International Yoga Day 2018: Indian forces do asanas falling from 15,000 ft, inside submarines

Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the International Yoga Day 2018 celebrations at the Forest Research Institute in Dehradun.

World Yoga Day 2018 : Yoga at 15,000 feet in the air and practicing asanas under the ocean’s waves. That’s how India’s armed forces celebrated International Yoga Day.

While the world celebrates the fourth edition of the International Yoga Day on Thursday, India’s brave and bold have participated in their own unique way.

Wing Commander KBS Samyal and Wing Commander Gajanand Yadav, instructors from the India Air Force’s Paratroopers Training School, practiced Yoga at 15,000 feet in the air. IAF’s official twitter handle posted pictures of the duo practicing asanas as they hurtled towards the ground, with their parachutes yet to be deployed.

However, the IAF isn’t alone in pioneering high-altitude Yoga. Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel also celebrated Yoga Day in the cold desert of Ladakh at an altitude of 18,000 feet, reported news agency ANI.

Submarine staff belonging to the Indian Navy’s Eastern Naval Command also participated in Yoga Day celebrations. News agency ANI posted a visual of Navy personnel performing asanas in what appeared to be the cramped confines of a submarine.

The Indian Army’s soldiers at the Siachen base camp are also celebrating International Yoga Day, with Isha Foundation’s Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev there to train them.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday led the International Yoga Day 2018 celebrations at the Forest Research Institute in Dehradun, Uttarakhand.

Read More → International Yoga Day 2018

At 70, Indian Navy is self-reliant, shipshape

The relatively poor disaster prevention and management infrastructure in most of the countries in the Indian Ocean places a bigger responsibility on the Indian Navy.

 

Business News : Navy Day this year is a good occasion to reflect on its journey and evaluate its progress over the last 70 years. The Indian Navy was an exceedingly small force at the dawn of independence and, while being a product of both its British inheritance and the maritime DNA of our forebears, is largely a post-independence construct.

Despite the many problems that besieged the newly independent country — and by extension its Navy — such as low industrial base, problems on our land borders made it imperative to focus on the army and the air force. But the navy was not short on vision.

As early as 1948, it drew up ambitious plans for a balanced navy that would consist of light aircraft carriers, submarines, destroyers, cruisers, auxiliaries and associated training and maintenance infrastructure.

Seen against this backdrop, the Indian Navy has grown quietly but steadily. From a force of less than half a dozen sloops to one that has 135 ships and 235 aircraft, most of them state-of-the-art, is indeed an impressive story.

That we operate in all three dimensions: On, above and below water; that most of our ships are indigenously built; and that we are among the few navies to build and operate an array of platforms from aircraft carriers to nuclear submarines add further strength to the narrative. We are now among the world’s leading navies.

But numbers alone do not tell the whole story. Of particular significance is the fact that the navy has built excellent capacities — both human and material — in several disciplines such as hydrography, special operations, integration engineering, doctrine writing, underwater medicine and disaster relief, to name a few.

Click to Read → Indian Navy Day

Air variant of BrahMos missile tested from Sukhoi jet: Why it matters

The test also made the Indian Air Force the first air force in the world to test a missile of this category from an air platform.

Business News : India on Wednesday successfully flight-tested the air variant of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from a Sukhoi SU-30MKI fighter jet to hit a target in the Bay of Bengal, completing the country’s tactical cruise missile triad.

The test also made the Indian Air Force the first air force in the world to test a missile of this category from an air platform.

Currently, BrahMos is the only cruise missile that can be fired from air, land and sea.

The missile, integrated with the long-range fighter, is seen as a force multiplier for the Indian Air Force.

This was the first test of the missile’s air version against a sea-based target.

The missile was gravity dropped from the Su-30, after which the two-stage missile’s engine fired up and propelled it toward the set target.The Indian Air Force said the launch was smooth and the missile followed the desired trajectory before hitting the target ship.

“The BrahMos missile provides the Indian Air Force a much-desired capability to strike from large stand-off ranges on any target in sea or land with pinpoint accuracy by day or night and in all-weather conditions.

“The capability of the missile, coupled with the superlative performance of the Su-30 aircraft, gives the IAF a strategic reach and allows it to dominate the ocean and the battlefields,” the IAF statement said.

Click to Read → Brahmos Supersonic Cruise Missile