Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar called for meeting essential defence requirements of the country indigenously. It was in the interest of the country that ‘critical things’ were produced in India and even exported. “We can export technologies which are adequately hi-tech to many countries. Our expertise in rocket science has already generated interest in other countries,” he remarked.
Inaugurating a seminar on ‘Self reliance in Defence manufacturing’ here on Saturday, Mr. Parrikar said there were bottlenecks in developing capacities. These were not for want of policy or understanding. In the last 10 years the system had tied itself in knots leading to a web of procedural bottlenecks. “I am trying to undo the knots. It may take a few months as we need to follow procedures despite our impatience,” he said.
A large number of DRDO members, industrialists, serving, and retired defence officers are attending the two -day national seminar being organised by the Forum for Integrated National Security (FINS), a non governmental organisation.
Mr. Parrikar said the ‘Make in India’ concept of Prime Minister Narender Modi was generating interest in the country. He said the time frame in defence related things would be reduced while bringing in transparency and corruption free procedures. He decried the attraction to everything western when the country could make much better products. “We will ensure that level playing field is given to Indian companies,” the Defence Minister said.
