Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan on Thursday urged the industry, R&D organisations and the Services to embrace fusion and synergy in order to achieve 'Aatmanirbharta' in defence and make India a 'Sashakt, Surakshit and Viksit Bharat.'

Inaugurating in the virtual mode a two-day national conference on Technology Management (TECHMA 2024), he also stressed upon the need to change the mindset to keep pace with the evolving times.

The CDS called for coming up with innovative and unique ideas which can prove to be advantageous to the Armed Forces, and in turn the nation, defence ministry said here.

Themed 'Technology Management in Defence Sector for Vision India @2047', the conference has been organised by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) at the Institute of Technology Management, Mussoorie. It aims to align the country's defence technologies with the national objective of becoming self-reliant by 2047.

The conference began with a roundtable discussion on 'Harnessing Futuristic Technologies and Strengthening Indigenous Capabilities for Vision India @ 2047'. Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman, DRDO  Samir V Kamat attended the inaugural function as Guest of Honor. The themes of TECHMA-2024 are futuristic defence technologies, technology management with strategic vision for 2047, project management excellence in defence and value engineering and commercialisation.

The insights gained from TECHMA-2024 are expected to strengthen India's indigenous R&D ecosystem, identify multidisciplinary research areas, improve project management processes and develop solutions for future defence technologies to overcome technical, logistical, and implementation challenges, ensuring India becomes a global leader by 2047.