New Delhi, October 29
Praising the Indian Navy's efforts towards self-reliance and innovation, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh called it an "innovative Navy," adding that India has made significant strides in reducing its dependence on imports.
While addressing 'Swavalamban Conference 2024', Singh said that the Indian Navy's commitment to innovation and humbleness is clearly visible in the program they are carrying out.
"The effort of the Indian Navy is highly praised for your humbleness. I have praised the Indian Navy on many occasions and on many stages. From my point of view, the Indian Navy is in a way an innovative Navy. Your commitment to innovation and humbleness is clearly visible in the program you are carrying out," he said.
He also congratulated the stakeholders participating in the event and the winners of the various competitions.
"The theme of this event is strength and power through innovation and indigenization. I believe that this is not only relevant to the present situation, but it will definitely help in directing your efforts for the future. So I congratulate all of you on this. I congratulate all of the stakeholders participating in this event and the winners of the various competitions," he said.
"In the last two years, you have fulfilled all the challenges set by our armed forces. You are worthy of praise for the way you have given our forces a lot of support. I believe that this event will further broaden the scientific horizon of our forces and the entire race. Whatever initiatives you are starting in this event, whether it is the release of the Solomon document, the release of the I-DEX challenges, the award of the Hackathon, or the launch of the Sagar Mahala Parikrama, all of these show that you are very active and aware of the indigenization, innovation, and technology development in the defense sector," the Defence Minister added.
Recalling his prior visit, Singh said, "A while ago, I visited a region here. The technologies and products shown to me there, they instill faith in the mind that in the coming time, you are going to play a long-term role in the field of innovation and technology."
The Defence Minister highlighted the vibrant culture developed through innovation and technology development in country.
"I was told that today, all of you have held sessions on Future Warfare, Emerging Technologies, and Indigenous Defence Ecosystem. I can also see that there has been more participation than in the last two events. All these things show that in the country, a vibrant culture has developed through innovation and technology development. in India, I can see the progress of research and development, innovation, and technology development," he said.
"I can confirm this by saying that in the last 15 days, I have participated in 3-4 such programs that are related to these topics. Whether it is the SIDM program, the EDF program, or Deaf Connect, this frequency itself clearly indicates that there is a wave of innovation in India. the excitement I can see about defence technology all over the country is unparalleled. I have never seen this in the past," he added.
The Defence Minister said that India's defence manufacturing sector has historically lagged behind despite the country's rapid advancements in technology and economy.
"I am saying this because in the history of India, there have been many times of transformative changes. But these changes have mostly bypassed the defence production ecosystem. In the 1990s, when the computer revolution happened, the entire society was influenced by it. But there was not much change in the defence manufacturing sector. Even after the economic reforms, when the capital flow in the market began to increase, the entire economy was influenced, but there was not much change in the defense manufacturing sector," he said.
"Even during the era of information technology, there was a revolution in every sector. But there was not much change in the defense manufacturing sector. There were many such occasions when an innovative culture could have developed in India regarding the defense sector. But for some reason, this did not happen. The biggest reason I see behind this is that we have been an import-dependent country for a long time. We were so dependent on imports with arms and equipment that we were not able to generate innovative ideas in India. Even if we had ideas, we would not have had a comprehensive system to execute them," Singh added.
The Defence Minister said that India has made significant strides in reducing its dependence on imports and becoming self-reliant in defence production.
"But in the last few years, keeping the national security in mind, we have decided to reduce our dependency on imports and become self-reliant. The commitment that our Prime Minister has shown for this is still being repeated today. This is the result of our Prime Minister's vision that has improved rapidly in the last few years. Today we have a concrete ecosystem and we are moving forward towards self-reliance," he said.