Ajay

♦ ‘Ajay’, the eighth and last ship of Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft (ASW SWC), indigenously designed and built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), was launched on 21 July 2025 in Kolkata.

♦ 'Ajay' has been built by GRSE for the Indian Navy.

♦ Ajay is equipped with modern tools like a sonar system attached to the hull and a deep sonar that can be lowered into the water to detect the low sounds made by submarines.

♦ These warships are 77.6 meters long and 10.5 meters wide, and are powered by diesel engines and waterjets, allowing them to move fast and smoothly even in shallow waters.

♦ The name Ajay carries a special legacy.

♦ The first INS Ajay, built in 1961 by GRSE, was India's first warship made in the country, marking the beginning of Indian defence shipbuilding.

♦ Now, the new Ajay (Yard 3034) continues that proud tradition.

♦ The government-run shipbuilder GRSE says this ship reflects how far India has come in building its own warships.

INS Nistar

♦ The Indian Navy commissioned INS Nistar at the Naval Dockyard in Visakhapatnam on 18 July 2025.

♦ This is the first indigenously designed and constructed Diving Support Vessel.

♦ The ship, which is the first of the two Diving Support Vessels being built by Hindustan Shipyard Limited, is designed to undertake complex deep sea saturation diving and rescue operations – a capability select Navies possess across the globe.

♦ INS Nistar is installed with state-of-the-art Diving Equipment such as Remotely Operated Vehicles, Self-Propelled Hyperbaric Life Boat, Diving Compression Chambers.

♦ It can undertake diving and salvage operations upto 300m depth. It would also serve as the ‘Mother Ship’ for deep submergence rescue vessel to rescue and evacuate personnel, from a dived submarine in distress well below the surface.

♦ The commissioning of the 118m ship, with a displacement of more than 10,000 tons, upholds the Indian Navy’s resolve towards continuously strengthening its maritime capabilities in the Underwater Domain.

♦ With participation of 120 MSMEs and incorporating over 80% indigenous content, INS Nistar is a statement to India's ability to build complex ships at par with international standards.

Axiom-4 mission safely returned to Earth

♦ Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and three other crew members of the Axiom-4 mission safely returned to Earth on 15 July 2025, after their 18-day historic mission aboard the International Space Station.

♦ The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego in California.

♦ The other crew members are - Commander Peggy Whitson of the U.S., Mission Specialist Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland, and Mission Specialist Tibor Kapu of Hungary.

♦ Axiom-4 mission’s space odyssey began on 25th June when the Falcon-9 rocket carrying the Dragon space capsule blasted off from Florida towards the International Space Station. 

♦ Group Captain Shukla is the first Indian to visit the International Space Station (ISS) and the second Indian astronaut after Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, who went to space in 1984. During his stay aboard the ISS, Shukla conducted seven India-specific microgravity experiments.

Astra missile test successful

♦ Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Air Force (IAF) successfully conducted flight-test of indigenous Astra missile on 11 july 2025.

♦ This Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air missile was flight tested from Sukhoi-30 Mk-I platform in Odisha. 

♦ Astra has a range exceeding 100 kilometers and is equipped with state-of-the art guidance and navigation system.

♦ According to the Defence Ministry, two launches were carried out against high-speed unmanned aerial targets at different ranges, target aspects and launch platform conditions.

♦ In both the cases, the missiles destroyed the targets with pin-point accuracy. During the tests, all subsystems performed accurately.

♦ These successful flight tests have re-established the accuracy and reliable performance of Astra weapon systems with indigenous seeker.

INS Nistar

♦ Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) delivered the DP-II Diving Support Vessel, INS Nistar to the Indian Navy on 8 July 2025.

♦ Following the successful delivery of INS Dhruv in 2020 and today's delivery of Nistar, HSL marks a quantum leap—from building small support vessels/ tugs to delivering complex, strategic platforms of national importance. 

♦ This reflects HSL's significant advancement in technological capability, precision engineering, and expertise in constructing complex warships for the Nation.

♦ Nistar is an indigenously built vessel equipped with cutting-edge technology—underscoring HSL's vital role in advancing the Make In India initiative and enhancing the might of the Indian Navy.

New green energy

♦ Indian researchers have developed a new green energy material that could revolutionize energy storage technology.

♦ Scientists from the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS), Bengaluru, in collaboration with Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), have engineered a lanthanum-doped silver niobate (AgNbO₃) compound that significantly enhances supercapacitor performance.

♦ Supercapacitors, known for their rapid charging and discharging abilities, often fall short in energy storage capacity.

♦ The new material overcomes this limitation by increasing energy density without sacrificing speed or stability.

♦ This innovation marks a significant step in India’s contribution to sustainable energy solutions amid the global push for cleaner and more efficient technologies.

INS Tamal

♦ The Indian Navy commissioned its latest stealth frigate, INS Tamal (F 71), at the Yantar Shipyard in Kaliningrad, Russia on 1 July 2025.

♦ INS Tamal is the eighth multi-role stealth frigate under Project 1135.6 and the second vessel in the follow-on Tushil class of ships. 

♦ The first of the class, INS Tushil, was inducted into the Navy in December 2024.

♦ All seven earlier ships are part of the Western Fleet, the primary combat arm of the Indian Navy’s Western Naval Command.

♦ INS Tamal will be commanded by Captain Sridhar Tata, a specialist in gunnery and missile warfare.

♦ Although built in Russia, the frigate includes 26% indigenous systems, such as the BrahMos long-range supersonic cruise missile and the Humsa-NG sonar system.

♦ The construction of the next two ships of the class in India is expected to further expand joint technological capabilities.

♦ Launched in February 2022, INS Tamal completed extensive sea trials between November 2024 and June 2025, successfully testing her advanced weaponry, including the Shtil-1 surface-to-air missile system, artillery guns, and torpedoes.