The indigenously developed Pinaka guided rocket system was successfully test fired on Monday at Pokhran desert in Rajasthan, in a boost to artillery capability of the Army, the defense ministry said.

The weapon system is equipped with state-of-the-art guidance kit comprising of an advanced navigation and control system.

"The indigenously developed guided Pinaka, developed by DRDO, will significantly boost the capability of the artillery to make precision hits," the defence ministry said.

About the tests, it said the weapon systems impacted the intended targets with high precision and achieved desired accuracies.

After eight years of holding the position of the largest importer of weapons, India has been superseded by Saudi Arabia and dropped down to become the second largest importer of weapons in the world, a report said on Monday.

According to the annual report released by the Swedish-based think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), titled ‘Trends in International Arms Transfers-2018’, “India was the world’s second largest importer of major arms in 2014-18 and accounted for 9.5 per cent of the global total.”

The assessment was done for a five-year period (2014-2018). Last year (for the period 2013-17), India accounted for 13 per cent of all imports and was the world’s largest importer, The Tribune reported. 

SIRPI attributed to the gradual lowering of imports by India to delayed deliveries. “Imports decreased by 24 per cent between 2009-13 and 2014-18 (two five-year blocks), partly due to delays in deliveries of arms produced under licence from foreign suppliers, such as combat aircraft ordered from Russia in 2001 and submarines ordered from France in 2008,” the report said.

Scientists, using NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), have observed water molecules moving around the dayside of the Moon, the US space agency said, an advance that could help us learn about the accessibility of water that can be used by humans in future lunar missions.

Measurements from the Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) instrument aboard the LRO of the sparse layer of molecules temporarily stuck to the surface helped characterise lunar hydration changes over the course of a day, according to the study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Up until the last decade, scientists thought the Moon was arid, with any water existing mainly as pockets of ice in permanently shaded craters near the poles.

More recently, scientists have identified surface water in sparse populations of molecules bound to the lunar soil, or regolith, NASA said in a statement.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina, Monday jointly unveiled e-plaques for development projects in Bangladesh, through video conferencing. 

Both the leaders unveiled e-plaques for the supply of buses and trucks, the inauguration of 36 community clinics, 11 water treatment plants, and extension of National Knowledge Network to Bangladesh. 

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Modi said Ms. Hasina’s vision is the biggest inspiration for stronger connectivity between India and Bangladesh. He said today’s unveilings will boost not just transport connectivity, but also knowledge connectivity. 

Mr Modi said the National Knowledge Network will connect scholars and research institutes in Bangladesh, to India and the world. 

He said the buses and trucks would assist the efforts towards affordable public transportation; water treatment plants will help supply clean water; and community clinics will benefit about two lakh people, in Bangladesh. Mr Modi said these projects show that the India-Bangladesh relations are playing a key role in improving the quality of life of people. 

Google on Tuesday celebrated 30 years of World Wide Web (WWW) with a doodle. English scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented the WWW in 1989 and wrote the first web browser in 1990.

Working at CERN, Switzerland, Berners-Lee laid out the basic concepts of the WWW in a proposal which included ideas like HTML, URL and HTTP.

In a document titled "Information management: a proposal", he envisioned the use of hypertext to link documents.

The first web browser was released in 1991 -- first to the research institutions and then to the general public on the Internet in the same year.

The WWW is the primary tool billions of people today use to interact on the Internet.

In addition to text, web pages may contain images, video, audio and software components that are rendered in the user's web browser as coherent pages of multimedia content.

Before the WWW, remote computers communicated directly for the first time in 1969 and in 1983, TCP/IP standard was adopted.

Zinedine Zidane has been re-appointed as the coach of Spanish football club Real Madrid till 2022. The Frenchman replaces Santiago Solari, who was sacked after less than five months in charge. Former Real midfielder Zidane had resigned from the club after leading it to three consecutive Champions League titles.

