The World - News from Oct. 1, 1989
India launched its first locally manufactured submarine, giving its navy and arms industry a major boost and heightening regional fears over its rapid military expansion. Sonia Gandhi, wife of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, pressed the launch button from the yard of the state-owned Mazagon Dock, sending the submarine sliding down its dry dock at Bombay into the Arabian Sea. India’s First Lady marked the inauguration in traditional Hindu style by applying red paste and breaking a coconut on the hull of the submarine, christening it the INS Shalki.
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