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The Defence Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee has said that Govt is committed to the modernisation of Defence Production units as well as ensuring a regular flow of orders to them. At the same time he exhorted them to raise resources through internal generation to fund further development and growth. The Defence Minister was speaking after presenting Raksha Mantri’s Awards for Excellence 2002-2003 here today. Complimenting the Defence PSUs, the Minister said that our production units are able to compete with the merits of their product and productivity without crutches of Government support, i.e. a purchase preference policy.
Underlining the urgent need for Research & Development in core areas of strategic defence requirements, Shri Mukherjee said that without doubt this would call for an increase level of interaction and mutual trust amongst the production units and the user services. He said the needs of the services have to be shared with the production units and exchange of information and ideas is vital. The Defence Minister said that we must look towards and pursue avenues of co-production and joint ventures with foreign parties and Indian industry, wherever possible in order to share resources, strengths and transfer of technology has to be considered through co-production and joint venture.
Complimenting Goa Shipyard Limited a Defence PSU for setting a trend through establishing paperless office and setting up a successful Enterprise Resource Planning System, Defence Minister hopes that this experience could be shared and replicated by others. He said proper focus needs to be given to training at all levels and investment in Human Resource Development. He asks the CMDs of Defence PSUs and Chairman of OFB to give their personal attention to this facet of employee development/recognition. An achievement needs to be rewarded at the right time and should serve as a motivation for others, he added.
Earlier in his welcome address, Secretary Defence Production, Shri Shekhar Dutt referred to the encouraging performance by Defence PSUs. He said that all the eight Defence PSUs declared profits for financial year 2003-04 and seven of them paid dividend to the Government. He said the value of production of the Defence PSUs was Rs. 1007.22 cr during 2003-04 which further rose to Rs. 12200 cr approx as per the flash results for the year 2004-05. Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) has issue approximately Rs. 6800 cr as compared to Rs. 6500 cr during 2003-04. Shri Dutt said that financial performance of the OFB and DPSU’s is not in isolation but has also been backed by a commitment to quality. He informed that all the 39 OFBs have switched over to quality management systems compliant to ISO – 9001-2000. Fifty-two laboratories in 29 Ordnance factories are accredited to NABL and confirm to ISO/IEC 17025 new standards, he added.
The award for excellence in performance for the year 2002-03 was given to Bharat Electronics Limited and was received by Shri Y Gopala Rao, Chairman and Managing Director, (BEL). The award for the year 2002-03 for the best performance in export category was given to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and was received by Shri AK Baweja, CMD, HAL. Ordnance Factory Ambajhari (OFAJ), Nagpur was given the award for the year 2002-03 for best performance amongst Ordnance Factories. Shri GV Shivkumar Senior General Manager, OFAJ received the award.
The Nasik division of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was given the award for best performance amongst Defence Public Sector Undertakings (Division/Factory) for year 2002–03. Shri PN Mishra, General Manager, HAL Nasik received this award. The award for import substitution in the category of Group/Individual awards for the year 2002-03 was given to Shri G Sunderraj, Shri Shri N Satpathy, Shri MN Suresh, Shri C Vijayakumar, Shri Biswanath Sar, Shri Krishna Murari and Shri AD Satyanada of HAL Aircraft Research and Design Centre of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bangalore. The Bharat Dynamics Limited, Hyderabad was given the award for the import substitution in the category of Group/Individual awards for the year 2002-03.
The award for design effort in the Group/Individual category for the year 2002-03 was given to the Group headed by Shri MV Satish and Shri Vasanth S Shenoi of BEL, Bangalore. The group headed by Shri P Anna Rao of Mishra Dhattu Nigam Limited, Hyderabad was given the award for design effort in the category of Group/Individual awards for the year 2002-03. Shri R Sudhakar Rao, Shri M Sreedhar Rao and Shri A Venkateshwarlu from Design and Engineering Division of Bharat Dynamics Limited, Hyderabad were awarded for innovation in the category of Group/Individual awards for the year 2002-03. Shri N Vikraman, Shri J Sairam and Puttaswamy of BEL, Bangalore were given the award for innovation in the category of Group / Individual Awards for the year 2002-03.
The quest for excellence in the field of production has been the main aim for production units under the Department of Defence Production in the Ministry of Defence. In order to instill a competitive spirit and to give fillip to production activities, it was considered desirable to have a scheme for giving Awards for Excellence for the Ordnance Factories and Defence Public Sector Undertakings. Accordingly, it was decided to institute Raksha Mantri’s Awards for Excellence amongst the Ordnance Factory Board and Defence PSUs.
Defence Secretary Shri Ajai Vikram Singh, Secretary Defence Research and Development Shri M Natarajan and other senior officials of the Ministry of Defence and Defence PSUs and Ordnance Factories were also present on the occasion.
SKS/RAJ
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