Ø Indian Navy Sailing
Vessel Mhadei has sailed 1,00,000 nautical miles, a major
feat for a sail boat used for adventure and training. INSV Mhadei with five
sails and weighing 23 tonnes was built by Aquarius Fiberglas Pvt Ltd. in Goa
and delivered to the Indian Navy in 2009.
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| INS Viraat |
Ø The Navy is learnt to have taken the call to retire the decrepit
warhorse INS
Viraat, the aircraft carrier that has had a service
life of 56 years as on date — first as HMS Hermes in the Royal British Navy and
in its present avatar since 1987. Viraat — which saw action in the Falklands
War and remained for well over a decade the sole aircraft carrier in the Indian
Ocean region following the decommissioning of the first Indian carrier INS
Vikrant in 1997 — is slated to have a grand farewell at the International Fleet
Review at Visakhapatnam in February 2016. It is in the process of obtaining
Defence Ministry’s clearance to the retirement plan. Mounting maintenance costs
and rapid depletion of its integral fleet of Sea Harrier jump jets are said to
have catalysed the decision to decommission Viraat. The Navy shelled out Rs. 70
crore for the last routine refit of the carrier. The carrier was to have been
dry-docked at the shipyard for the next round of periodic refit in December
last year, but it was called off in view of the retirement proposal. Viraat is
now expected to have its decommissioning refit sometime in the middle of 2015.
Ø State Bank of India (SBI) kicked of its largest-ever fund raising drive
to raise up to Rs.15,000 crore by picking up as many as nine investment
bankers, including Goldman Sachs, Barclays Plc and Bank of America Merrill Lynch
(BofA-ML). The other merchant bankers appointed for the share sale are
Citi, SBI Caps, Axis Bank, JM Financial, ICICI Securities and Kotak Mahindra
Bank.
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