Category Archives: Science & Technology

NATIONAL: MARINE & FISHERIES: Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) Scientists Facilitate Successful Cultivation of Indian Pompano through Cage Fish Culture in Padhthonse Village, Udupi district

A team of scientists from the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Mangaluru, has facilitated successful cultivation of Indian Pompano (Trachinotus mookalee) for the first time in Karnataka in the Swarna estuary at Padhthonse village, Udupi district, and its harvest was done from June 2 to June 26.

The pilot project began last November under the Scheduled Caste Sub Plan Programme, wherein the beneficiaries got hands-on training in various aspects of cage culture.

Indian Pompano fingerlings, measuring 2-3 cm, were procured from the marine finfish hatchery of the Vishakhapatnam Regional Centre of ICAR-CMFRI.

About 4,000 fingerlings, each weighing 3-4 gm, were released into cages at a density of 40-50 fishes per cubic metre after acclimatising them to the local condition.

The fingerlings were fed pelleted floating feed twice a day, amounting to 5% of their body weight, said a release from CMFRI-Mangaluru.

After a five-month grow-out period, the Indian Pompano was harvested in batches between June 2 and 26. The average growth observed during this period was 400-450 gm, resulting in a total harvest of 1,300 kg with survival rate of 90%.

The beneficiaries sold the harvested fish locally, fetching prices ranging from ₹450 to ₹490 per kg generating ₹6.1 lakh revenue. With expenses at ₹3.75 lakh, the net profit earned was ₹2.35 lakh in six months.

Success of the pilot would not only provide alternative livelihood for SC families, but also help other local communities. The success has demonstrated the rapid growth rate of Indian Pompano to reach the preferred table-size in six months and the favourable market demand for the same.

Cage cultivation of fish in coastal Karnataka began in 2009-10 in coastal rivers with over 900 cages being installed in estuaries till now.

The Fisheries Department, the National Fisheries Development Corporation etc., extended financial support to over 500 families. Seabass, Red Snapper and Snubnose Pompano were among the species grown in cages.

The research programme was led by A.P. Dineshbabu and his team of scientists comprising Sujitha Thomas, Geetha Sasikumar, Rajesh K. M., and Divya Viswambharan.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

WORLD: HEALTH & SCIENCE: PM Modi’s ‘Yoga Day Event’ at UN HQ Creates Guinness World Record

The Yoga Day event led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Wednesday created a Guinness world record.

The Yoga Day event led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Wednesday created a Guinness World Record for seeing the participation of most nationalities in a Yoga session.

PM Modi – who arrived in the US on Tuesday night (IST) at the invitation of President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, led the historic event at the UN headquarters to commemorate the 9th International Yoga Day. The PM was joined by the President of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly Csaba Korisi, deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, and New York City Mayor Eric Adams. The event also saw several other UN officials, diplomats, and prominent personalities.

Sporting a customised white yoga T-shirt and trousers, PM Modi thanked the people for attending the celebration. “I’m delighted to see you all. And I thank you all for coming. Friends. I’m told that almost every nationality is represented here today,” he said.

Yoga Day event in Surat sets new Guinness World Record

Earlier in the day, the Yoga Day event organised in Gujarat’s Surat set a new Guinness World Record for the largest gathering for a yoga session in one place with 1.53 lakh people joining the program. The previous world record was set in 2018 in Kota city of Rajasthan when 1,00,984 people participated in a Yoga Day session in one place.

source/content: hindustantimes.com (headline edited)

INTERNATIONAL: INDIA IN THE WORLD: India Gifts Missile Corvette INS Kirpan to Vietnam

Rajnath Singh holds talks with visiting Vietnamese counterpart .

India gifted the indigenously-built in-service missile corvette INS Kirpan to Vietnam to enhance that country’s naval capabilities. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh announced this on June 19 after bilateral talks with his visiting Vietnamese counterpart General Phan Van Gang.

“Progress on various bilateral defence cooperation initiatives was reviewed during the meeting, with both sides expressing satisfaction at the ongoing engagements,” a Defence Ministry statement said on the talks, stating that the two Ministers had focussed on enhancing cooperation between defence industries of both countries, and maritime security.

