New Delhi, Apr. 1: President Pratibha Patil has inducted the new state-of-the-art VVIP jets into the Indian Air Force before going on board its maiden flight to Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

The new jets can double as an office-in-the sky and a command centre in an emergency situation, like a nuclear attack.

"The trip would now be more business like. We will get more time to study, concentrate and apply our minds as the flight will be more smooth," said Patil at the inauguration ceremony.

New Delhi  - At least eight people were killed as a tornado followed by a hail storm wreaked havoc in India's eastern coastal state of Orissa on Tuesday, a news report said.

More than 100 sustained injuries as the tornado left a trail of devastation in 11 villages in the Kendrapara district, some 80 kilometres north-east of the state capital of Bhubaneshwar, the IANS news agency reported.

The death toll was expected to rise, district official RK Das told the news agency. Other local media put the death toll at 20 and the number of injured at over 200.

New Delhi - One person was killed and 15 injured Tuesday in a bomb blast carried out by suspected separatist militants in India's north-eastern state of Assam, news reports said.

The blast occurred in a busy market in the Jyotikuchi area of the state capital, Guwahati, when foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee was addressing reporters 3 kilometres away, the IANS news agency reported.

Police officials told the IANS that the bomb was planted on a motorcycle and went off in an area full of evening shoppers and vendors.

New Delhi, Mar 31 : Union Defence Minister A. K. Antony on Tuesday asked all concerned agencies to plug gaps in coastal security within a definite time frame.

Antony, who chaired a high-level meeting of officials of various ministries and forces, called for speedy implementation of the maritime security plan, approved by the Government recently.

He said utmost vigilance must be maintained all along the coastline so that the `Mumbai like' incidents don't recur.

New Delhi, Mar 31 : Having completed 50 years of Tibetans stay in India, Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama started a ''Thank You India'' campaign, here in the capital on Tuesday, by offering prayers at various religious shrines.

On this occasion, the Nobel laureate leader offered prayers at a gurudwara, a church and a temple and thanked India for providing political asylum to him and thousands of other exiled Tibetans over the last five decades.

He also appreciated the institutions in India for providing education to the Tibetan youth.

New Delhi, Mar 31 : Bollywood actors Akshay Kumar and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Atomic Energy Commission of India (AECI) chief Anil Kakodkar were among the recipients of the Padma awards from President Pratibha Patil on Tuesday.

Aishwarya Rai, a former Miss World and now a member of the Bachchan family, received a Padma Shree award for her contribution to the field of entertainment.

Akshay Kumar, a globally acclaimed actor, also received a Padma Shree.