Inauguration of Tejas Light Combat Aircraft

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated Hindustan Aeronautics Limited's Tejas Light Combat Aircraft's second production. There will also be the opening of the Aero India 2021, the country's premier aerospace and Defence exhibition, commencing at Air Force Station Yelahanka on next day. On the occasion Defence Minister had said "We cannot remain dependent on other countries for the defence of our country"; which very much focus on India's vision on "Aatmanirbhar defence". Rajnath Singh also said that in same event "I have been informed that several counties have expressed interest in procuring Tejas M1A and I assure HAL that they will get orders from other counties very soon". 
 
The delivery of the Tejas LCA to the Indian Air Force under an Rs 48,000-crore deal will begin from March 2024 and around 16 aircraft will be rolled out annually till the completion of the total supply of 83 jets, Chairman and Managing Director of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited R. Madhavan said in statement. Earlier the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 13 approved the Rs 48,000-crore deal to procure 73 Tejas Mk-1A variantsand 10 LCA Tejas Mk-1 trainer aircraft from the HAL to boost the Indian Air Force's combat prowess.
 
Aatmanirbhar Defence
India has already focuses on Aatmanirbhar Defence and many indigenous  defence machinery had been introduced or launched. Earlier The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) conducted successful maiden launch of Akash-NG (New Generation) Missile from Integrated Test Range off the coast of Odisha. Akash-NG is a new generation Surface-to-Air Missile for use by Indian Air Force (IAF) with an aim of intercepting high manoeuvring aerial threats.
 
A large-scale tri-service joint amphibious exercise AMPHEX – 21 was held in Andaman & Nicobar group of islands. The exercise involved the participation of troops of Army, Navy as well as the Indian Air Force. DRDO had also successfully conducted captive and release trial of indigenously developed Smart Anti-Airfield Weapon (SAAW) from Hawk-I aircraft of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
 
India’s first indigenous 9mm Machine Pistol has been jointly developed by DRDO and Indian Army. Infantry School, Mhow and DRDO’s Coastal Research Vehicle (CRV) ‘Sagar Anveshika’ launched at the Chennai Port. The vehicle will be used to carry out environment indexing and bathymetric (mapping underwater features) in both coastal and offshore waters.

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) along with the Indian Navy conducted the successful maiden test trial of ‘SAHAYAK-NG’ India’s first indigenously designed and developed Air Dropped Container from IL 38SD aircraft (Indian Navy) off the coast of Goa.
 
Rajnath Singh earlier had also inaugurated the advanced Hypersonic Wind Tunnel (HWT) test facility of the DRDO in Hyderabad, Telangana. The state-of-the-art HWT Test facility has made India as the only third country in the world, after the US and Russia, to have such a huge facility in size and capability