Defense

Indian Naval Landing Craft Utility (LCU) L58, the eighth and last ship of the Landing Craft Utility (LCU) Mark IV Class, was commissioned into the Indian Navy at Port Blair, Andaman & Nicobar Islands on March 18, 2021. Commander-in-Chief, Andaman and Nicobar Command (CINCAN) Lieutenant General Manoj Pande was the Chief Guest and Chairman & Managing Director, Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd (GRSE) Rear Admiral Vipin Kumar Saxena, IN (Retd) was present for the event.

Called the VC 11184, the specialized Ocean Surveillance Ship was commissioned in October last year in a ceremony that was not made public, sources have told ET. The ship delivery was delayed by a few months due to the Covid-19 crisis but all tests and trails were cleared in 2020 to ensure it is ready to enter service.

Out of 61 roads, 27 with a length of 1,725.46 km are in Arunachal Pradesh, 12 with a length of 1,064.14 km are in Ladakh and 14 roads of length 355 km are in Uttarakhand. Himachal Pradesh too has five ICBR roads of length 116.99 km, while Sikkim has three roads of the length of 61.98 km, Singh said.

Two of the longest serving Artillery systems, the 130mm Self Propelled M-46 Catapult Guns and the 160mm Tampella Mortars were decommissioned today at Mahajan Field Firing Ranges. The ceremony was marked by the customary firing of last salvos. The decommissioning firing was attended by Lt Gen K Ravi Prasad, Director General Artillery and other senior officers.

‘Make in India’ initiative in defence sector is implemented through various policy initiatives which promotes indigenous design, development and manufacture of defence items. These initiatives, inter-alia, include priority to procurement of capital items from domestic sources under Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020; notification of ‘Negative list’ of 101 items for which there would be an embargo on the import beyond the timeline indicated against them; simplification of Industrial licensing process; liberalization of FDI policy; simplification of Make Procedure; launch of Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) scheme; and implementation of Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India), Order 2017.

It said the drop in Indian arms imports seemed to have been the result of the country’s complex procurement processes combined with an attempt to reduce its dependence on Russian arms. In the last few years, India has taken a series of measures to boost domestic defence industry with an aim to reduce dependence on imported military platforms and hardware.

During the last two financial years i.e. from 2018-19 to 2019-2020 and the current financial year 2020-21( till December 2020), the Government has accorded Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) to 112 Defence proposals, worth Rs. 1,99,860 Crore approximately, under the various categories of Capital Acquisition, which promotes domestic manufacturing as per the Defence Acquisition/Procurement Procedure.