AMN / WEB DESK
Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh today launched the Navy’s updated indigenous programme Swavalamban 2.0. Speaking at the Indian Navy’s Naval Innovation and Indigenisation Organisation (NIIO) seminar ‘Swavlamban’ in New Delhi, Mr. Rajnath Singh said that self-reliance is the utmost priority since the Modi government came to power. He said that the Government is making all possible efforts to make India self-reliant in the Defence sector. Mr. Singh added that India is now moving forward in mission mode in the research and development, because of the policies framed by the Government.
During the event, also released the fifth Positive Indigenisation list of 98 items at the event. Speaking about the list, Raksha Mantri said that it shows the major step in the Indigenisation process of the Armed forces. He added that these 98 items in this list are a big step in the self-reliance of the Defence sector. The Minister said the work done by the Modi Government in the fields of defence, infrastructure, economy, health, and education is important and it instilled confidence in the people of India.
Talking about the ‘SPRINT Challenges, Raksha Mantri said that the Sprint innovative challenge was started with the objective of promoting the use of indigenous technology and products in the Navy. He said looking at its results so far, it is clear that armed forces and the Department of Defence Production have performed very well in this direction.
Earlier in July 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled ‘SPRINT Challenges’, which are aimed at giving a boost to the usage of indigenous technology in the Indian Navy. As a part of the ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’, NIIO, in conjunction with the Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO), aims at inducting at least 75 new indigenous technologies/products into the Indian Navy. This collaborative project is named SPRINT (Supporting Pole-Vaulting in R&D through iDEX, NIIO and TDAC).
During the event, Mr Rajnath Singh also launched 76 challenges for the industry under the 10th Defence India Start-up Challenges (DISC 10) & DISC 10 PRIME of Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) and five problem statements under iDEX for Fauji.
In addition, two INDUS X challenges under ‘INDUS-X Mutual Promotion of Advanced Collaborative Technologies’ (IMPACT) challenges jointly finalised by iDEX and the United States Department of Defence (US DoD) were launched by the Raksha Mantri. Mr. Singh also launched the SBI NAVeCash Card which can be used in online mode as well as in offline mode while at sea with no direct connectivity with the bank.