Saddled with mounting debt and heavy losses, India's airlines are caught in a no-win situation. Passenger traffic is increasing, but costs are rising faster. The airlines want to grow and modernize their fleets to cater to passenger demand, but financing planned fleet expansion is problematic. Indian banks, which have about $7 billion already tied up in the airlines, are worried about their exposure to the sector and are unwilling to restructure loans to carriers, including state-run Air India.

NEW DELHI — India will soon acquire a Hercules WC-130J aircraft and an unmanned aerial vehicle to ensure improved monitoring of cyclones, a senior government official says.

NEW DELHI — India will induct its homegrown Akash surface-to-air missile (SAM) into the Indian air force (IAF) on March 3. “The Akash weapon system [AWS] was indigenously developed by [the] Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) as part of the integrated guided missile development program and is an all-weather, medium-range, surface-to-air missile system,” a defense ministry official says. “It provides multidirectional and multitarget area defense.”