Tata Elxsi Limited and Sarla Aviation have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly develop Shunya, a six-seater plus pilot electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, the companies announced on Tuesday.

The partnership brings together Tata Elxsi’s engineering capabilities in avionics, flight control systems, software integration, testing, verification and validation, and certification with Sarla Aviation’s role as the lead on design, development and type certification of the Shunya platform. The collaboration may also extend to sensor fusion-based navigation software, structural design and airworthiness test support.

Shunya is designed for flight operations exceeding 300 kilometres, combining vertical take-off and landing with fixed-wing cruise efficiency to enable runway-independent operations. The aircraft’s first flight is targeted within 18 to 24 months, with certification activities expected to follow.

SpiceJet has ceased operations of Boeing 737 Max aircraft after mutually terminating lease agreement with BOC Aviation.

Three Boeing 737 planes are being ferried to the Philippines leaving SpiceJet with an operating fleet of 11 aircraft.

BOC Aviation and SpiceJet declined comment.

The development comes as SpiceJet sought more time from Delhi High Court to deposit ₹50 crore in connection with its dispute with the airline’s former promoter Kalanithi Maran.

On Monday, it’s counsel Mukul Rohatgi informed the court about a delay in receipt of a second tranche under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme. The matter is expected to be heard on September 21.

Air Marshal KAA Sanjeeb has been appointed as the Air Officer-in-Charge Maintenance of the Indian Air Force. He takes over from Air Marshal Sanjiv Ghuratia, who superannuated after 39 years of service.

Commissioned into the IAF in September 1988 in the Aeronautical Engineering (Mechanical) Branch, he has extensive field experience on IL-76, Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) and Boeing 737-200 aircraft.

He was the lead engineer and team leader of the Air Headquarters Project Management Team for the induction of the first IL-78 Flight Refueller Aircraft (FRA) into the IAF in 2003.

He was also among the pioneers involved in inducting and operationalising the AWACS fleet in the IAF.

Air Marshal Sanjeeb is an alumnus of the Bangladesh Flight Safety Institute and the Indian Institute of Public Administration.

The Department of Archaeology Museums and Heritage (DAMH) will collaborate with the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru, to locate monuments that may have been obscured from view owing to time, in the landscape of Lakkundi, which was a prominent urban centre between the 10th and 12th centuries CE, in Gadag district.

For, the local tradition vouches for the presence of 101 wells and 101 temples, most of which are concealed and hence are not visible. There is a perception that Lakkundi’s known monuments may only be part of its larger archaeological story and it may be holding more than what is apparent and exposed on the surface.

To unravel this, DAMH has roped in NIAS which will harness state-of-the-art digital and scientific technologies for the documentation of the archaeological sites. The outcome at the end of six months, is expected to present a more precise picture of a heritage landscape.

The All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), New Delhi, an autonomous institute under the Ministry of Ayush, has launched ‘AyurVarta’, a special digital dialogue series aimed at taking authentic knowledge, scientific perspectives and contemporary relevance of Ayurveda to wider audiences in India and abroad.

The initiative has been launched ahead of Ayurveda Day, which will be observed on 23 September. The series will feature conversations with leading experts on Ayurveda, contemporary healthcare challenges, scientific research, education, clinical practice and the growing global relevance of Ayurveda.

The inaugural episode of ‘AyurVarta’ featured a discussion between Professor (Vaidya) P. K. Prajapati, Director, AIIA, and Professor (Dr.) Mahesh Vyas, Dean, Ph.D., AIIA, on the theme “Why is Ayurveda Day celebrated on 23 September?”

The discussion traced the evolution of Ayurveda Day, which was earlier observed on Dhanvantari Jayanti (Dhanteras), and highlighted the Government’s decision to designate 23 September as the fixed date for its annual observance.

Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav on Wednesday emphasised the need to integrate conservation with human development, saying harmony and coexistence between people and nature must form the foundation of efforts to protect tiger landscapes and strengthen ecological security.

Yadav made the remarks while inaugurating a two-day international workshop on ‘Tiger Landscapes: Conservation, Bioeconomy and Ecotourism as Pillars for Livelihood and Income Generation’ in New Delhi.

The two-day workshop, from September 2-3, has been jointly organised by the International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA), the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

The Japanese Credit Rating Agency (JCRA) has upgraded India’s sovereign credit rating to A- from BBB+, citing strong economic growth, robust private consumption, public investment and improvements in the country’s financial system.

In a statement on Wednesday, JCRA said the Indian economy has sustained a high growth rate of around 7 per cent, supported by strong domestic consumption and public investment. It expects India to maintain growth of more than 6 per cent in FY2027.

The agency said government policies aimed at boosting productivity and economic development have strengthened India’s economic foundations. It specifically highlighted the development of digital public infrastructure and the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

India will build 100 new airports in the next 10 years under the Centre’s regional connectivity scheme UDAN with an outlay of Rs 30,000 crore, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu has said.

He inaugurated India’s third ‘hub & spoke’ operations from Ahmedabad airport on Tuesday.

“While there were 74 airports in 2014, today we can proudly say that India’s map features 166 airports. Going from 74 to 166 set a record for the country. Over the last 12 years, we completed work on a new airport or a new terminal roughly every 40 days,” Naidu said at the event.

The government today notified the Semicon 2.0 scheme with an outlay of 1.27 lakh crore rupees to boost the chip manufacturing ecosystem in the country. With this, India could account for nearly 10% of the global semiconductor industry market in the coming years and is expected to play a much bigger role in the global semiconductor value chain. Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, said this while addressing the media in New Delhi today. He highlighted that the country has achieved its target of developing 85 thousand semiconductor engineers in four years against the 10-year target and has now set a new target of developing one lakh more engineers. The Union Minister also highlighted that the focus of the Government is towards making the country firmly embedded in the global semiconductor value chain, from wafer fabrication to chip production.

During the event, Mr. Vaishnaw noted that there is confidence among global semiconductor industry stakeholders that India is the right destination for major investments in the coming decades. The Minister underlined that the speed at which projects have moved from approval to ground-breaking and then to commercial production in Semicon 1.0 has been particularly noted by the industry. Mr. Vaishnaw further said that India’s talent pool, policy certainty and ease of working have contributed to the industry’s growing interest in making India a base for semiconductor manufacturing and design.

Vice President C P Radhakrishnan today said that Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents a major opportunity for India to accelerate its economic progress and to emerge as a technologically empowered nation.

The Vice President said this while launching Gnani Artha, an AI model and Agentic AI platform, in New Delhi. Gnani Artha is a sovereign AI stack comprising Evon 3.3 and Plexus, a platform connecting AI intelligence with real-world work and institutions, developed by GNANI AI.

During the event, the Vice-President highlighted the government’s initiatives, including IndiaAI Mission and Centres of Excellence for AI, to strengthen the country’s AI ecosystem. He added that India’s approach is focused on making AI open, affordable and accessible, while ensuring that innovation benefits society as a whole.

Mr Radhakrishnan noted that the country has undergone significant transformation in the technology sector and the pace of change has accelerated considerably. Referring to the transition from typewriters and personal computers to artificial intelligence and large language models, the Vice President said technology is changing the way institutions and society function. He also congratulated Gnani Artha on being selected by the government as one among the only four companies to build AI models. He also expressed hope that the initiative would contribute to building a stronger, self-reliant and technologically empowered India.