Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit is set to become the next Chief of the Air Staff at the end of this month, the Ministry of Defence announced on Tuesday.

The announcement comes nearly three weeks before the current Air Chief, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh, is due to retire on October 31.

Air Marshal Dixit is currently serving as the Vice Chief of the Indian Air Force (IAF).

Popular among his colleagues, Air Marshal Dixit is described by officers as a thorough professional, soft-spoken, balanced and a grounded individual.

India on Tuesday successfully flight-tested an indigenously developed high-altitude platform at a height of 20 km above the Earth, demonstrating its ability to remain in the stratosphere for an extended duration.

Defence sources said the platform attained an altitude of 21 km above mean sea level before maintaining an altitude of 20 km for more than 30 minutes during the experimental flight, conducted by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in coordination with various agencies, including the Indian Air Force, Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification (CEMILAC), Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Airports Authority of India (AAI) and other civil authorities.

The new system, developed by DRDO’s Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment (ADRDE), Agra, was subsequently commanded to descend and was successfully recovered, with the flight performance data being analysed by the development team.

P L S S Chaitanya Prakash, former Executive Director (Operations) at Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), has taken charge as Director (Power) at NLC India Ltd, bringing over three decades of experience in the power sector.

At DVC, Prakash held senior responsibilities across thermal power generation, operations and maintenance, and project execution. He also held board-level responsibilities at Green Valley Renewable Energy Ltd, DVC’s joint venture with NTPC Green Energy, and DVC-CIL Power Pvt Ltd, its joint venture with Coal India.

Union Cabinet has approved the setting up of the Integrated Transport and Logistics Authority (ITLA). Briefing the media in New Delhi today after the Union Cabinet meeting, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that this will strengthen research, planning, appraisal, monitoring and impact assessment across the transportation and logistics sector. He said, it will serve as the apex body for integrated transport and logstic planning in the country.

Mr Vaishnaw said, as the country’s GDP is growing at a rate of around 7 to 8 percent, the demand for logistics is also increasing continuously. The Minister said that several highways, railway lines, waterways, airports and new ports are being developed across the country to meet this growing demand. The Integrated Transport and Logistics Authority will prepare a long-term National Transport Master Plan with a planning horizon of ten years.

Minister of State for Defence Sanjay Seth will inaugurate the 12th National Maritime Search and Rescue Exercise (SAREX-2026) on October 7 and witness a search and rescue demonstration off the Paradip coast on October 8, as the Indian Coast Guard conducts the exercise to strengthen national and international maritime rescue preparedness.

A key feature of SAREX-2026 will be the participation of 32 observers from 30 countries, highlighting the importance of cooperative protocols, strategic importance, and global interoperability of the drill, the Ministry of Defence said.

The exercise is set to be among the largest and most complex maritime search and rescue drills conducted in the region, involving 15 Indian Coast Guard ships, two Dornier aircraft, three Advanced Light Helicopters, one Chetak helicopter, IAF C-130J and Mi-17 aircraft, two Indian Navy ships, civil and State assets, and shore-based support units.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey on Monday launched a nationwide investor-awareness campaign that will run through March 2027, with the regulator planning to take financial literacy to rural areas and educational institutions while cautioning investors against anonymous tips, finfluencers and exaggerated return claims.

The campaign, Project Jagrook, will bring Sebi, stock exchanges, depositories, the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) and the National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) under a coordinated investor-education framework, propagating investor-awareness messages in several languages.

India delivered a strong performance at the 19th International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) 2026 with all five members of the national team returning with medals. The team won four gold medals and one silver at the international competition held in Hanoi, Vietnam, from September 25 to October 5.

Gold medals were won by Pranjal Dixit of Hyderabad, Sumant Gupta of Delhi, Akshat Srivastava of Gurugram and Arnav Sehrawat of Faridabad. Harshil Amitkumar Patel of Vadodara won a silver medal.

India finished third jointly with Vietnam in the medal tally, behind Iran and South Korea, which won five gold medals each. The competition saw 307 students from 64 countries, making it the largest IOAA so far in terms of participation.

The IOAA comprises theory, observation and data analysis components, carrying 50%, 25% and 25% weightage respectively.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) on Tuesday signed a ₹661.50 crore contract with BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited to procure BrahMos fire control systems and launchers for Indian Navy ships.

The contract was signed in New Delhi under the Buy (Indian-IDDM) category in the presence of Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh.

With a minimum indigenous content of 68%, the project will encourage participation by Indian industries, including micro, small and medium enterprises, and generate employment over three years.

The Ministry said the procurement would strengthen India’s maritime security architecture and defence capabilities while advancing efforts to indigenise military technology.

IIT Ropar’s Centre of Excellence in AI for Digital Agriculture, ANNAM.AI, has launched ‘AVNI – Grow with Nature’ digital learning platform designed to help children learn about plants, crops, food and agriculture through their surroundings. The web and mobile app uses artificial intelligence (AI) along with hands-on activities to help children identify and understand what they see around them.

The platform allows children to explore crops, fruits, vegetables, spices, cereals and millets. For example, a child can use the app while looking at a plant, fruit or crop and learn more about it through AI-powered identification. The idea is to connect what children see in everyday life with basic knowledge about agriculture and food.

AVNI developed by the team at IIT Ropar, is available in Hindi and English and also provides audio content for younger children. It includes daily challenges, a digital Nature Book, a Nature Gallery and a Crop Compare feature. These tools allow children to record what they learn, explore different plants and compare crops as part of their learning.

Astronomers have found what appears to be the first second-generation planet orbiting a white dwarf, according to a study published in Nature Astronomy.

The planet seems to have formed from material shed by the dead star it now circles. The research was led by the University of Warwick and funded by the European Research Council (ERC).

Similar "reborn" worlds have been suspected around pulsars. The new finding suggests such planets can also form around white dwarfs, a far more common type of stellar remnant.