NEW DELHI: The first batch of women fighter-pilots will fly warplanes from December after finishing the final leg of their training, which is underway at Kalaikunda Air Force facility in West Bengal, Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa said on Thursday. 

Addressing journalists ahead of the 85th Air Force Day, the Air Chief said, “Last year in July, we have moved a step forward by inducing the first batch of women pilots in fighter’s stream. You will be glad to know that their performance has been at par  with other pilots despite demanding nature of the flying.” 

“Consequently, the next batch of three women trainees were selected in the fighters stream in July and are presently undergoing the second stage of their training. On successful completion of the training, these three women pilots will be commissioned in December this year,” Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa said. 

Bhawana Kanth, Mohana Singh, and Avani Chaturvedi were commissioned as flying officers in the IAF in June 2016. They are currently training on British Hawk advanced jet trainers.

These pilots were supposed to be assigned to fighter squadrons in June 2017 but the plan got delayed by four months due to training backlog and weather-related issues. 

On further inclusion of female pilots in the fighters stream, the Air Chief said, “Flying is gender neutral like driving. Women have to volunteer to become fighter pilots and also have to make the cut into aptitude as flying is the game of physics.”

NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force (IAF) is capable of handling the threats from both the Eastern and Western fronts, Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa said on Thursday 

The IAF Chief was asked about operational preparedness in case of a two-front war scenario, the Air Chief Marshal said that the IAF is ready for a full spectrum operation but added that any decision on surgical strike involving the IAF has to be taken by the government.

“Air Force has the capability to locate, fix and strike across the border,” Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa said on the issue of the tactical nuclear weapon of Pakistan.

On the required number of the fighter squadrons, the Air chief said, “We need to have 42 squadrons for full spectrum of war but it does not mean that we are not capable of handling the situation.

“We have a plan B which may be executed if needed,” he said while talking to journalists here ahead of the Air Force Day.

NEW DELHI:  Kanpur-based MKU Limited is all set to make Bullet Proof Jacket (BPJ) with the technology transfer from India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

The Bullet Proof Jackets are manufactured for the use of Indian Army and Para-Military Forces personnel.

Chairman DRDO and Secretary Department of Defence R&D Dr. S Christopher handed over the technology at a function held in New Delhi on October 4, where documents and related license agreement between DRDO and M/S MKU Limited, Kanpur were exchanged.

The Indian Army General Staff Qualitative Requirement (GSQR) No. – 1438 BPJ technology has been developed by Defence Materials & Stores Research & Development Establishment (DMSRDE), a Kanpur based premier laboratory of DRDO.

This technology is challenging and one of the most significant matured personal protection systems developed by DRDO among the various GSQRs of Indian Army meeting NIJ III+ Standard.

Dr. Christopher in his address urged MKU to maintain a strict vigil on the quality of the Bullet Proof Jackets for the Indian Army and the Paramilitary Forces and to collaborate with DRDO to absorb the Organisation-developed technologies.

Among the dignitaries who graced the handing over ceremony were Director General, Naval System & Materials Cluster of DRDO Dr. S V Kamat; Director of DMSRDE Kanpur, Dr. N Eswara Prasad; Managing Director of M/S MKU Limited Neeraj Gupta besides various corporate directors of DRDO headquarters.

New Delhi : Government appoints Rajnish Kumar as the Chairman of India’s largest state run lender State Bank of India for a period of three years. Arundhati Bhattacharya’s term as SBI chairman ends this week. Kumar currently holds the post of Managing Director at SBI.

At present, Rajnish Kumar is one of the MD of SBI. The Banks Board Bureau (BBB) had interviewed four managing directors for the post at the end of June and had recommended a name to the government.

The new head of the bank will have to lead it through the ongoing resolution of bad loans, while ensuring that it supports growth by stepping up lending. Bad loans are seen as a systemic risk while credit growth is a key element of India’s economic revival strategy. 

Appointed in 2013 as the bank’s first woman chairman, Bhattacharya got a one-year extension in October 2016 to maintain continuity as SBI was preparing to absorb five associate banks and the Bharatiya Mahila Bank in April. That was seen as kicking off a much-anticipated wave of consolidation in the public sector banking space. 

New Delhi : Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (Department of Health Research) has been made Deputy Director General (Programmes) at the World Health Organisation (WHO). This was announced by WHO Director-General  Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who named his senior leadership team.

Dr. Soumya Swaminathan has more than 30 years of experience in clinical care, research and translating those findings into programs. She most recently served as Secretary of the Department of Health Research in India and as Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research.

She is a paediatrician and an expert on Tuberculosis.

