Airports in India have been put on a heightened state of alert, and the rest of the country is on a general alert, following the death of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in neighboring Pakistan.

India’s national flag carrier Air India canceled 185 flights on Tuesday due to the ongoing strike by about 800 of its pilots. According to a senior Air India official, the airline managed to operate about 40 flights on the domestic network on the seventh day of the strike. The strike has so far caused a direct loss of about 700 million rupees ($15.6 million) to the already cash-strapped airline.

New Delhi – The Indian air force’s fleet modernization is on track, and it is inevitable that the IAF will have three or four different types of aircraft, IAF Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik says. “In the next 10 to 15 years, India will have Sukhoi SU-30s, the medium multirole combat aircraft, the fifth-generation fighter aircraft jointly being developed with Russia, and the indigenous light combat aircraft (Tejas) in the IAF inventory,” Naik says.