While Grp Capt A R Oak was conferred the Yudh Seva Medal (YSM) for his contribution to Operation Vijay in Kargil, Capt Gaurav Sharma was awarded the Shaurya Chakra (SC) for gallantry in counter-insurgency operations in Kashmir.

Gp Capt Oak is a fighter pilot with 24 years of experience and also served as a test pilot and pilot attack instructor. An alumni of the NDA, he was in charge of all air operations during the Kargil operations. He is presently posted at the Academy as director, training.

Capt Sharma was warded the SC for leading a successful ambush in the Kupwara sector in Kashmir on July 29, 1997 which led to the killing of eight militants and the recovery of a large cache of arms and ammunition. An alumni of NDA, he is presently serving as divisional officer at his alma mater.

Agni award for Brig Prabhu
Brig V D Prabhu of Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), Pune was honoured by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee with `Agni award for excellence in self reliance' at New Delhi.

Brig Prabhu is leading a team of scientists and technicians at ARDE who have indegenously designed, developed, integrated and productionised the state of the art Arjun gun ammunition system for the main battle tank Arjun.

Tyres worth over Rs 6 lakh stolen
Tyres worth more than Rs six lakh were stolen from a godown in Loni Kalbhor on Thursday afternoon. According to the police, around 10 persons broke into the godown of Birla Super and decamped with the tyres after beating up the watchman Chandrakant Tupe. According to the complaint lodged by Vasant Shivappa Wate the stolen tyres were estimated to be worth a total of Rs 6,58,073. A case of theft has been registered with the Loni Kalbhor police and assistant police inspector Vijay Bohite is conducting further investigations.

Vani joins NCP
Vasant Vani, former president of the Pimpri-Chinchwad unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party, who was suspended from the party last year, has switched over to the Nationalist Congress Party.

He has been appointed as `pradesh sarchitnis' of the state unit of the party, with responsibility of northern and western Maharashtra.