NEW DELHI — India plans to loft its first navigation and timing satellite in June, the country’s top scientist says. The first satellite of the seven-spacecraft Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) will be launched on a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C22) from the spaceport at Sriharikota off the coast of the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, according to the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), K. Radhakrishnan. Once launched, IRNSS-1 will be tested in orbit for nearly four months.
India has maintained its position as the world’s leading arms importer for the third year in a row, ahead of China, which moved up a spot as one of the world’s five largest weapons exporters, a Swedish-based research institute says. India replaced China as the world’s leading importer of weapons in 2011 and has retained the spot ever since, accounting for 12% of global arms imports, almost twice as much as China, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) says.
