Defence Industry & Technology

The Indian Naval Placement Agency (INPA) and Optum, part of the United Health Group, today signed an MoU, through which the two entities will explore opportunities for the recruitment of naval veterans. Vice Admiral Suraj Berry, Controller of Personnel Services, Indian Navy and Mr. RiteshTalapatra, Managing Director, Optum Global Solutions (India) Pvt. Ltd. signed the MoU. At the event, Optum and United Health Group were represented by Ms. Swati Rangachari, Vice President and Country Leader, Public Affairs and Strategic Engagements United Health Group while INPA was represented by Cmde Pankaj Sharma, Cmde ESM Affairs at IHQ MoD (Navy).

Through the MoU, INPA will identify a pool of Ex-Servicemen/ dependents candidates for relevant roles as per recruitment standards of Optum. The company will, in turn, enable these individuals’ transition to the corporate sector through in-house assimilation and training programs.

Optum under the aegis of its diversity and inclusion initiative aims to offer ex-servicemen opportunities in line with their qualifications, experience, and attributes acquired during their service period.

Appreciating the efforts of the Indian Naval Placement Agency in helping the veterans find employment opportunities after completing their service to the nation,  Ms. Swati Rangachari stated that “We want to thank Admiral Suraj Berry, Commodore Pankaj Sharma and Commander Vijay for making us a part of this endeavour”. Reiterating their commitment towards the country and its talent she added that “We, at UnitedHealth Group are dedicated to positively impact the communities we are a part of and through this program we hope to boost our 30K+ strong workforce in India to build a health system that truly works better for everyone”.

“We are honored and proud to partner with the Indian Navy to recruit our veterans who have served the country selflessly and bring with them special skills that can be applied towards creating a healthier world and through this MoU we hope to further our commitment to our armed forces and provide our veterans a platform to continue doing their life’s best work.” said, Mr. Sumek Gopal, Vice President, Human Capital, Optum.

In his concluding remarks Vice Admiral Suraj Berry, said that “The INPA is committed to facilitating Ex-Servicemen, our veterans, find employment opportunities after their service to our Nation and it is our endeavor to work with the corporate sector to identify and develop programs that enables this cause. We look forward to working with Optum & United Health Group on this initiative”.

ABHYAS – the High-speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT) was successfully flight-tested today by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) from the Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur off the coast of Bay of Bengal in Odisha. The vehicle can be used as an aerial target for evaluation of various missile systems.

The performance of the target aircraft was monitored through telemetry and various tracking sensors including Radars and Electro Optical Tracking System (EOTS).

Raksha Mantri, Shri Rajnath Singh congratulated DRDO for the successful flight trial of Abhyas. The current flight test is carried out as a part of developmental flight trials. Expression of interest for production of the vehicle has already been floated to Indian industries. This indigenous target aircraft, once developed, will meet the requirements of High-speed Expendable Aerial Targets (HEAT) for Indian Armed Forces.

ABHYAS is designed & developed by DRDO’s Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), Bengaluru. The air vehicle is launched using twin under-slung boosters which provide the initial acceleration to the vehicle. It is powered by a gas turbine engine to sustain a long endurance flight at subsonic speed. The target aircraft is equipped with MEMS based Inertial Navigation System (INS) for navigation along with the Flight Control Computer (FCC) for guidance and control. The vehicle is programmed for fully autonomous flight. The check-out of air vehicle is done using laptop-based Ground Control Station (GCS).

Dr G Satheesh Reddy, Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman, DRDO also congratulated the teams associated with successful flight test of ‘ABHYAS’ and termed it as a force-multiplier considering its accuracy and effectiveness.