The Union Cabinet on Wednesday has approved a central scheme for providing drones to 15,000 women Self Help Groups (SHGs), with an outlay of Rs 1,261 crore for two years beginning 2024-25 fiscal year.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said that a decision in this regard was taken at the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday. The Union Minister said that the scheme aims to provide drones to 15,000 selected women self help groups during the period 2024-25 to 2025-2026 for providing rental services to farmers for agriculture purposes.

An official release stated that the approved initiatives under the scheme will provide sustainable business and livelihood support to 15,000 self help groups and they would be able to earn additional income of at least Rs 1,00,000 per annum.

Union Minister Anurag Thakur told the media that this scheme is important as part of PM Modi’s lakhpati didi initiative. He added that drones play a key role in the services sector and that there are about 10 crore women who are part of some Self Help Groups. Under this drone scheme, it has been ensured that the use of technology in farming drones will improve efficiency in spraying fertilisers and pesticides.

In addition, a five-day mandatory drone pilot training and additional 10-day training for agriculture purposes of nutrient and pesticide application are to be provided to one member of self help groups.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced empowering self help groups with drone technology from the Red Fort in his Independence Day speech on August 15, while pitching for leveraging the potential of science and technology in rural development.

Meanwhile, the Union cabinet also approved that the Central government will provide free grains to eligible citizens under the public distribution scheme for another five years.

International tunneling expert Arnold Dix who was called for the Uttarkashi rescue operation on Wednesday said the mission witnessed a miracle and he would go to the temple as he had promised to say thank you at the temple when the operation was going on. Hours later, Dix was seen offering his prayers at the temple of local deity Baba Bokh naag ji.

Arnold is the head of the Geneva based International Tunneling Underground Space Association. He is also a geologist, an engineer and a lawyer. He said it had been an honour as a parent to help out all parents in getting their children back home. He had promised in the beginning that 41 people would go unhurt by Christmas. He said Christmas had come early.

He said it had been a challenging mission. He said everyone in the team was focused on bringing the boys home. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese applauded Dix’s effort and was extra happy as Dix is an Australian. He took to X(formerly Twitter) and wrote he was proud of the role Australian Professor Arnold Dix played on the ground.

Dix thanked the Australian Prime Minister that it had been his privilege to show that Australians are fantastic at not just cricket but at other things as well including tunnel rescue. Arnold Dix was seen praying at a makeshift temple at the rescue site on Tuesday when the breakthrough was just a matter of time with the rat miners manually digging the way out. The video has gone viral on social media.      

Arnold said the rescue team remained calm and knew exactly what was wanted. He said everyone had worked as a wonderful team: the army, the engineers, all the agencies and the Fedral authority. He said it was joy to be part of the successful mission.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi on Wednesday said that India has formed a high-level enquiry committee to look into the security concerns raised by the United States government. Recently, the US claimed that the government, at the seniormost level, raised concerns with India and shared inputs on a nexus between organised criminals, gun runners and terrorists.

The United States government’s allegation followed a news report that American authorities thwarted a plot to kill Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on US soil. Reacting to the claim last week, Arindam Bagchi said that during the course of recent discussions on India-US security cooperation, the US side shared some inputs pertaining to nexus between organised criminals, gun runners, terrorists and others. These inputs are a cause of concern for both countries and they decided to take necessary follow-up action, the external affairs ministry spokesperson added.

Reports started last week that there was a conspiracy to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, an American-Canadian citizen, the general counsel for Sikhs for Justice, and a designated terrorist in India. The report stated that the US President Joe Biden raised the matter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a meeting at the G20 summit in New Delhi in September.

Issuing a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs said that they have already noted that during the course of discussions with the US on bilateral security cooperation, the US side shared some inputs pertaining to nexus between organized criminals, gun runners, terrorists and others. The statement added that the ministry also indicated that India takes such inputs seriously since they impinge on our national security interests as well, and relevant departments were already examining the issue.

The ministry further stated that in the aforesaid context on 18 November 2023, the Government of India constituted a high-level Enquiry Committee to look into all the relevant aspects of the matter. It added that the Indian government will take necessary follow-up action based on the finding of the Enquiry Committee.