lead I have concluded that repairing our relationship across the political divide can only be done with someone else at the helm, he said.