By NNN-PTI
New Delhi : As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sought the avoidance of delays in supply of weapon systems to the armed forces, a suggestion was mooted to ensure that a part of defence acquisitions be made from domestic suppliers as was the global practice.
"We feel the government has a clear responsibility to ensure that certain percentage of acquisitions, particularly of products developed indigenously with enormous efforts, are compulsorily sourced by the services from within the country," M Natarajan, Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister, said Saturday while welcoming the Prime Minister at a Defence Research and Development Organisation award function here.
He asserted that this practice was being followed in "the most advanced countries".
In the midst of a changing global scenario and shrinking defence markets worldwide, it was important that while the services were granted the freedom to choose equipment they required to meet their perceived needs, it was equally important that indigenously developed equipments were "given a fair share of acceptance by the services," Natarajan said.
In his speech, the Prime Minister said the rapidly changing international defence and security environment "did not always provide us the luxury of developing weapons systems over long gestation periods" and the risk of obsolescence of the weapon systems persisted.
"Causing delays at the stage of production mean that our armed forces are deprived of timely deliveries, which often compel the Government to look for external procurement to fill emerging gaps in our inventories," he said.
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