The Hindu Crossword 8170 Solutions - by Vinod & Rajagopal

Across
1 Drunk on the dark beer can make one so sad (6,7) BROKEN HEARTED (ana. ON THE DARK BEER, drunk is the anagram indicator)
8 Witty type turning up stern when upset (7) PUNSTER (ana. UP STERN, when upset is the ana. ind.)
9 Silence so pronounced that fall of a nail would be heard (3,4) PIN DROP (fall=DROP, nail=PIN => fall of a nail=PIN DROP)
11 Again correct and improve text prior to publication (2-4) RE-EDIT (again=RE, correct=EDIT)
13 Pity one can strike in it (8) SYMPATHY (ref. to a sympathy strike)
15 Food for Dad's army? (5) PASTA (Dad's=PAS, army=TA(Territorial Army) => PAS+TA)
16 Works hard to produce political catch words (7) SLOGANS (Works hard=SLOGS, AN=??)
18 Guided horse round again (7) STEERED (horse=STEED, again=RE => STEE(RE)D)
19 Stretched tight to be rigid (5) TENSE (Double meaning)
21 One does not forget this size of paper! (8) ELEPHANT (An elephant doesn't forget, and a ref. to elephant paper)
23 Unit of measure is Greek to Emma (6) GRAMME (GR+AMME being the inverse of EMMA. But I see neither an anagram indicator, nor a reversal suggestion)
25 Housing suggestion offered without hesitation (7) TERRACE (I think there's a typo here. I think the intended clue was "Housing suggestion offered with hesitation". Suggestion=TRACE, hesitation=ER => offered with hesitation=TRACE with ER=T(ER)RACE)
26 Tightrope walker (7) ACROBAT (Direct)
28 Go overseas (5,3,5) CROSS THE OCEAN (Direct)

Down
2 They police the forests (7) RANGERS (Direct)
3 Equipment possibly in a container (3) KIT (Double meaning)
4 Lightship without an engineer (4) NORE (without=NO, an engineer=RE => NO+RE, ref. to the Nore Lightship, a sandbank in the Thames (courtesy Britannica.com))
5 Hollow election arguments? (5,5) EMPTY WORDS (Direct)
6 An approach to make hastily (3,2) RUN UP (Direct)
7 Lists of mistakes noted in books (7) ERRATAS (Direct)
8 A fraction of the money the actor gets for his role? (4,7) PART PAYMENT (Double meaning, role=PART)
10 Show concern for what one must do with a mortgage (3,8) PAY INTEREST (Double meaning)
12 Statue produced one minute before time (5) IMAGE (one=I, minute=M, time=AGE => I+M+AGE)
14 A devout man grinning despite being of a severe nature (10) ASTRINGENT (a=A, devout man=ST, grinning=RINGENT => A+ST+RINGENT)
17 Needs to change later (5) ALTER (ana. LATER)
18 His operation is to fleece (7) SHEARER (Direct)
20 Amin transported by British Airways around one African state (7) NAMIBIA (ana. AMIN+BA(British Airways)+I(one))
22 Leads the way to the Rest Room! (5) HEADS (Head is a rest room on a ship)
24 Cover with flags (4) PAVE (ref. to paving with flags i.e. flagstones)
27 A legendary bird (3) ROC (Direct)