“I call upon the scientific community to make advancements in technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) so that the Nation is prepared to deal with future threats,” said Union Minister of State Ajay Bhatt while addressing the National Technology Day event organised by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in New Delhi.
In order to make the defence ecosystem work, the government is making concerted efforts to meet the defence requirements through domestic procurement. This way the aim is to achieve excellence in cutting edge technologies.
DRDO’s realising the vision of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’
Union Minister Ajay Bhatt, during the event, lauded the efforts of DRDO in establishing a self-reliant R&D ecosystem which provides the Armed Forces with state-of-the-art equipment. The minister said, “DRDO has proved itself through design, development and production of highly-sophisticated weapon platforms/systems. It has enhanced the involvement of the private sector. Due to these efforts, India is now among the top 25 nations exporting defence equipment.”
An innovative perspective for Innovation
It is well-established fact that the Defence sector holds a critical position in India. We have the second-largest armed forces in the world. Military modernisation and technological intervention are on the radar for achieving self-reliance in defence production. As soon as the government opened up the Defence industry for private sector participation, much impetus has been given to indigenous manufacturing.
Constant work is been done on including futuristic technologies in the ecosystem and the sector like drones and anti-drone technology, robotics, cyber security, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and asymmetric technologies. With the focus being on indigenization, this presents an excellent opportunity for Indian researchers and the industry, especially MSMEs and Startups, who are working on significant upgradations/ improvements to existing products/ processes as well as novel futuristic/ innovative technologies with a use case for defence applications, to come forward and help make India self-reliant in defence technology.
