The Centre has declared 2025 as ‘Year of Reforms,’ in order to give impetus to the ongoing and future reforms.Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has exuded confidence that the ‘Year of Reforms’ will be a momentous step in the modernisation journey of the Armed Forces. “It will lay the foundation for unprecedented advancements in defence preparedness, ensuring India’s security and sovereignty amidst challenges of 21st century,” he added while chairing over a meeting with all the Secretaries of his ministry on the eve of the New Year to review the progress on various schemes, projects, reforms and the way ahead.On Monday, Rajnath Singh had disclosed that India’s defence exports have crossed a record Rs 21,000 crore from Rs 2,000 crore a decade ago. The Minister said a target has been set to achieve defence exports of Rs 50,000 crore by 2029.A statement issued by Ministry of Defence quoted Rajnath Singh as saying that the ‘Year of Reforms’ would aim at transforming the Armed Forces into a technologically-advanced combat-ready force capable of multi-domain integrated operations.The meeting decided to make acquisition procedures simpler and time-sensitive to facilitate swifter and robust capability development.The meeting, among other thing, also decided to facilitate technology transfer and knowledge sharing between the defence sector and civil industries, promoting public-private partnerships by improving ease of doing business.More importantly, it resolved to position India as a credible exporter of defence products, fostering R&D and partnerships between Indian industries and foreign Original Equipment Manufacturers for knowledge sharing & resource integration.Reforms, it noted, should focus on new domains such as Cyber and Space, and emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Hypersonics and Robotics. Associated Tactics, Techniques and Procedures required to win future wars should also be developed.
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