India commissions second aircraft carrierAP, NEW DELHIIndia yesterday commissioned its first home-built aircraft carrier as it seeks to counter regional rival China’s much larger and growing fleet, and expand its own indigenous shipbuilding capabilities. The INS Vikrant, whose name is a Sanskrit word for “powerful” or “courageous,” is India’s second operational aircraft carrier, joining the Soviet-era INS Vikramaditya, which it purchased from Russia in 2004. People gather on the deck of the INS Vikrant during the aircraft carrier’s commissioning in Kochi, India, yesterday. Until then, it would rely on the Russian aircraft borrowed from India’s other carrier, said Rahul Bedi, a defense expert. Modi yesterday said security concerns in the Indo-Pacific region and the Indian Ocean have been ignored for too long.