Both Ministers identified means to enhance existing areas of collaboration, especially in defence industry cooperation, maritime security and multinational cooperation, the Ministry said. As part of his engagements, General Phan also visited headquarters of the Defence Research and Development Organisation and discussed ways to enhance “defence industrial capabilities by cooperation in defence research and joint production”.

Earlier in the day, General Gang laid a wreath at the National War Memorial and was later given a Tri-Service guard of honour. He arrived in India on June 18 on a two-day visit.

INS Kirpan is a Khukri class missile corvette displacing 1,350 tonnes and was commissioned into the Navy on January 12, 1991. It has a displacement of close to 1,400 tonnes, a length of 91 metres, a beam of 11 metres, and is capable of speed in excess of 25 knots. The ship is fitted with a medium range gun, 30 mm close range guns, chaff launchers, and surface to surface missiles, enabling it to perform a wide variety of roles, including coastal and offshore patrol, coastal security, surface warfare, anti-piracy, and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations, according to the Navy.

In June 2022, India and Vietnam signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on mutual logistics support in the presence of the two Defence Ministers during Mr. Singh’s visit to the Southeast Asian nation, and the two Defence Ministers signed the “Joint Vision Statement on India-Vietnam defence partnership towards 2030”, which the Ministry had said would significantly enhance the scope and scale of existing defence cooperation.

Hanoi has procured 12 high speed patrol boats for the Vietnamese border guard force under a $100 million Line of Credit (LoC) extended in September 2014. In 2016, India extended another $500 million defence LoC, and discussions are under way to identify the equipment.

India has also announced gifting two simulators and monetary grant towards the setting up of a Language and IT Lab at the Air Force Officers Training School for capacity building in the Vietnamese armed forces.

India and Vietnam have shared a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership since 2016 and defence cooperation is a key pillar of this partnership. Vietnam is an important partner in India’s ‘Act East’ policy and the Indo-Pacific vision, the statement added.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: GREEN ENERGY : IIT-Madras Generates Hydrogen from Seawater using Solar Energy

The researchers have optimised all the parameters so that water electrolyte can directly use photovoltaic-derived voltage and current density to split water and generate hydrogen.

Researchers from the Department of Physics at IIT-Madras have developed critical components for a highly efficient, cost-effective way to electrolyze seawater to generate hydrogen. The results were published in the journal ACS Applied Energy Materials.

State-of-the-art alkaline water electrolyser technology is energy-intensive, requires an expensive oxide-polymer separator, and uses fresh water for electrolysis. The IIT-Madras team led by Dr. Ramaprabhu Sundara has addressed each of these challenges by developing simple, scalable and cost-effective alternatives that are highly efficient in splitting seawater and generating hydrogen. 

In place of pure or fresh water, the team has developed an electrolyser using alkaline seawater. They used a carbon-based support material for the electrodes instead of metals to almost eliminate the possibility of corrosion. They also designed and developed transition metal-based catalysts that can catalyse both oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions. The catalyst enhances the production of both hydrogen and oxygen even when impurities and chemical deposition on one of the electrodes takes place. Also, the researchers have developed a cellulose-based separator that is very economical and serves the purpose of allowing hydroxide ions to pass through but prevents oxygen and hydrogen that are generated from crossing-over. Finally, the researchers have optimised all the parameters such that the water electrolyser can directly use photovoltaic-derived voltage to split seawater and generate green hydrogen and oxygen, oxygen can be used elsewhere.

The reactions

Alkaline water electrolyser consists of two half-reactions occurring at the anode and cathode. At the cathode, water dissociates into H+ and hydroxide ions, and the H+ ions get converted into hydrogen. The hydroxide ions produced at the cathode permeate through the separator and oxygen is generated at the anode.

When seawater is used for electrolysis, hypochlorite formation occurs at the anode. Hypochlorite is responsible for corrosion of the electrode support material, and competes with the oxygen evolution reaction thus reducing the amount of oxygen produced. At the cathode, the hydrogen evolution reaction is slowed down when several impurities get adsorbed on the electrode surface.

