Defence Minister Smt Nirmala Sitharaman inaugurated the 12th biennial edition of International Aerospace and Defence Exhibition in Bengaluru. The theme of this event is;

According to a biennial report released by the government, the Centre has identified 106 Coastal and Marine sites as Conservation Reserves under its National Wildlife Action plan for the period of 2017-2031. This was the 2nd biennial updated report which was made by the Ministry of Environment and Forests and was submitted to the UN body on Climate change in December 2018. According to the report, India has been successful to sustain the ecosystem when it is at its edge of disappearing at an alarming rate. Also, it will further conserve the coastal and marine ecosystems from the impact of climate change. Both the coastal and marine areas facilitate with food baskets and fish protein to population, and also provide a valuable foreign exchange in turn.

Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) successfully test fired the PINAKA guided WEAPON rocket system from Pokhran range in Rajasthan. The weapon system is equipped with state-of-the-art guidance kit comprising of an advanced navigation and control system. The weapon systems impacted the intended targets with high precision and achieved desired accuracies.

The Indian Navy signed MoU with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to undertake joint research and development of advanced technologies for the Indian Navy. This will be a collaborative arrangement between labs of CSIR, the Indian Navy and Indian industry. The MoU provides a formal framework for interaction between the Indian Navy and CSIR.

India has signed a deal with a Russian firm to manufacture 7.5 lakh AK-203 rifles. These are the latest derivative of the AK-47 rifles. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that the AK-203 rifles will be produced at the Indian Ordnance Factory at Amethi's Korwa. The new rifles will replace the indigenous INSAS rifles in the Army, Air Force, and Navy.

Indian Army inducted its domestically developed and manufactured Dhanush artillery howitzer at a ceremony held the Ordnance factory in Jabalpur to give a major fire-power boost to the Indian Armed Forces. The Dhanush gun is the first indigenous artillery gun of 155x45mm caliber and is based on Bofors howitzer which was commissioned in the 1980s. Bharat Electronics, the Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation, the Directorate General of Quality Assurance, SAIL was the supporting company to develop this gun. It is the first long-range artillery gun having a range of 38 km produced in India.

The Indian Navy held the 2nd edition of the bilateral maritime exercise between the Indian Navy and Vietnam Peoples' Navy, (IN - VPN BILAT EX) at Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam during 13th to 16th April, 2019.The exercise was undertaken as a part of the ongoing Overseas Deployment of Eastern Fleet ships to South East Asian countries.INS Kolkata under the command of Captain Aditya Hara and INS Shakti under the command of Captain Sriram Amur participated in the exercise.

The Indian Army has successfully built the longest suspension bridge 'Matiri Bridge' over the Indus River in the Leh-Ladakh region. Built in a record time of 40 days 'Maitri Bridge' is longest Suspension Bridge over Indus River. The 260-feet long suspension bridge was built by the combat engineers belonging to the Sahas aur Yogyata regiment of Indian Army's Fire & Fury Corps.

An-32 transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) flew with blended bio-jet fuel produced from Jatropha oil, unlocking the possibility of gradually expanding it to the entire service at some point. This has the dual benefit of reducing the carbon footprint as well as usage of fossil fuels. It was flown by highly qualified test pilots from the Aircraft and System Testing Establishment (ASTE). The IAF intended to fly the An-32 with 10% bio-jet fuel at the Republic Day flypast on January 26, 2019. This bio-jet fuel technology was developed by the Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP) under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in 2009 and tested between 2011 and 2013.

A 12-member Indian Army patrol along with a police representative recovered wreckage of a World War II US Air Force aircraft in Roing district of Arunachal Pradesh recently. The patrol located the aircraft debris covered by thick undergrowth and buried under five feet of snow. Its discovery and other warlike stores will definitely lead to revelation of some historical inputs.

The eighth edition of joint military exercise 'Sampriti-2019' between the armies of India and Bangladesh was commenced on 3rd March, 2019, which aimed to increase mutual cooperation and camaraderie with an impressive ceremony in Tangail, Bangladesh.This exercise will be conducted till 15th March as a part of the ongoing India-Bangladesh defence cooperation.The motive behind this exercise is to hone their tactical and technical skills in countering insurgency, counter terrorism and aid to civil authorities for disaster management in an UN peace keeping scenario involving a combined deployment at a battalion level.