Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday chaired a “Chintan Shivir” of Ministry of Defence where several innovative proposals emerged to enhance indigenisation content in domestic defence manufacturing and provide better health and pension services besides re-settlement to the ex-servicemen.
Giving details of the brainstorming session, Defence Ministry officials said here, the other issues included more collaboration of the Defence Research and Development Organisation(DRDO)with other research bodies, performance audit, bringing more efficiency in the functioning of the Ministry of Defence(MOD) and future roadmap of different organisations.
Rajnath sat through the day-long deliberations, which were spread over six sessions, covering important issues pertaining to Department of Defence (DoD), Department of Defence Production (DDP), MoD (Finance), Department of Military Affairs (DMA), Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare (DESW) and DRDO.
Minister of state for defence Ajay Bhatt, Chief of Defence Staff(CDS)General Anil Chauhan, Chief of the Army Staff General Manoj Pande, Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane, Secretary (Ex Servicemen Welfare) Vijoy Kumar Singh, Secretary, DRDO chief Samir V Kamat and other civil and military officials of the defence ministry attended the meeting. Presentations were made by each department which were followed by frank and free exchange of ideas.
The defence minister directed that a detailed action taken report on various issues be submitted to him within a fortnight to take forward these discussions, officials said.