1 FEBRUARY 2015 : Agni 5 success can burn Chinese dragon..!

Ø  The traditional and modern in Indian culture and history coalesced at the country’s newest sporting arena as the curtain went up on the 35th National Games. The capacity crowd at the country’s biggest sporting stadium to date reverberated with clapping and firework as Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu declared the games open and India’s ace women athletes P.T. Usha and Anju Bobby George lit up an ‘Aattavilakk’ (the traditional lamp that lights up every Kathakali performance) to mark the beginning of the sporting fiesta. The stalwarts of Indian athletes received the games torch from cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar, the games’ brand ambassador. The games torch was carried into the stadium by veteran sportspersons of the State led by Olympian T.C. Yohannan. Present to witness the opening of the games were Union Minister of State for Sports Sarbanand Sonowal, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president N. Ramachandran, Ministers and athletes drawn from all corners of the country, who entered the State earlier in the evening in a colourful march past. The lighting of the games torch was a spectacle of colour and sound showcasing Kerala’s rich cultural legacy.

Ø  Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu expressed confidence that a separate railway zone would be formed with Visakhapatnam as headquarters.

Ø  The flight-trial of the country’s Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), Agni-V, from a canister was a grand success, marking another technological milestone in the strategic missile programme. At 8.09 a.m., the missile smoothly shot out of the confines of a canister mounted on a TATRA truck on the Wheeler Island, off the Odisha coast, and traversed its full range of more than 5,000 km before plunging into the Indian Ocean. The missile was launched in its final, deliverable configuration. It can carry a nuclear warhead weighing 1.1 tonnes. This is the third success in a row for Agni-V but it is the first time that it is being launched from a canister. A canister launch means it can lift off from a truck on roads or open spaces anywhere. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) developed the 50-tonne, 17-metre-long, three-stage missile.