D M M Parrikar - 'We boosted the morale of the armed forces and broke the four-decade old OROP deadlock' : By Pradip R Sagar

 29th May 2016 11:26:25 AM

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Manohar Parrikar Minister of Defence

1. Over the past two years, we have managed to boost the morale of the armed forces, which was comparatively low. We have brought transparency and a change in attitude in decision-making in the ministry. We have made progress in modernisation of the armed forces, which was stuck in the past one decade. The Defence Procurement Procedure 2016 will make purchases less time-consuming. It also has a strong Make in India component to encourage participation of domestic industry players.

We have been able to break the four-decade deadlock by fulfilling the demands of the armed forces by implementing One Rank One Pension. The Defence Acquisition Council has approved projects of over `2 lakh crore. With the launch of the Make in India portal in September 2014, the focus has been to improve the business environment by easing processes to do business, encourage participation of the Indian public and private sector in defence production and promote innovation and indigenous development of equipment and weapon platforms. Restriction of foreign institutional investors was removed with a cap on composite foreign investment, giving flexibility to investors. Restriction of 51 per cent shareholding by the single largest Indian shareholder was removed.

2. The ministry has been working to improve various aspects related to the preparedness of the armed forces. This is an ongoing process, and its impact will be seen in the coming years. A lot more needs to be done to encourage the domestic defence sector.

3. I am committed to making our defence forces more self-reliant and to push for Make in India in defence production. I have set a target to raise India’s defence exports to $2 billion in the next two years from the current $330 million.

4. It’s not for me to rate my performance, but for people to do so.

(Source- Sunday Standard)