Parliamentary panel visits NDA, interacts with newly inducted women cadets

PUNE: Members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence on Thursday visited the National Defence Academy (NDA) - a tri-services training institute of the Indian Armed forces - and witnessed various aspects of the military training.
Lok Sabha MP Jual Oram, who heads the committee, and former defence minister and Rajya Sabha MP Sharad Pawar were among the 13 members who visited the academy.
The committee members also briefly interacted with the recently inducted women cadets at the academy during their maiden visit.
The first ever batch of women cadets joined the academy earlier this month and their academic classes and military training have started as per the schedule, said the sources.
The Parliamentary panel’s visit was for taking a review of the intake of women officers in the Armed forces through various platforms.
Air Marshal Sandesh P Wagle, Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (DOT) accompanied by Vice Admiral Ajay Kochhar, Commandant of the NDA and representatives of all three services briefed the panel on the training at the academy.
“The parliamentary members were given a comprehensive briefing on the various facets of training at NDA with special emphasis on the recently inducted women cadets training. The committee also witnessed the conduct of different facets of cadets’ training and briefly interacted with the newly inducted women cadets,” reads the press release issued by the Press Information Bureau (PIB), Pune.
Earlier, the committee also visited the Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), the premier laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
“A 13 members of the panel, including the chairman and former defence minister Sharad Pawar visited the ARDE. The directors of Pune ARDE, Research and Development Establishment (Engineers) and High Energy Materials Research Laboratory (HEMRL) gave presentations to the panel. The recently developed defence systems, equipment, and products were also shown to the committee during the visit,” said a senior DRDO official.
The committee will visit defence establishments in the Khadki Cantonment Board (KCB) area on Friday, added the official.