Customised, unique system main principle of country’s security: PM

Batting for indigenisation in the defence sector, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday that the main principle of security is a customised system and that the surprise element is possible only when equipment is developed in the country.

The prime minister also spoke about the challenges in the cyber domain and said cyber security is no longer limited to just the digital world as it has now become a matter of national security.

The main principle of security, he said, is that a country should have its own customised and unique system. ”If 10 countries will have same type of defence equipment, your defence forces would have no uniqueness. Uniqueness and surprise element are possible only when equipment develops in your own country,” he said in his address at the Defence Ministry’s post-budget webinar. In the last few years, India has been focussing on ‘atmanirbharta’ or self-reliance in its defence sector, he mentioned.

”You can see the commitment for it in this year’s budget too,” Modi added.

He also noted that the process of importing defence items is so long that by the time they reach our security forces, many of them have become outdated and therefore, the solution is to go for indigenous manufacturing.

”Even during the period of slavery and immediately after Independence, the strength of our defence manufacturing was very high. Weapons made in India played a big role in World War II,” he said Although this strength of ours kept on weakening in later years, it shows that there was no shortage of capacity in India then and neither it is there now, he added.

About 70 percent of this year’s defence budget has been kept for domestic industry only, he said.

”The strength of India’s IT is our great strength. The more we use this power in our defence sector, the more confident we will be in our security,” he noted.

”For example, cyber security is no longer limited to the digital world only. It has become a matter of national security,” he added.

The prime minister said it is a source of happiness that in the last five-six years, India has increased defence exports by six times.

Today, India is providing Made in India defence equipments and services to more than 75 countries, he noted. As a result of the Centre’s boost to Make in India, in the last seven years, more than 350 new industrial licences have been issued for defence manufacturing, he mentioned. ”From 2001 to 2014, only 200 such licences were issued,” he noted.

So far, the Defence Ministry has issued positive indigenisation list of over 200 defence platforms and equipment, he said.

After the announcement of this list, contracts of around Rs 54,000 crore have been signed for domestic procurement, he noted. On top of this, the procurement process related to equipment worth more than Rs 4.5 lakh crore is in different stages, Modi stated. ”We have issued two positive indigenisation lists…Very soon there will be the third list as well,” he added.