Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...
Full configuration flight of Panchi, a variant of Nishant, the unmanned aerial vehicle developed (UAV) by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for military use, is slated for later next year. By October 2016, the test flights with full configuration to assess its capability, are fixed, informed Dr K Tamilmani, Director General (DG Aero) (DRDO), while confirming the development to The Hitavada. DRDO’s Panchi, the wheeled UAV. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) systems are undergoing major upgrades in terms of data link, flight control and propulsion system to enhance the flight envelop, the DG explained further. Panchi is the wheeled version of UAV Nishant and is capable of taking-off and landing by using small airstrips, which will be a major advantage for field units. Panchi UAV has autonomous flight capabilities and is controlled from a user friendly Ground Control Station (GCS). GCS incorporates a microprocessor bases encoder/decoder unit which interface ...