Indian Navy undertaking mega exercise in Indian Ocean Region
New Delhi (PTI): The Indian Navy is carrying out a mega war game involving almost all its operational assets like warships, submarines and aircraft in the Indian Ocean Region to check the force's combat readiness amid China's growing military forays into the region.
The biennial Theatre Level Operational Readiness Exercise (TROPEX) is aimed at "validating and refining" the Navy's concept of "operations" as well as to test overall combat capabilities, officials said on Tuesday.
The TROPEX is being conducted over a duration of three months from January to March and assets of the Indian Army, the Indian Air Force and the Coast Guard are being deployed for the mega drills.
"As part of the exercise, all surface combatants of the Indian Navy including destroyers, frigates, corvettes as well as submarines and aircraft are put through complex maritime operational deployments to validate and refine the Navy's concept of operations including operational logistics and interoperability with other services," Navy spokesperson Commander Vivek Madhwal said.
He said the exercise is being conducted in different phases, both in harbour and at sea, encompassing various facets of combat operations including live weapon firings.
"Having grown in scope and complexity over the years, this exercise provides an opportunity to test the combat readiness of the combined fleets of the Indian Navy to operate in a multi-threat environment," the official said.
"The maritime exercise also facilitates operational level interaction with the Indian Army, Indian Air Force and the Coast Guard, which will further strengthen interoperability and joint operations in a complex environment," he said.
Separately, the Navy also conducted the biennial tri-services amphibious exercise (AMPHEX) 2023 at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh from January 17 to 22.
The exercise was focused on joint training of elements of all three services in various facets of amphibious operations to enhance interoperability and synergy.
"The AMPHEX is the first time that the exercise was undertaken at Kakinada, and was the largest ever such exercise conducted till date," Commander Madhwal said.
The participating forces undertook complex exercises in all domains of amphibious operations over five days.
The exercise witnessed the participation of a number of amphibious ships consisting of large platform dock, landing ships and landing crafts, marine commandos (MARCOS), helicopters and aircraft from the Indian Navy.
The Indian Army participated in the exercise with over 900 troops which included special forces, artillery and armoured vehicles.
Jaguar fighter jets and C 130 aircraft from the IAF also participated in the exercise.
"AMPHEX 2023 successfully demonstrated the amphibious capabilities and validated the excellent coordination that exists between the three services to undertake the full spectrum of amphibious operations," Commander Madhwal said.
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SIR in Gujarat: More than 17 lakh deceased voters found on electoral rolls
Ahmedabad (PTI): The ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Gujarat has revealed that more than 17 lakh deceased voters were still included in the existing voter list across the state, a release by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has stated.
According to the release issued on Thursday, the SIR exercise started in Gujarat on November 4 with booth-level officers (BLOs) distributing enumeration forms in their designated areas.
The campaign will continue till December 11.
"In the last one month, enumeration forms have been distributed to more than five crore voters registered in the 2025 electoral roll. In most of the 33 districts, 100 per cent of the distribution has been completed. Work on digitising the returned forms is currently underway. So far, the digitisation work has been completed in 12 out of 182 assembly constituencies," it said.
These include Dhanera and Tharad of Banaskantha district, Limkheda and Dahod (ST) of Dahod district, Bayad of Aravalli district, Dhoraji, Jasdan and Gondal of Rajkot district, Keshod of Junagadh district, Mehmadabad of Kheda district, Khambhat of Anand district and Jalalpore of Navsari district.
Dang district is at the forefront in this work with 94.35 per cent digitisation of the counting forms, said the release.
"During this exercise, it was revealed that 17 lakh deceased voters were still included in the electoral roll across the state. More than 6.14 lakh voters were found absent from their addresses. It has been noticed that more than 30 lakh voters have permanently migrated," the release said.
BLOs found more than 3.25 lakh voters in the "repeated" category, which means that their names figured at more than one place, the release stated.
