Artificial Intelligence, Robotics to boost firepower: Prime Minister Narendra Modi

CHENNAI: India is looking at tapping new and emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Robotics for its defence force and is betting on its strength in the information technology domain.Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who inaugurated the DefExpo on Thursday, said new and emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Robotics are the most important determinants of defensive and offensive capabilities and India, with its leadership in the information technology domain, would strive to use this technology to its advantage.

He said a technology perspective and capability road-map had been released to help the industry in planning and initiating technology development, partnerships and production arrangements.Quoting former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam’s   famous words — “Dream! Dream! Dream! Dreams transform into thoughts, and thoughts result in action” — the Prime Minister said his dream was to develop the ecosystem to foster an environment of new and creative entrepreneurship in the defence manufacturing sector.

Stating that the goal is not merely to tinker, but to transform, the Prime Minister stressed the need to move fast as defence preparedness was hampered by policy paralysis.“You would have seen how the issue of providing bullet-proof jackets to Indian Army soldiers was kept hanging for years. And, you would have also seen that we have brought the process to a successful conclusion with a contract that will provide a boost to defence manufacturing in India,” the Prime Minister said.

Hitting out at the previous Congress regime for failing to procure aircraft for the Indian Air Force despite air squadrons depleting, he said, “We do not want to spend 10 years on discussions without any tangible outcomes. We will work with you with a sense of mission to keep our defence forces equipped with state-of-the-art systems, and to create the necessary domestic manufacturing ecosystem to achieve this.”Stating that the Indian government’s role is not to lecture but listen, he said extensive consultations with all stake-holders, including Indian and foreign companies, about defence production and defence procurement policy space would be conducted in weeks ahead.Highlighting the ‘Innovation for Defence Excellence’ scheme which he inaugurated, Modi said it would set up Defence Innovation Hubs throughout the country to provide necessary incubation and infrastructure support to the start-ups in defence area.

Stating that the two defence industrial corridors, including the one in Tamil Nadu, will utilise the existing defence manufacturing ecosystem in these regions, and further build upon it, he said these corridors would become the engines of economic development and growth of defence industrial base in the country. The defence procurement procedure has also been revised by de-notifying items made exclusively by ordnance factories so that the private sector, especially the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), can enter this space.

Highlighting the role played by the BJP government in reviving the defence sector, Modi said that on May 2014, defence export permissions granted stood at 118, for a total value of $577 million. “In less than four years, we have issued 794 more export permissions, for a total value of over $1.3 billion,” he said.

“From 2007 to 2013, the targeted offsets obligations were $1.24 billion, of which only $0.79 billion worth offsets were actually discharged. That is, an achievement rate of only about 63 per cent. From 2014 to 2017, the targeted offsets obligations were $1.79 billion, of which $1.42 billion-worth offsets were realised. This is an achievement rate of close to 80 per cent. Procurement from MSMEs by the defence public sector undertakings and ordnance factories has gone up from about `3,300 crore in 2014-15 to over `4,250 crore in 2016-17,” he added.

Army chief unveils eight new BEL products
Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat unveiled eight new products made by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) on Thursday. Products including 100 Mbps radio relay equipment, which provides reliable and secure telecommunication link in a hostile electronic warfare environment and a secure military wireless LAN were launched. He also launched a multi-function Hand Held Thermal Imager, which is a cooled TI-based fully integrated day/night sight (with in-built eye safe laser range finder and digital magnetic compass), a long range surveillance system and Chemical Agent Monitor