The electrodes have a support material that is coated with a catalyst. “Since conventional metal support materials get easily corroded when seawater is used, we developed a carbon-based support material,” says Prof. Sundara. “The support material is used in both the anode and cathode, and is coated with the catalyst. The catalyst allows enhanced and simultaneous production of hydrogen at the cathode and oxygen at the anode.”

According to Prof. Sundara, the transition bimetals present in the catalyst are more selective towards oxygen evolution reaction than hypochlorite formation. Thus the challenge of hypochlorite formation reducing oxygen production is taken care of. Similarly, even while the cathode continues to adsorb impurities, the catalyst promotes the hydrogen evolution reaction, which helps in the increased production of hydrogen. 

The separator

Another unique feature is the novel separator that has been developed by the team. When alkaline electrolyte is used, the anode and cathode are separated with a separator. Since zirconium oxide-based material that is routinely used is expensive, they came up with a cellulose-based separator which allows the hydroxide ions to pass through from the cathode to the anode. But it minimises the crossover of hydrogen and oxygen that is generated.

“We found our separator is highly resistant to seawater degradation,” says Sana Fathima, one of the co-authors of the paper.

“Using the assembled electrolyser, we have demonstrated an overall seawater splitting voltage of 1.73 V at 10 mA/sq.cm (a benchmark current density corresponding to about 12% efficient solar-to-fuel conversion device under 1 sun illumination) at 26 degrees C,” says Anamika Ghosh from IIT Madras and the first author of the paper. “We have optimised all the parameters such that the water electrolyser can directly use photovoltaic-derived voltage and work at 10mA/sq.cm current density to split seawater for green hydrogen production.” 

The team has developed two prototypes of different dimensions to assess the viability of the catalysts. “In the case of the smaller electrolyser (16 sq.cm dimension) hydrogen is produced at a rate of 250 ml per hour, while in the larger one (391 sq.cm dimension) hydrogen is produced at a rate of about one litre per hour at an applied voltage of 2 V,” Ms. Ghosh says. “We also fabricated a stack consisting of three such cells and hydrogen produced is about four litres per hour at an applied voltage of 2 V per cell.” All the measurements were done at ambient pressure and room temperature. 

“All the cells have shown a shelf-life of more than six months, and the study is continuing,” says Ms. Fathima.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: DEFENCE / NAVY: Navy Showcases Twin-Carrier Operations in a Major Upgrade to Maritime Security

The exercise involved the deployment of the indigenously built INS Vikrant, the Russian-made INS Vikramaditya, and over 35 aircraft; Navy plans to ask government for one more Vikrant-size carrier.

As indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant gears up to become fully operational later this year, the Indian Navy has put on display its multi-carrier operations, with the coordinated deployment of Vikrant, INS Vikramaditya and more than 35 aircraft in the Arabian Sea. This marks a significant milestone in the Indian Navy’s pursuit of enhancing maritime security and the projection of its power in the Indian Ocean and beyond, the navy spokesperson said.

“The exercise involved seamless integration of two aircraft carriers — INS Vikramaditya and the indigenously built INS Vikrant — along with a diverse fleet of ships, submarines and aircraft, showcasing India’s technological expertise in the maritime domain,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “This demonstration of naval prowess underscores India’s commitment to safeguarding its national interests, maintaining regional stability, and fostering cooperative partnerships in the maritime domain,” the spokesperson added.

Floating sovereign airfields

INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant, the centrepieces of the exercise, serve as “floating sovereign airfields”, providing a launch platform for a wide array of aircraft, including MiG-29K fighter jets, MH-60R, Kamov, Sea King, Chetak and Dhruv helicopters. “These mobile bases can be positioned anywhere, allowing for increased mission flexibility, timely response to emerging threats and sustained air operations to safeguard our national interests across the globe. In addition, they provide our friends with an assurance that the Indian Navy is capable and ready to support our ‘collective’ security needs in the region,” the spokesperson said.

