Off to Visakhapatnam...

I'm travelling to Visakhapatnam today to cover the launch ceremony of India's first nuclear-powered submarine, INS Arihant. A full report later in the day. I did a half-hour special show on the submarine on Saturday evening, with studio guests Vice Admiral Raman Puri and Brahma Chellaney. This will be up on the Headlines Today website tomorrow. Meanwhile, the videos of some of the stories we ran on the channel are here, including an on-cam chat with India Today Associate Editor, Sandeep Unnithan.

It's funny how I -- and, no doubt, every other Indian defence journalist -- have spent much of my (short) career writing semi-speculative reports about the shadowy ATV. And now all of us watch as it creeps out, not just from its dry-dock, but from a blanket of studied and meticulous secrecy. A few years ago, a day such as today promises to be, was not near imaginable. And it's happened progressively. First the tacit official admissions that the programme exists. Then the soundbytes about how it's a technology demonstrator. Then the unbridled use of the word ATV. And now this. I don't know what I'll get to see in Vizag later today, but I can tell you it's still somewhat unbelievable. I can only imagine what it must be like for folks who've written about it for the better part of 20 years!

Here's wishing everyone a safe Vijay Diwas. Do take a moment out, if you can, for those who died for this country. Nabha Sparsham Deeptam. Shano Varun. Jai Hind.

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