Dr. Soumya Swaminathan will be Deputy Director General for Programmes (DDP) and Jane Ellison will be Deputy Director General for Corporate Operations (DDC).
 
The new team includes former ministers of health, some of the world’s leading physicians, scientists and researchers, and programmatic experts in universal health coverage, health emergencies, communicable and non-communicable diseases, climate and environmental health, and women’s, adolescents’ and children’s health. Individually and collectively, they have a wealth of experience across government, private sector, multilateral, civil society and academic organizations.
 
“The team represents 14 countries, including all WHO regions, and is more than 60% women, reflecting my deep-held belief that we need top talent, gender equity and a geographically diverse set of perspectives to fulfil our mission to keep the world safe,” said Dr Tedros.
 
Jane Ellison brings with her more than 30 years of experience in government, commerce and change management. Most recently, she was the Special Parliamentary Adviser to the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer. She also served as the UK’s Public Health Minister from 2014 to 2016.

NEW DELHI: Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lamba is undertaking a three-day visit to Vietnam ‘to explore new avenues’ of defence cooperation and to further consolidate the cooperation between Indian and Vietnamese armed forces. 

During his visit from October 4 to 7, the Naval Chief will hold bilateral discussions with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Defence Minister General Ngo Xuan Lich, Chief of the General Staff Senior Lieutenant General Phan Van Giang, and Commander-in-Chief of the Vietnam People’s Navy Rear Admiral Pham Hoai Nam.

The Admiral will also be visiting the National Defence Academy of Vietnam, where he will interact with student officers and faculty members and deliver a talk on the ‘Importance of Maritime Power’, Defence Ministry said in a statement here on Tuesday.

Besides, he will visit Vietnam People’s Navy ‘Naval Region 4’, Vietnam Naval Academy and lay a wreath at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.  

Defence cooperation between India and Vietnam has been robust with the primary focus being maritime cooperation. 

India signed a Protocol on Defence Cooperation Agreement in 1994. The partnership was thereafter elevated to Strategic Partnership in 2007 and a MoU on Defence Cooperation between the countries was signed on November 5, 2009. 

A ‘Joint Vision Statement for 2015-20’ was signed by the respective Defence Ministers in May 2015 and the Strategic Partnership was elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in September 2016, during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Vietnam.  

The Vietnam People’s Navy  participates in the ‘MILAN’ inter-Navy interactions organised at Port Blair by the Indian Navy. Warships from Indian Navy have been regularly visiting ports at Vietnam, with Indian Naval Ships Satpura and Kadmat recently making port call at Hai Phong from 23 to 27 September 2017. 

The Vietnamese Navy ship Dinh Tien Hoang, a Gepoard Class Frigate, also visited Visakhapatnam in February 2016, for participation in the ‘International Fleet Review – 2016’.

The Indian Army and Air Force also maintain robust cooperation with the Vietnamese Army and Air Force.  

On the International Day of the Older Person – 1 October – the World Health Organization (WHO) calls for a new approach to providing health services for older people.

Highlighting the role of primary care and the contribution of community health workers in keeping older people healthier for longer, the WHO has emphasized the importance of integrating services for different conditions.  
 
“By the year 2050, 1 in 5 people in the world will be aged 60 and older,” says Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO. “It is our goal to ensure that all older people can obtain the health services they need, whoever they are, wherever they live.”
 
Yet, even in the rich world, people may not be getting the integrated services they need.  In a survey of 11 high-income countries, up to 41% of older adults (aged  more than 65 years) reported care coordination problems in the past two years.
 
WHO’s new Guidelines on Integrated Care for Older People recommend ways community-based services can help prevent, slow or reverse declines in physical and mental capacities among older people. The guidelines also require health and social care providers to coordinate their services around the needs of older people through approaches such as comprehensive assessment and care plans. 

“Everyone at all levels of health and social care, from front-line providers through to senior leaders, has a role to play to help improve the health of older people. WHO’s new guidelines provide the evidence for primary care workers to put the comprehensive needs of older people, not just the diseases they come in to discuss, at the centre of the way they provide care,’’ says Dr John Beard, Director of the Ageing and Life Course at WHO. 

Older adults are more likely to experience chronic conditions and often multiple conditions at the same time. Yet today’s health systems generally focus on the detection and treatment of individual acute diseases. 

“If health systems are to meet the needs of older populations, they must provide ongoing care focused on the issues that matter to older people – chronic pain, and difficulties with hearing, seeing, walking or performing daily activities,” adds Dr Beard.  “This will require much better integration between care providers.” 

