The Indian Navy has appointed the first woman commanding officer in a naval ship in sync with its philosophy of ‘all roles-all ranks’ for female personnel, Navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar said on Friday.

Addressing a press conference ahead of Navy Day, Admiral Kumar said the Indian Navy’s ships, submarines, and aircraft have sustained a high operational tempo in the strategic waters in the last one year.

On China’s increasing forays into the Indian Ocean, he said Indian Navy monitors all activities in the region.

“Our ships, submarines, and aircraft have sustained a high operational tempo – undertaking missions and tasks encompassing military, diplomatic, constabulary and benign roles,” he said.

“Our units were mission deployed across the Indian Ocean Region and beyond, to protect and promote our national interests,” he said.

The Navy has “remained a ‘Combat-ready, Credible, Cohesive, and Future Proof’ force enabled by what we call our ‘ships first’ outlook where every single action that we take is aimed to enable our women and men in operational units to perform their duties very well.” On the operational front, the Navy’s sheer footprint of deployments has been satisfying as its ships have been persistently present across the Indo Pacific.

Admiral Kumar said the Indian Navy has appointed the first woman commanding officer in a naval ship.

“The overall strength of women Agniveers has now crossed the 1,000 mark. These statistics stands testament to our philosophy of ‘all roles, all ranks’ approach to deployment of women in the service.” He also said the Indian Navy is fully committed to jointness and cohesiveness.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Deepika Padukone continues to grab attention with her work and casual outings. Recently, she delighted her fans by sharing photos from her London vacation, giving them a glimpse of her fun-filled time with her best friends. 

Deepika Padukone took to her official Instagram handle to share two sets of pictures. The actress used infinity emojis for the caption and posted photos of herself with her friends Sneha Ramachander and Divya Narayan. She also shared a selfie and a picture of her outfit for the day. Deepika’s friends also posted pictures from their get-together on her Instagram story, including one where they are seen happily enjoying a meal. Ranveer Singh showed his love by dropping heart and heart-eyed emojis in the comments section of Deepika’s post.

Meanwhile, Deepika’s friend Sneha also shared a picture of the trio in a restaurant on Instagram stories.

On the work front, Deepika will next be seen in Fighter alongside Hrithik Roshan and Anil Kapoor. Directed by Siddharth Anand, the film is slated to premiere on January 25, 2024. She also has Rohit Shetty’s Singham Again and Nag Ashwin’s Kalki 2898 AD with Prabhas and Amitabh Bachchan.

See Also: Alia Bhatt, Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone were clicked in the city last night. See pics: 

The Election Commission of India has revised the date for counting of votes in Mizoram Assembly elections. The results were earlier scheduled to be announced on December 3.

The date for results has been pushed by a day to December 4. The decision to revise the counting date comes amid protests in the state organised by Mizoram NGO Coordination Committee (NGOCC).

The group earlier expressed displeasure over December 3 as the counting date falls on Sunday, a sacred day for Christians, who form a majority in the state.