Bengaluru, Aug 26 (IANS): Union Minister of Defence, Finance and Corporate Affairs Arun Jaitley on Saturday said that India "needs to put all its national resources behind defence preparedness".

"We need to put our entire national resources behind our defence preparedness," Jaitley said while launching the production of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) designed Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) on Saturday evening here.

"In the present geo-political situation, India is located sensitively. Preparedness is something that India cannot compromise on," the Defence Minister noted.

Remarking that India has "always been heavily dependent" on the rest of the world for buying its defence equipment and technology, Jaitley said it is now growing into a defence manufacturing hub.

"India earlier was always seen as a buyer. Our narrow policies also contributed to this," Jaitley said.

"We are now evolving into a major manufacturing hub not only for our own requirements but also for supplying to other countries in the world," he said.

It is absolutely "necessary" for our country to enhance its manufacturing ability, Jaitley said.

"With the experience of our country's public sector undertakings and the entrepreneurship abilities of the private sector, coupled with the size of our market, that international markets can also eye, we need to enhance our manufacturing ability," he said.

India needs to "graduate" in the field of defence from a "buyer into a manufacturer", the minister said.

During his visit here, Jaitley had launched the production of HAL designed 5.8 tonne category LCH and dedicated HAL's design upgrade programme of Hawk-i, an indigenously designed Hawk aircraft, to the nation.

He had also inaugurated the radar test facility and training centre at the Bharat Electronics Limited unit in Bengaluru.

 
Jaitley unveils BEML's third metro production line

Defence Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday unveiled the third line of metro manufacturing facility of the state-run Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML) here to ramp up its production to meet the demand for more such cars.

"The third line will enable the company to increase production capacity to 27 cars from 18 per month by augmenting jigs, fixtures and machines," said Jaitley on the occasion.

The BEML has supplied about 1,200 metro cars to metro corporations in New Delhi, Bengaluru and Jaipur and has orders from Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai and Lucknow to produce for their metro projects.

Earlier in the day, Jaitley visited the defence major's complex at Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) in Bangarapet, about 100 km from here, and rolled out its 180-tonne hydraulic excavator, which was designed and developed in-house as part of the government's "Make in India" initiative.

BEML Chairman and Managing Director Deepak Kumar Hota handed over the first hull of T-72 battle tank variant to the Ordnance Factories Board (OFB) in the presence of the minister.

As an industrial organisation, the OFB functions under the Department of Defence Production.

Jaitley also inspected the various defence products made by the BEML and saw their demonstration.

The minister also rolled out the company's 850-HP diesel-powered crawler bulldozer for the mining industry.

"Our bulldozer BD475-1 is an import substitution to higher capacity dozers being imported by the user industry," said Hota on the occasion.

The 180-tonne hydraulic excavator is also an import substitute for use in mega mines.

"We have collaborated with OFB for various projects to increase our contribution to the armed forces.

"The hull for T-72 tank variants will help reduce import of hulls by OFB due to capacity constraint," added Hota.

Jaitley, who is also the Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, was on a day-long visit to the city for participating in a couple of events, including the launch of state-run Vijaya Bank's 100 digital villages, 100 branches and 100 ATMs offering.

Jaitley bats for cashless economy to check crime, graft

As crime, corruption and graft thrive on the use of cash, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday hoped the country would move from using less cash to eventually a cashless economy to benefit from digital transactions.

"As India is a cash using society with economic and social costs involved in excessive use of cash, its anonymity allows owners to risk while the state suffers due to tax non-compliance," said Jaitley after unveiling 100 digital villages, 100 branches and 100 ATMs of state-run Vijaya Bank here.

Asserting that crime, corruption and terrorism flourish on cash, the Finance Minister said larger amounts of cash flowing into the economy had their own consequences.

"Technology is rapidly changing the banking sector, which soon will become a part of smartphones. Transforming into a developed economy would mean embracing cashless economy," said Jaitley.

Recalling the impact of the November 8 demonetisation of higher currency, the Minister said banning Rs 1,000 and old Rs 500 notes had eliminated the anonymity of cash ownership and was taking the economy toward more digitisation.

"Demonetisation also helped to widen the tax base with more people coming into the formal economy from the informal sector," reiterated Jaitley.

The Minister also hoped the Goods and Services Tax (GST) would expand the indirect tax base and eliminate cash dealings due to lack of benefit from input credit.

"The new tax regime will expand the base of indirect tax, as the possibility of cash dealings gets eliminated due to lack of benefit from input credit," Jaitley pointed out.

The Minister also told the gathering that the central government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had taken steps to adopt digital payments, and incentives were being given to the people for shifting to the digital mode.

"We have also reduced the cost of digital transactions to encourage people to use less cash and make payments digitally," added Jaitley.