NEW DELHI: At an industry event on Thursday during which the chiefs of the Air Force and Navy raised the issue of indigenisation of defence production, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh highlighted that Make-in-India is an essential component of national security.While addressing the CII Annual Business Summit, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh lamented the delays in the implementation of defence projects.”Timelines is a big issue; that is where the ‘vachan’ (commitment) part comes in. Once a timeline is given…not a single project that I can think of, has been completed on time,” he said.”So, this is something where we have to look in, why should we promise something which cannot be achieved,” he asked.”While signing the contract itself, sometimes, we are sure that it is not going to come up. But, we just sign the contract and see what can be done after that…obviously then the process gets vitiated,” he said.The IAF chief stated that there were times when the force had doubted the Indian industries but things have “changed quite a bit” over the last decade. “There were times when we were always doubting the Indian industries that they could not give us the return that we want. We were looking outward more. But over the last decade, things have changed quite a bit,” he said. “We realised that there are a lot of opportunities that we have within India. Also, the current situation in the world has made us realise that Aatmanirbharta (self-reliance) is the only solution. We have to be now ready to be future-ready,” he added. Referring to Operation Sindoor, the Air Chief mentioned that this war was won by the whole of nation approach and that it has given a clear idea about what the country needs in future.”The character of war is changing. Every day, we are finding new technologies coming in. Operation Sindoor has given us a clear idea of where we are headed and what we need in future,” he said.He added that a lot of work needs to be done to realign our goals as well. he emphasised the growing production capacity of the nation and noted that it is possible to achieve our objectives. “AMCA-advanced medium combat aircraft-has been cleared for even participation by private industry, which is a very big step, and that is the kind of confidence that the nation has in private industry today and I’m sure this is going to pave the way to bigger things coming in the future,” he said.
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