Aligarh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday that BrahMos Missiles will be manufactured in Uttar Pradesh as he pushed for making India a defence exporters, turning around its image from being one of the biggest importers of weapons.
The Prime Minister was speaking after laying the foundation stone for Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh State University here. He also talked about the Aligarh node of Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor, and visited exhibition models of the corridor here.
“Whether it’s a rifle, fighter jets, drone, or warships, there’s a mission going on to push Make In India. India is stepping away from the image of being the largest defence importer, and is moving ahead with the pledge to become defence exporters. UP is going to be a major center for it. I am proud to be an MP of UP,” the Prime Minister said.
“In the Lucknow node of defence corridor, BrahMos (missile) will also be made,” the prime minister said.
Between 2016 and 2020, India was the world’s second largest importer of arms, according to a report by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), accounting for 9.5 percent of the total global arms imports, while it accounted for 0.2 percent of the share of global arms exports during 2016-20, making the country the world’s 24th largest exporter of major arms. This represents an increase of 228 percent over India’s export share of 0.1 percent during the previous five-year period of 2011-15.
The Prime Minister, who was accompanied by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also lauded the CM for the development work in the state, and accused the previous governments of corruption and poor law and order.
“People of Uttar Pradesh cannot forget the kind of corruption that prevailed here, and the mafia raj. Today the state is being developed with honesty by the Yogi government, and criminals are behind bars,” the prime minister said.
Prime Minister Modi started his address wishing the nation on the occasion of Radha Ashtami, and talked about development done in Western Uttar Pradesh by the Yogi Adityanath government.
(EW correspondent)
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