New Delhi: Prime Minister has stressed the importance of customization and uniqueness of defence systems for having a surprise element over the adversaries.
“Uniqueness and surprise elements can only happen when the equipment is developed in your own country”, he said while addressing a Webinar today.
This year’s budget, Prime Minister mentioned, has a blueprint for developing a vibrant ecosystem from research, design and development to manufacturing within the country.
About 70 percent of the defence budget has been kept for domestic industry only, he added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was addressing a post budget webinar titled ‘Aatmnirbharta in Defence – Call to Action’ on the announcements made in the budget.
The Webinar was organized by the Ministry of Defence. This is the fourth webinar in the series of the post-budget webinars addressed by Prime Minister.
Prime Minister said that the theme of the webinar ‘Aatmnirbharta in Defence – Call to Action’ indicates the mood of the nation.
Recent years’ effort to strengthen Aatmnirbharta in defence sector is clearly visible in this year’s Budget, official release said.
He recalled that India’s defence manufacturing was quite strong even during the period of slavery and in the immediate aftermath of independence.
Indian made weapons played a major role during the Second World War. “Though, in the later years, this prowess of ours went into decline, still it shows that there has been no dearth of capabilities, neither then nor now”, he said.
Defence Ministry has, so far, released Positive Indigenization Lists of more than 200 defence Platforms and Equipments.
After this announcement, Prime Minister informed, contract worth rupees 54 thousand crore have been signed for domestic procurement.
Apart from this, Prime Minister continued, procurement process of more than 4.5 lakh crore rupees worth of equipment is at various stages. Third list is expected soon, he said.
