India launches Sh300b aircraft carrier as fears over rival China grow

People watch the INS Vikrant leave for trials in the Arabian Sea in Kochi, India, July 2, 2022. [AP]

India commissioned its first home-built aircraft carrier Friday as it seeks to counter regional rival China's much larger and growing fleet, and expand its own indigenous shipbuilding capabilities.

The INS Vikrant, whose name is a Sanskrit word for "powerful" or "courageous," is India's second operational aircraft carrier, joining the Soviet-era INS Vikramaditya that it purchased from Russia in 2004 to defend the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal.