Antony calls on PSUs to adapt to changing enviorns

New Delhi, Feb 14 (UNI) Underlining the importance of self-reliance in defence preparedness, Defence Minister AK Antony today called upon the defence Public Sector Undertakings to adapt to the changing environment brought about by globalization.

Speaking at a function here to present the 'Raksha Matri's Awards for Excellence' to some of the defence PSUs and Ordnance Factories, Mr Antony pointed to the need for indigenous research and development to meet the needs of the Armed Forces.

"Research and development activities are vital to the growth and development of our economy and defence preparedness. The aim of our policy is to achieve self reliance in defence preparedness through indigenous research and development to meet the needs of Armed Forces." The Defence Minister further observed that the desired self-reliance could be achieved only through greater investment in R&D in the Defence sector. In this regard, he stressed the importance of the Private Sector in Defence Production.

Mr Antony said though it had been the endeavour to encourage Public Sector companies, the importance of the private sector in defence could ot be overlooked. "In fact, several private sector companies have obtained industrial licenses for production of a wide range of defence products the public sector companies must also come out of their safety zones and understand that we are not living in a monopolistic age." The Minister also asked the Defence Research &Development Organisation (DRDO) to concentrate on developing high technology of strategic importance and focus its efforts towards such factors as long gestation, advanced technology and weapons systems.

"In medium and low technology areas, DRDO should share its workload to the extent possible with the industry. There is a need to improve interaction between DRDO labs and production agencies so that R&D efforts get the desired momentum and the proper direction," he said.

Referring to the offsets provision in Defence Procurement, Mr Antony said a large amount of money was going to flow into the Indian Market through offsets during the Eleventh Plan period. "It will be a great loss to the nation if our industry is not able to absorb this flow," he said.

Joint Ventures set up under the offset policy should attract more investment for the development of technology rather than catering to merely market forces, he further cautioned.

Minister of State for Defence Production Rao Inderjit Singh, in his address on the occasion, said the new offset policy would bring an amount of nearly 10 billion Dollars into the country during the Eleventh Plan and Indian industries must gear themselves to absorb this amount.

The 'Raksha Matri's Awards for Excellence' were instituted in August 2002 to promote indigenisation and competition among Public Sector Defence Production Units for excellence. The Institutional Awards -- two in number -- are given for Excellence in Performance and for Best Performance in Exports. Division / Factory Awards are given to the Best Performing Division of Defence PSUs and the Best Performing Ordnance Factory.

In addition, there are Group/Individual Awards given for Import Substitution, Design Effort and Innovation. An Award for the Best Shipyard has been included under the category of Division/Factory level Awards from 2005-06.

The prize amount of Group/Individual Award has also been enhanced from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh in each category namely "Import Substitution", "Design Effort" and "Innovation".

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