Real Madrid is going through a rouch patch this season with nothing left to play for other than qualification match into next season's premier European competition. 

Real Madrid's Champions League challenge came to an end last week after the defending champions were stunned by Ajax in the Round-of-16.

The 34th edition of AAHAR - the International Food and Hospitality fair - begins at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi today. Our correspondent reports that Minister for Commerce and Industry Suresh Prabhu will inaugurate the fair.

The fair will feature a wide range of food products, machinery, hospitality and Decoration and Confectionery items from over 560 participants from India and abroad. Around 20 countries, including US, Russia, China, UK, Germany, Italy and Singapore will participate in the five-day fair. 

The fair which will showcase new trends in food and beverage, hospitality, culinary technology, retail and new innovations. It will also offer an insight into the operational and food safety concerns and innovations to become energy-efficient, finding budget-friendly raw materials for boosting productivity while still aiming for greater profitability. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has underscored the importance of immediate, demonstrable and irreversible action against terrorism by all concerned countries. In his telephonic conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday, Mr Modi said, terrorism remains one of the gravest threats to global peace and security. An official release said, Mr Erdogan expressed condolences for the victims of recent terror attacks in India, and wished a speedy recovery to those injured.

Mr Modi also spoke with Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan. Both leaders expressed happiness at the growing strength of all-round bilateral co-operation. They reiterated their commitment to further consolidate the comprehensive strategic partnership. The Prime Minister thanked the Crown Prince for the invitation extended to India for addressing the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation Foreign Ministers' Council as a Guest of Honour in Abu Dhabi earlier this month.

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia, Adel bin Ahmed Al Jubeir called on Mr Modi in New Delhi yesterday. The Prime Minister thanked Saudi Arabia for expressing full solidarity with India in the fight against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. It was agreed that both sides should work together for verifiable and credible steps against all terrorists without any discrimination.

Kavinder Singh Bisht in the 56kg-category struck gold while Shiva Thapa in the 60kg category and three others claimed silver medals to end a fine Indian campaign at the 38th GeeBee Boxing Tournament in Helsinki, Finland on Sunday.
 
Signing off with silver medals were three-time Asian medallist Shiva Thapa,  Govind Sahani, Commonwealth Games bronze-medallist Mohammed Hussamuddin and Dinesh Dagar.

In a rare all-Indian final, a gritty Bisht was up against Commonwealth Games bronze-medallist Hussamuddin in the 56kg summit clash. Both the boxers are from the Services Sports Control Board.

Sahani started off strongly against Thailand's Thitisan Panmod but lost  3-2. Thapa in 60kg category, lost 1-4 to local  Arslan Khataev. Dagar, was defeated by  Commonwealth Games gold-medallist England Pat McCormack in the finals. 

Sumit Sangwan, former youth world champion Sachin Siwach and Naveen Kumar got bronze in their categories. 

The Election Commission on March 10 imposed ‘model code of conduct' with immediate effect for the Lok Sabha elections and announced that ‘voter verifiable paper audit trail' will be used in all polling stations this time. Among other things, the model code of conduct bars the government from announcing any policy move that may impact voters' decision.

Announcing the seven-phase schedule for 2019 Lok Sabha polls beginning April 11, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora also said 10 lakhs polling stations would be set up this time as against about nine lakhs in 2014.

He said model code of conduct for polls has come into immediate effect from March 10 and all political advertisements on social media will need pre-certification.

The EC said 91 constituencies will go for polls in first phase on April 11, followed by 97 constituencies in second phase on April 18.

The total contestants in fray were 8,251, with an average of 15 candidates in each constituency. However, deposit was forfeited in case of 7,000 contestants.

A total of over 55 crore voters (66.3 per cent) exercised their vote, while there were 9.27 lakh polling stations. There were nearly 60 lakh ‘NOTA' votes.

Out of total 543 elected candidates, only 62 were women from 668 who had contested.