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The long-delayed and much-awaited $2.3 billion aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya was on Saturday inducted into the Indian Navy in a strategic boost to India’s maritime warfare capabilities. The mammoth 44,500-tonne warship was commissioned into the Indian Navy at the Sevmash Shipyard at a handing over ceremony attended by Defence Minister A. K. Antony and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin along with senior government and naval officials of the two countries. The Russian flag on the vessel was lowered and the flag of the Indian Navy was raised in its place. In a traditional Indian ritual, a coconut was broken against the ship’s side. The commissioning papers were signed by deputy director of Russia’s arms exporter Rosoboronexport, Igor Sevastyanov and the ship’s captain Suraj Berry, Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency reported. The warship was first scheduled to be delivered in 2008, but the deadline was repeatedly postponed over the period.

This file photo shows the smooth surfaces of angular and rounded rocks of the martian terrain released by NASA on January 6, 2004. NASA has begun final preparations for the launch of its next Mars mission this year to survey the upper atmosphere of the Red Planet. NASA’s next spacecraft going to Mars has arrived at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and is now perched in a cleanroom to begin final preparations for its November launch. The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft is undergoing detailed testing and fuelling prior to being moved to its launch pad. The mission has a 20-day launch period that opens on November 18, NASA said. The spacecraft will conduct the first mission dedicated to surveying the upper atmosphere of Mars. Scientists expect to obtain unprecedented data that will help them understand how the loss of atmospheric gas to space may have played a part in changing the planet’s climate. “We’re excited an

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C25) successfully putting the 1,350-kg Mars Orbiter first into its earth-bound orbit on Tuesday “symbolised India’s assured access to space” and it proved that “we can do any type of mission,” said S. Ramakrishnan, Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram. “With meticulous planning and team work, no mission is beyond our capability.” Not only Mr. Ramakrishnan, P. Kunhikrishnan, Mission Director of PSLV-C25; M.C. Dathan, Director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre; M.Y.S. Prasad, Director of Satish Dhawan Space Centre;, A.S. Kiran Kumar, Director of Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad; and S.K. Shivakumar, Director of ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore, said it was the hard work and dedication of hundreds of personnel in various ISRO centres that led to the PSLV placing the Mars orbiter precisely into its orbit. ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan praised the contribution of M. Annadurai and V. Kesavaraju, wh

A wildlife enforcer said the trap would not have worked if the enforcers had used a different cover. The skin and teeth had been sent for forensic examination to ascertain whether they were genuine or clever fakes. (Often, skin of slaughtered goats and calves are finely painted and sold as genuine tiger or leopard skin to unsuspecting buyers.) The interrogation of the suspects, hailing from Tamil Nadu, has thrown light on the growing “superstition fuelled” demand for pelts, feathers and body parts of rare and endangered wild species, ranging from tigers and leopards to monitor lizards, Indian sand boa (snake) and barn owl, in the State, a relatively recent trend, according to enforcers. A set of private profiteers posing as shamans and soothsayers profited most from the racket. They recommended and often helped their impressionable followers procure wildlife articles to make potions or sport as talismans and good luck charms. The enforcers said 50 tiger “kills