The construction, operation and maintenance of aircraft carriers is complex and expensive and a niche capability limited to a handful of countries. Arguing that the successful demonstration of twin-carrier battle group operations serves as a powerful testament to the pivotal role of sea-based air power in maintaining maritime superiority, the spokesperson said, “As India continues to strengthen its security apparatus, significance of aircraft carriers will remain paramount in shaping the nation’s defence strategy and promoting regional stability.”

Requesting another carrier

The Russian-origin INS Vikramaditya, with a displacement of 44,500 tonnes, sailed out of the dockyard recently after a long refit.

Navy Chief Admiral R. Hari Kumar has said that INS Vikrant, with a displacement of of 42,800 tonnes and commissioned into the navy last September, will be fully operational by year-end, as reported by The Hindu earlier. Adm. Kumar had also said that the navy was finalising plans to approach the government to repeat the order for a Vikrant-sized carrier — Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC)-2 — with some modifications. Given the long timelines, it is likely to end up as a replacement for INS Vikramaditya.

As part of the operationalisation, Vikrant will shortly go for scheduled maintenance within the warranty period by the manufacturer Cochin Shipyard Limited.

As part of ongoing air certification and INS Vikrant’s flight integration trials with rotary-wing and fixed-wing aircraft to reach a combat-ready state, the navy achieved a historic milestone by undertaking the maiden night landing of MiG-29K jets on May 24. Earlier, the maiden day landings of MiG-29K and the indigenous light combat aircraft took place on February 6, followed by day and night landing trials of all helicopters in the naval inventory.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

INTERNATIONAL: SCIENCE & MEDICINE : India joins Centralised Laboratory Network (CLN), a Global Collaboration for Testing Vaccines

The new members of the CLN now are Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Virology (ICMR-NIV), Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD) (Senegal), KAVI Institute of Clinical Research (KAVI ICR) & University of Nairobi Institute of Tropical and Infectious Diseases (UNITID) (Kenya), Synexa Life Sciences (South Africa) and Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) (Uganda).

India has joined the Centralized Laboratory Network (CLN) which currently has 15 partner facilities in 13 countries that works to test vaccines which can be used during pandemic, epidemic disease outbreak. CLN is a part of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the Network is the largest global group which has standardised methods and materials for testing.

The new members of the CLN now are Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Virology (ICMR-NIV), Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD) (Senegal), KAVI Institute of Clinical Research (KAVI ICR) & University of Nairobi Institute of Tropical and Infectious Diseases (UNITID) (Kenya), Synexa Life Sciences (South Africa) and Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) (Uganda).

CEPI-funded network aims to identify the most promising vaccine candidates rapidly and accurately against emerging infectious diseases and the expanded network is working at supporting sustainable regional outbreak preparedness infrastructure also.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: SCIENCE & MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY: VACCINES: India Develops First Local Test to Detect Flu, Covid in Single Swab

The Pune-based National Institute of Virology (NIV) has developed the kit, known as a multiplex single tube realtime RT-PCR test.

The National Institute of Virology has developed the first indigenous testing kit to detect three infections—Influenza A, B and SARS-CoV-2—through a single kit, and wants interested companies to take it to the mass market.

The kit is what is known as a multiplex single tube realtime RT-PCR test to detect Influenza A, B and Covid-19, said Dr Varsha Potdar, head of NIV Pune’s influenza division.

“This will be an easy, time saving and efficient way of detecting three infections through a single test,” she said. “Single tube essentially means that using a person’s single sample, we will be able to diagnose multiple infections. Technicians will not have to test the sample separately.”

Symptoms of the three infections tend to overlap, making a kit such as this particularly useful during flu seasons.

The institute, a constituent of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), on May 15 invited expressions of interest (EoI) from companies to manufacture the kits in bulk, Dr Potdar said.

The test kit will use nasal and throat swabs of a patient, similar to the Covid-19 testing kits, but technicians will be able to use the sample for multiple disease detection, she added.

The institute now wants to hand over the technology to licensees or manufacturers “to enable them to commercialise the technology for societal benefit.”

