Team Blitz India
Prime Minister Narendra Modi witnessed a synergised demonstration of indigenous defence capabilities in the form of a tri-services live fire and manoeuvre exercise, ‘Bharat Shakti’, at Pokhran, Rajasthan, on March 12.
In his address on the occasion, PM Modi said that the valour and skills at display are the call of new India. “…, once again Pokhran became a witness of the triveni of India’s aatmnirbharta, selfconfidence and its glory”, he said and added, “It is the same Pokhran that witnessed India’s nuclear test and… we are witnessing the power of strength from indigenisation”.
Speaking about the test firing of the long-range AGNI missile equipped with advanced MIRV technology, he said that only a handful of countries in the world have hold of this new-age technology and prowess and underlined that the testing is another feather in the cap for aatmnirbharta in defence.
“The idea of Viksit Bharat is unimaginable without aatmanirbhar Bharat”, the Prime Minister said, underscoring the need to reduce dependence on others.
The success of aatmnirbharta in defence can be seen with indigenously made Tejas fighter jets, advanced light combat helicopters, submarines, destroyers, aircraft carriers, advanced Arjun Tanks and cannons, he said. “We are experiencing the flight of Made in India with arms and ammunition, communication devices, cyber and space. This is indeed Bharat Shakti”, an elated PM Modi said.
Recalling the time when India used to be the largest defence importer in the world, he highlighted India’s emergence as a defence exporter and mentioned an eight-fold increase in the country’s defence exports compared to 2014. Recalling the atmosphere of defence scams, scarcity of ammunition and deterioration of ordnance factories before 2014, he mentioned the corporatisation of the ordnance factories into seven big companies. Similarly, HAL was brought back from the brink and turned into a company with record profit.
