New Delhi Apr 20 PTI The defence ministry has decided to start Ayurveda centres at 37 cantonment hospitals and 12 military healthcare facilitiesThe ministry on Wednesday said it has signed two Memoranda of Understanding MoUs with the Ministry of Ayush MoA for starting the Ayurveda centresIt said the Ayurveda centres will be functional across the country from May 1Two MoUs have been signed by the Ministry of Defence MoD with the Ministry of AYUSH MoA one for starting Ayurveda centres at 37 cantonment hospitals and another for starting Ayurveda centres at 12 military hospitals of Armed Forces Medical Services AFMS the defence ministry said in a statementThe MoUs were signed during the three-day mega event Global Ayush Investment and Innovation Summit organised at Mahatma Mandir in Gujarats GandhinagarPrime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the gathering during the inaugural function where the Director-General of World Health Organization WHO Tedros Ghebreyesus was also presentThis Ayurveda centres will make available well-established and time-tested therapies of Ayurveda to the residents of cantonments including families of armed forces personnel and civilians depending on these hospitals the ministry said PTI MPB RC

New Delhi Mar 26 PTI Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba will pay a three-day visit to India from April 1 with an aim to further strengthen bilateral ties people familiar with the development said on SaturdayDeuba will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 2 they saidBesides official engagements in Delhi the Nepalese prime minister is also scheduled to visit VaranasiThis will be Deubas first bilateral visit abroad after becoming the prime minister in July 2021He visited India in each of his four earlier stints as the prime minister of Nepal His last visit to India in his capacity as the prime minister was in 2017The people cited above said Deubas visit to India is in the tradition of periodic high-level exchanges between the two countriesIt would give an opportunity to both sides to review the entire gamut of bilateral relations including development and economic partnership trade cooperation in the health sector power connectivity people-to-people links and other issues of mutual interest said one of the people PTI MPB RC

New Delhi Nov 22 PTI The coast guards of India the Maldives and Sri Lanka are currently conducting a five-day military exercise to enhance interoperability and cooperation officials said on MondayThe 15th edition of the trilateral exercise Dosti began in the Maldives on SaturdayIndian Coast Guard vessels Vajra and Apoorva have been deployed for the exerciseThe aim of the India-Maldives-Sri Lanka trilateral exercise is to further fortify the friendship and enhance the operational capability said an officialExercise Dosti was initiated in 1991 between the Indian and the Maldives coast guards Sri Lanka joined the exercise for the first time in 2012 PTI MPB RC

New Delhi Nov 19 PTI There has to be basic regulations and a sense of equity and fairness in the use of new technologies and data External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on FridayIn a virtual panel discussion at the Sydney Dialogue he said the new digital space and data world cannot be run on the 19th-century principle of capitalism and that there is a need for effective norms to regulate themIf we are to do well then it is important that democratic societies find the right balance because at the end of the day democracy will advance when it is clear that democracy delivers Jaishankar saidWe cannot have a tech world data world essentially run on the 19th-century principle of capitalism he addedThe Sydney Dialogue is a forum focussed on emerging critical and cyber technologiesYes on one hand we need freedom we need openness we need the flows but on the other hand there have to be basic regulations a sense of equity and a sense of fairness the external affairs minister saidHe said data pillaging cannot be a basis for global businessYou cannot have data pillaging as a basis for global business There are countries that would obviously like to build their own business There are people who want to have control over their own data I think those also need to be factored in Jaishankar saidAsked about his remark sometime ago about technology having a political dimension he said it was made in a certain context It is political in the sense that it is used by players to advance goals the minister addedAt the same time he said technology has empowered people which was inconceivable earlierAustralian Foreign Minister Marise Payne was also part of the discussionSpeaking at the Sydney Dialogue on Thursday Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on democratic nations to ensure that cryptocurrency does not end up in the wrong hands and cautioned that new-age technologies have the potential to be used as instruments of conflict and dominationHe also said India has created a robust framework of data protection uses data as a source of empowerment of people and has unmatched experience in doing this in a democratic framework with strong guarantees of individual rights PTI MPB RC

New Delhi Sep 23 PTI The defence ministry is likely to finalise in the next few days the nearly Rs 20000 crore Airbus-Tata deal to procure 56 C-295 medium transport aircraft to replace the Avro-748 planes of the Indian Air Force people familiar with the development said on ThursdayThe long-pending procurement was cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Security two weeks agoUnder the deal 16 aircraft will be delivered in a flyaway condition by the Airbus Defence and Space of Spain within 48 months of the signing of the contractThe remaining 40 planes will be manufactured in India by a consortium of the Airbus Defence and Space and the Tata Advanced Systems Limited TASL within 10 years of the signing of the contract officials saidThe C-295MW aircraft is a transport plane of 5-10 tonne capacityThis is the first project of its kind in which a military aircraft will be manufactured in India by a private companyAll 56 aircraft will be installed with indigenous electronic warfare suite the defence ministry had said on September 8 after the procurement was cleared by the Cabinet Committee on SecurityThe in-principle approval for the Avro replacement programme was accorded around nine years agoA large number of detail parts sub-assemblies and major component assemblies of aerostructure are scheduled to be manufactured in IndiaThe ministry had said that before the completion of the deliveries a servicing facility for the C-295MW aircraft is scheduled to be set up in IndiaIt is expected that this facility will act as a regional MRO maintenance repair and overhaul hub for various variants of the C-295 aircraft it had said PTI MPB RC