“The company chosen shall undertake the scale-up as required, manufacturing and commercialiation of the technology and will share the technical data with ICMR,” the EoI document said.

Multiplex testing in molecular tests refers to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests that simultaneously detects multiple pathogens in a single reaction with a single sample.

While such technology is in different stages of development in various countries, this is the first indigenously developed kit that India will produce.

“We have set June 14 as the last date for companies to submit their interest,” Dr Potdar said. “Based on the applications we receive, we will evaluate the best candidate.”

The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention is also working on the Influenza SARS-CoV-2 (Flu SC2) Multiplex Assay, which is a real-time reverse-transcription PCR laboratory test that can simultaneously detect and differentiate between Influenza A, Influenza B, and SARS-CoV-2 in upper or lower respiratory specimens.

The test is a highly accurate, nucleic acid-based diagnostic tool to evaluate specimens from patients who are in the acute phase of infection, the centre said.

source/content: hindustantimes.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: HEALTH & MEDICAL SERVICES: First Time India saw Record over 15,000 Organ Transplants in 2022: Union Health Secretary

Rajesh Bhushan says there has been a fast resurgence in organ transplant activities post Covid, and for the first time, the country has achieved more than 15,000 transplants a year.

India has witnessed a fast resurgence in organ transplant activities post COVID-19 and, for the first time, achieved more than 15,000 transplants a year in 2022, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said on February 19.

Along with this, there was an annual increase of 27% in the transplant numbers, Mr. Bhushan said at the “National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) Scientific Dialogue 2023”, organised by the Union Ministry of Health.

The event was organised to bring all the stakeholders under one roof to brainstorm ideas about interventions and best practices in the field of organ and tissue transplant that can be taken up for saving lives.

Mr. Bhushan said there has been a fast resurgence in organ transplant activities post Covid, and for the first time, the country has achieved more than 15,000 transplants a year (2022). There was an annual increase of 27% in the transplant numbers, he added.

The Health Secretary underlined three priority areas — programmatic restructuring, communication strategy and skilling of professionals.

Highlighting the need to update the existing structures and guidelines, he said, “Though we have existing structures at various governance levels like NOTTO at the national level, SOTTOs at the State level and ROTTOs at the regional level, it needs to be ensured that they work as a well-oiled machinery while performing their mandate.” Mr. Bhushan welcomed the changes that have taken place, such as updated guidelines and the domicile requirement being done away with.

He stressed the need for a rational use of the country’s technical manpower and training and channelising them efficiently, along with optimal utilisation of the physical infrastructure and equipment, such as in tertiary care facilities.

Underscoring the changing demography of the country, the Health Secretary noted that India has a growing geriatric population and to ensure quality of life for them, it is critically important to update the communication and awareness strategy, so that potential organ donors come forward.

He suggested wide orientation and re-orientation through training programmes, newly-designed courses and digital interventions for healthcare professionals and domain knowledge experts. He further added that “along with training programmes, wide publicity and awareness through not just print and electronic media but engaging with local stakeholders and non-governmental organisations [NGOs] can be taken up”.

Thus, he pushed for a multi-stakeholder exercise for communicating effectively and making people realise their contributions towards a greater good.

Highlighting the need for capacity building of the country’s medical institutions, Mr. Bhushan said, “Despite having 640-plus medical hospitals and colleges, transplants remain a specialised service limited to some hospitals only. There is a need to expand the number of institutions where surgeries and transplants are undertaken.” Thus, to increase the number of surgeries and transplants in the country, along with sensitisation and training for healthcare professionals, the physical infrastructure must be optimally utilised, he said, adding that there is also a need to identify the high-caseload institutions and bring them under the NOTT programme network.

The Health Secretary suggested that consultations and discussions can lead to memoranda of understanding (MoUs) and consequentially, creation of centres of excellence at the State and regional levels where these specialised services can be provided to the needy.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: INFRASTRUCTURE FOR CITIZENS: Now Track, Block Lost Mobile Phones via Sanchar Saathi Portal 

After the identity verification, the portal will interact with law enforcement agencies and telecom service providers and block your lost mobile phone.

