Launch one past it into country east of India (10)

I believe the answer is:

initiation

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'launch' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'one past it into country east of india' is the wordplay.
'one past it' becomes 'iti' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'into' is an insertion indicator.
'country' becomes 'nation' (synonyms).
'east of' says to put letters next to each other (some letters go to the right of others).
'india' becomes 'i' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'iti' inserted within 'nation' is 'nitiation'.
'nitiation' put after 'i' is 'INITIATION'.

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(Another definition for initiation that I've seen is " Joining ritual; beginning".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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