India for modernization of armed forces

The Dollar Business Bureau The Ministry of Defence, on Thursday, expressed the Government of India (GoI)’s willingness to provide technology support to its armed forces in a move towards a process of modernization. A statement in this regard was made by Manohar Parrikar, Union Defence Minister, GoI, in his address at the Annual Unified Commanders’ Conference for Tri-Services Commanders, in New Delhi on Thursday. “The Government of India is committed to provide all support towards the modernization of Armed forces,” he said, according to an official release. Addressing the conference, the Union Minister further said there is a need to exercise financial prudence and also stressed on the need for optimization of all the available resources. Stating that the technology is more important for modern warfare, the Union Minister also called upon the Commanders to focus more on motivation and morale to the soldiers, sailors and the Air Warriors. India, through its initiatives, has been pitching for modernization of defence and the latest reiteration by the Union Defence Minister is likely to boost the country’s abilities to bring in more technology-related developments in the Indian Defence sector. This statement by the Union Defence Minister gains importance in view of the recent talks held between the India and South Korea over the defence cooperation. Addressing the India-Korea Defence Industry Forum in Seoul, the Defence Minister had called upon the Korean defence companies to enter into Indian defence market as the long-term partners. The Union Minister had called upon the Korean companies to enter the Indian defence sector in reference to the already-existing demand for the Korean products in India, that are well-known for electronics and technology products. The Government of India has been riding high on technology cooperation with the United States, especially in terms of technology transfer. The United States Department of Defence in many instances stood up committed for technology cooperation with the Indian defence sector under the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI). India has also expressed its keenness to import the US state-of-art aircraft technology to be inducted in the Indian Navy and according to the defence reports, the project is likely the one referred by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi as one of the country’s largest one of its kind being built by the US technology. We will have to wait and see to what extent will India succeed in ensuring modernized armed forces in the era of technology-driven warfare.    

This article was published on April 23, 2015 – 6:56 pm IST.