New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said India's defence apparatus has become stronger than ever as the present government is focusing on bolstering it with the “sentiment of Indianness”.

Speaking at a Defence summit here, he highlighted ‘Aatmanirbharta’ in defence manufacturing as the biggest change brought about by the Government, which is giving a new shape to India’s defence sector, a Defence Ministry statement said.

Rajnath enumerated the reformative steps taken by the Ministry of Defence to achieve self-reliance, including setting up Defence Industrial Corridors in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, reserving 75% of the capital procurement budget for domestic industry, corporatisation of the Ordnance Factory Board and schemes such as Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) and iDEX Prime, Acing Development of Innovative Technologies with iDEX (ADITI).

Highlighting the positive impact on the defence sector due to these decisions, Singh said, “The annual defence production, which was around Rs 40,000 crore in 2014, has now crossed a record Rs 1.10 lakh crore. The defence exports today have touched Rs 16,000 crore from a meager Rs 1,000 crore nine to ten years ago. We have set a target to achieve Rs 50,000 crore of exports by 2028-29”.

The defence minister emphasised that the country’s defence system has been induced with new energy by the government, as per the vision of the people of the country.

Adding that, it has resulted in India emerging as a powerful nation on the global stage with a strong and self-reliant military.

“Today, our forces possess a strong will power due to a powerful leadership at the centre. We are working continuously towards keeping the morale of the soldiers high. They are equipped, capable and ready to give a befitting reply to anyone who casts an evil eye on India,” he said.

Stating that the Government has provided an ideal environment to the private sector while trusting the youth and promoting their innovation, Singh said, “If our young ignited minds take one step forward, we will help them by taking 100 steps. If they take 100 steps, we will take 1,000 steps forward”.

He asserted that when it comes to technology, developing countries have two options – ‘innovation’ and ‘imitation’ – and the Government is laying special emphasis on making the country technology creator rather than a follower.

“Imitating technology from developed countries is not wrong for those whose innovation capacity and human resources have not reached the level required to produce new technologies. If a country imitates technology from other nations, it still moves ahead from old technology. However, the problem is that one becomes addicted to imitation and gets used to second class technology.

“This forces them to fall 20-30 years behind a developed country. Losing national self-confidence is a bigger problem as one always remains a technology follower. This mentality comes into your culture, ideology, literature, lifestyle and philosophy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi calls this follower mentality as the mindset of slavery,” Rajnath said.

The minister termed it as the duty of the Government, media as well as intelligentsia to guide the nation out of the mindset of slavery.

Highlighting that the harmony between military power and spirituality has been prevalent in the Indian culture since centuries, Singh emphasised that the government has been consistently working for the betterment of the serving and retired personnel as well as those who made supreme sacrifice in the service of the nation, along with their families.

(With UNI inputs)