Indian Army will always play its role in taking forward self-reliant India: Army Chief Naravane

Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane has said that the Indian Army will always play its role in advancing self-reliant India. In a webinar organized by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Army Chief General Naravane said, “The Indian Army is undergoing rapid modernization and is looking for indigenous solutions for its operational needs. I assure everyone that the Indian Army will always play its role in taking forward a self-reliant India.

Naravane mentioned that it is imperative to develop indigenous and local capabilities to meet the emerging security challenges and reduce dependence on foreign technologies. He said that the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative of the government during the economic slowdown has given much needed impetus to the domestic industry.

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Vice Chief of Army Staff (Capacity Development and Livelihood) Lt Gen Shantanu Dayal in his speech at the event said that the two most important issues for the Indian Army while procuring equipment and technologies are quality and cost. We are going to deploy these equipment in very challenging conditions, so they have to be strong and of good quality, he said. Dayal said that the Indian Army is going to increase the share of indigenous material during the procurement.

Earlier in the four-day conference of Army Commanders, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said that the government has taken several initiatives for modernization of armed forces and production of high quality weapon systems. Talking about the growth of India’s exports in the last 5 years, Rajnath Singh further said that defense exports have increased by 334 percent in the last 5 years and now India is exporting to more than 75 countries. He said that the Government of India is committed to supporting defense modernization and capabilities development and we have increased defense capital outlay by 18.75 per cent in the annual budget for 2021-22 over the previous year. This is the highest increase in the last 15 years so far.