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Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Friday said the coastal state has the potential to become a hub for defence manufacturing, creating employment opportunities and also strengthening India's defence capabilities. Addressing the inaugural function of the 3rd Manohar Parrikar Memorial Lecture here, he said Goa's strategic location provides several advantages to key industries, including defence. With unique strategies, Goa has the potential to become a place for defence manufacturing, creating employment opportunities and also strengthen India's defence capabilities, he said. The chief minister said the Union government is committed to encourage self-reliance in defence manufacturing as a part of Aatmanirbhar Bharat and Make In India initiatives. To achieve this, we need trained manpower and we must focus on building competent individuals at the operational level to deploy, direct, review and update the resource effectively, he said. Sawant said quality of workforce is essential .
The government on Monday said it has set a target of achieving defence manufacturing worth Rs 1,75,000 crore, including defence exports of Rs 35,000 crore by 2024-25. Minister of state for Defence Ajay Bhatt, replying to a question in Rajya Sabha, said the value of production undertaken by private companies and state-run defence manufacturers in 2021-22 was Rs 86,078 crore while the amount was Rs 88,631 crore in 2020-21 and Rs 63,722 crore in 2019-20. The value of production was Rs 50,499 crore in 2018-19 and Rs 54,951 crore in 2017-18. "The government has set the target of achieving defence manufacturing worth Rs 1,75,000 crore including defence exports of Rs 35,000 crore by the year 2024-25," Bhatt said. The minister also said the value of defence exports in 2021-22 was Rs 12,815 crore while it was Rs 13,398 crore till March 6 in the current fiscal. To a separate question, he said the modernisation of armed forces to meet future challenges is a continuous process based on the ..
France wants to be India's "best partner" in boosting its defence manufacturing and has decided to share the best technologies and equipment in sync with the growing "trust" between the two sides, French Ambassador Emmanuel Lenain has said. Without divulging specific details, the envoy said French and Indian companies are working together on "equipment of the future", platforms and engines. "I do not think any country provides India with the same level of technology. The progress is also due to the fact that we recognise that India wants to boost its strategic autonomy, wants to build its industrial base and we want to be India's best partner in this move," he told PTI. Indo-French strategic ties have been on a major upswing after India inked an inter-governmental agreement with France in September 2016 for the procurement of 36 Rafale jets at a cost of around Rs 59,000 crore. "Defence has always been a very strong component of our cooperation because there is a lot of trust betwee