Hyderabad - Minister of State for Defence, Dr. M.M. Pallam Raju has said that the Central Government is making big investments in modernising different sectors of the Indian Army.
Speaking on the sidelines of an event here, Raju said the government is also taking the issue of self-reliance seriously in the context of manufacturing artillery.
"We are investing a lot of money in modernising these facilities, thus the country has built up very carefully over a period of time with great tenacity- we have put a lot of effort and money into this. You can feel proud of the quality of men and facilities that we have all over India. Now it is time to modernise, upgrade what we have and that is what we are doing with all the defence PSUs (Public Sector Units) and the Ordinance Factory Boards," he added.
He further said his ministry is working towards parallel encouragement of the private sector in order to attain the goal.
"Unfortunately as far as the Army is concerned we have been suffering because of cancellation of tenders due to black listing of companies, there is a quest to modernise our artillery so in those efforts we hope that in the next couple of years we will make significant progress," he added.
Pallam Raju further said that the level of purchase is going up and it could be over 50,000 billion rupees as per security needs over next five years.
Today : Saturday - May 26, 2012, 07:57pm (GMT+5.5)