People will be now able to block and track their lost or stolen mobile phones across India via the Sanchar Saathi Portal launched by the Department of Telecom on Tuesday.

Union telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that through Sanchar Saathi Portal, people will be able to block, track and check the genuineness of a used device before buying them.

“First leg of Sanchar Saathi portal is CEIR (Central Equipment Identity Register). If you lose your mobile phone, then you can visit this portal. There will be some identity verification, requirement of undertaking and immediately after this the portal will interact with law enforcement agencies and telecom service providers and block your lost mobile phone,” Vaishnaw said.

He said that Prime Minister has a clear vision that a lot of attention needs to be paid to user safety and the facilities under Sanchar Saathi portal are aligned to his vision.

When asked about measures that the government is taking to check fraud through calls on WhatsApp, the minister said that Meta owned app has agreed to deactivate services linked to any mobile phone number engaged in fraudulent activities.

“We have actively engaged with WhatsApp and they have agreed that customer safety is most important. All the OTT platforms are actively cooperating to deregister the users which have been detected as fraud users,” Vaishnaw said.

He said that 36 lakh mobile connections have been disconnected for fraud and simultaneously their WhatsApp account has been blocked.

The minister said that there is Know Your Mobile facility Sanchar Saathi which help users verify the genuineness of second-hand mobile phone before buying them.

“We feel confident that at least with these reforms, at least the rising trends in cyber frauds will be seriously controlled and we will be able to bring them down,” Vaishnaw said.

He said that there is TAFCOP facility on Sanchar Saathi to help people check if there are other mobile numbers working in their name without their permission or knowledge.

The Sanchar Saathi facilities have been developed by C-DoT.The technology development arm under the Department of Telecom has been able to add feature to check use of cloned mobile phones across all telecom networks.

The government has made it mandatory to disclose IMEI– a 15-digit unique numeric identifier of mobile devices before their sale in India. The mobile networks will have access to the list of approved IMEI numbers which will check the entry of any unauthorised mobile phones on their network.

Telecom operators and CEIR system will have visibility into IMEI number of the device and mobile number linked to it and the information is being used in some states to track your lost or stolen mobiles through CEIR. One of the common practices is that miscreants after stealing mobile phone change IMEI number of the device which prevents tracking and blocking of such handsets.

The CEIR will be able to block any cloned mobile phones on the network with the help of various databases. C-DOT has been running the pilot of the technology in some of the telecom circles including Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka and North East.

Recently, Karnataka Police recovered and handed over 2,500 lost mobile phones to their owners using the CEIR system.

Apple already has a system to track lost mobile phones with the help of Apple id but major issues have been around Android mobile phones.

With the new system in place, it will be futile to use stolen mobile phones. The system developed under Sanchar Saathi can also help in curbing the smuggling of phones.

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: DEFENCE: Indian Navy Test-Fires BrahMos Supersonic Cruise Missile

BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd, an India-Russian joint venture, produces the supersonic cruise missiles that can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft, or land platforms.

A BrahMos supersonic cruise missile was successfully test-fired from the Indian Navy’s frontline guided missile destroyer INS Mormugao, officials said on May 14.

The missile firing demonstrated the Indian Navy’s firepower at sea, they said.

“INS Mormugao, the latest guided-missile destroyer, successfully hit ‘bulls eye’ during her maiden BrahMos supersonic cruise missile firing,” a Navy official said.

“The ship and her potent weapon, both indigenous, mark another shining symbol of ‘AatmaNirbharta’ and Indian Navy’s firepower at sea,” the official added.

The location of the test-firing of the missile is not immediately known.

BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd, an India-Russian joint venture, produces the supersonic cruise missiles that can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft, or land platforms.

BrahMos missile flies at a speed of 2.8 Mach or almost three times the speed of sound. India is also exporting the BrahMos missiles.

In January last year, India sealed a $375 million deal with the Philippines for supplying three batteries of the missile.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)