Some countries are already making smart investments guided by WHO’s Global Strategy on Ageing and Health.

Brazil has implemented comprehensive assessments and expanded its services for older adults;  Japan has  integrated long -term care insurance  to protect people from the costs of care; Thailand is strengthening the integration of health and social care as close as possible to where people live; while the Ministry of Health in Vietnam will build on its comprehensive health care system and the large number of elderly health care clubs to better meet the needs of older people in their communities. In Mauritius, the Ministry of Health provides universal health coverage for older adults including a network of health clubs and primary care clinics with more sophisticated services in hospitals. The United Arab Emirates are meeting the health needs of older people by creating more age-friendly cities.  In France, a new WHO Collaborating Centre called Gerontopole, located in the Toulouse University Hospital, is helping to advance research, clinical practice and training on Healthy Ageing.   

“Integrated care can help  foster inclusive economic growth, improve health and wellbeing,  and ensure older people have the opportunity to contribute to  development, instead of being left behind,” concluded Dr Beard. 

On Monday, a nine-year-old boy and a girl were killed as Pakistani troops targeted villages in the border areas along the Line of Control (LOC) in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir. 5 civilians were also injured. 

PTI reported that the deceased has been identified as Israr Ahmed (9) of Kerni. The injured include Reshma Bi, 55, and her son Mohammad Rafiq, 31, both residents of Kerni. Pakistani troops resorted to mortar shells and firing small and automatic weapons in the forward posts of Poonch. Indian Military retaliated very strongly and gave a befitting reply to the Pakistani troops. 

According to The Indian Express, apart from firing at forward Indian positions along the LoC, the Pakistani troops were also targeting civilian areas in Degwar, Shahpur, Kerni and Qasba. The casualties occurred as some of the shells fell in Kerni village.

On September 27, Pakistani troops had resorted to mortar shelling on civilian areas in Balakote and Manjakote sectors of Poonch and Rajouri districts, respectively, injuring two civilians including a 50-year-old woman.

The exchange of fire in the border areas forces the residents to shift to the safer places. Last month, a BSF jawan and a woman were been killed by the mortars of the Pakistani army.

Defence experts are opined that this ceasefire violation is a possible attempt to help the infiltrators to get inside the Indian territory. A week ago Indian Army Chief Bipin Rawat had said, “We will bury them (the infiltrators) 2 feet below the ground if they try to cross the borders.”

According to reports, under the new law, women can legally obtain a driving licence without asking a male guardian for permission in Saudi Arabia

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has welcomed the decision by Saudi Arabia to allow women to drive cars in the country.

In a tweet, the UN chief noted that ending the restrictions represents an “important step in the right direction.”

Also welcoming the announcement, the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) “expressed hope that the move would “start the journey” to substantive equality for women and girls in the country, with more access to public spaces and life, increased participation in the job market and a life free of violence in all spheres.

“Women being able to apply for a driver’s licence in Saudi Arabia, and subsequently drive, is a long-awaited milestone in the [country], that puts them at par with their male counterparts in this one area of public life and gives them a right to a life-saving skill that they should never have been denied,” said Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the Executive Director UN Women, in a statement today.

“The ability to move independently within their country is a vital step to the other freedoms that are their right as economic, political and social actors, and that bring benefits to all of society,” she added.

India has registered a significant decline in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), according to the latest Sample Registration Survey (SRS) bulletin.

The IMR in the country has declined by three points–8% decline– from 37 per 1,000 live births in 2015 to 34 per 1000 live births in 2016, compared to two points decline last year.

India also recorded a major drop in birth cohort, which has for the first time, come down to below 25 million. Also, there were 90,000 fewer infant deaths in 2016 as compared to 2015. The total number of estimated infant deaths have come down from 9,30,000 (9.3 lakh) in 2015 to 8,40,000 (8.4 lakh) in 2016.

According to the SRS Bulletin, the gender gap in India for child survival is reducing steadily. The gender difference between female and male IMR has now reduced to less than10%, giving a major boost to the ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ scheme of the Government.

The results signify that the strategic approach of the Ministry has started yielding dividends and the efforts of focusing on low performing States is paying off. Among the EAG States and Assam, all States except Uttarakhand have reported decline in IMR in comparison to 2015. The decline is reported as 4 points in Bihar, 3 points in Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand and two points decline in Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Rajasthan.

These remarkable achievements in merely one year is also the result of a countrywide efforts to increase the health service coverage through various initiatives of the Government that includes strengthening of service delivery; quality assurance; RMNCH+A; human resources, community processes; information and knowledge; drugs and diagnostics, and supply chain management, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.