Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday asked the Indian armed forces to maintain a constant vigil on the Northern and Western borders as well as the entire coastline, saying the country needed to be ready to deal with all future challenges.

“Future conflicts will be unpredictable. The constantly-evolving world order has forced everyone to re-strategise,” he said while reviewing the operational capabilities of the Indian Navy during the Naval Commanders’ Conference held aboard India’s first Indigenous Aircraft Carrier INS Vikrant.

He interacted with the naval commanders and witnessed the operational demonstrations at sea, highlighting the Navy’s capability to undertake multi-dimensional missions towards safeguarding the maritime interests of the country.

Rajnath lauded the Navy for standing firm and protecting national interests with courage and dedication. He exhorted them to continue focusing on futuristic capability development to effectively overcome the emerging security challenges in the maritime domain.

He described secured borders as the first requirement to ensure social and economic progress, asserting that India, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, was moving forward in ‘Amrit Kaal’ with renewed thrust and zeal to achieve this objective. Emphasising that economic prosperity and security scenario go hand-in-hand, he pointed out that the defence sector has emerged as a major demand creator, which has been boosting the economy and ensuring the country’s development.

“In the next 5-10 years, orders worth over $100 billion are expected to be placed through the defence sector and it will become a major partner in the economic development of the country. Today, our defence sector is on the runway, soon when it takes off, it will transform the country’s economy. If we want to see India among the top economic powers of the world by the end of ‘Amrit Kaal’, we need to take bold steps towards becoming a defence superpower,” the defence minister said.

He also made a special mention of the credible and responsive presence of the Navy in the Indian Ocean Region. He stated that Mission-Based Deployments of the Navy have strengthened India’s position as a ‘Preferred Security Partner’ of friendly foreign countries in the region.

Rajnath reiterated the need for a huge country like India to be completely self-reliant and not dependent on others for its security. He listed numerous steps taken by the government to achieve ‘Aatmanirbharta’ in defence, including notification of four Positive Indigenisation Lists, increase in FDI limit and creation of a favourable environment for Indian vendors, including MSMEs. He termed the recent announcement of earmarking a record 75% of the defence capital procurement budget for the domestic industry in 2023-24 as a testament to the government’s firm commitment to achieving self-reliance in defence manufacturing.

He commended the Navy for being at the forefront of indigenisation and innovation through the inductions of ships and submarines and the development of niche technologies, in consonance with the ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ vision. On the commissioning of INS Vikrant, he stated that it further reinforced the belief that India’s Naval design and development was at a promising stage and more progress would be made in the times to come.