India has taken several initiatives to modernise armed forces, produce high-quality weapon systems: Rajnath Singh

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said that the government has taken several initiatives to modernise the armed forces and produce high-quality weapon systems.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said that the government has taken several initiatives to modernise the armed forces and produce high-quality weapon systems. Addressing the Ambassadors' Round Table Conference here today, the Defence Minister said that the years 2020 and 2021 have seen the discovery of new horizons in the Aerospace and Defence manufacturing sectors including space and cyberspace.

"The world churning in the year 2020 and 2021 has seen the discovery of new horizons in the Aerospace and Defence manufacturing sectors including space, cyberspace, futuristic capabilities and disruptive technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Block-chain, Augmented etc," said Singh. Complimenting the Indian Aerospace and Defence manufacturing sector, Singh said that the sector is ready to soar to newer heights.

He further said, "The Indian Aerospace and Defence manufacturing sector today is ready to soar to newer heights." Talking about the growth of India's exports in the last 5 years, the minister said that the defence exports have grown by 334 per cent in the last 5 years and now India is exporting to more than 75 countries.

"The Indian Government is committed to supporting the growth of defence modernisation and capabilities and we have increased the defence capital outlay in the annual budget of 2021-22 by 18.75 per cent from the preceding year. This is the highest ever increment in the last 15 years," said the minister. Lauding India's biennial Aerospace show during the pandemic, Singh said that India is proud to be the 'first in the world' to successfully conduct a safe biennial Aerospace show - the Aero India-21 in Bengaluru in February 2021.

Giving an insight into DefExpo-2022, Singh said," Defence Expo-2022 is going to provide an overview of what India has been able to achieve in terms of defence R&D and production, application of modern technologies, liberalized collaborative policies that we have introduced in a short period of 5-7 years." He assured that the Defence Ministry will remain available and proactively engaged through the next four-plus months to develop and build DefExpo-2022 as one of the marquee events as India celebrates its 75 years of independence as 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav'.

The Defence Expo 2022 is scheduled to be held in March next year. (ANI)

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