Navy chief Tripathi inaugurates 'Swavlamban 2024' exhibition in Delhi

Navy Chief Admiral Dinesh Kumar Tripathi on Monday inaugurated the 'Swavlamban 2024' exhibition at Bharat Mandapam.

During his tour of the exhibition, Admiral Tripathi examined an anti-drone gun developed by an Indian firm.

Speaking to ANI, the Navy Chief expressed happiness to witness the innovations from the country's young entrepreneurs. He added that around 115 stalls have been set up by various agencies in the exhibition.

"I have just gone around the exhibition and it has been such a wonderful experience to witness what is on display, what our young entrepreneurs are doing and what is possible in the future. There are almost 115 stalls that have been put up by various agencies, which include, of course, the industry, but also DRDO...We have got participation from Indian Air Force, Indian Army, Indian Coast Guard, BSF," the Navy Chief said.

Addressing a press conference, Navy Vice Chief Vice Admiral Krishna Swaminathan said that Swavlamban is an event that gives expression to our aspiration and was started in 2022 to collaborate with MSMEs and the Indian industry to address the Navy's operational needs and bridge capability gaps.

"Swavlamban for us is a very, very important event, one of the important events of the year. Indian navy started its journey of indigenization over six decades ago, and for the six decades, indigenisation has been some kind of article of faith we have tried our best to be as indigenous as we can. We have made chips, we have made Submarines we have made aircraft in this country. Swavlamban is an expression of our aspirations as a Navy to be completely self-reliant. Swavlamban itself means self-reliant. We want to innovate to indigenize and through indigenization, to become self-reliant. Swavlamban is an event that gives expression to our aspiration," the Vice Chief said.

"It was an idea that started in 2022 where we said less have an event where we can engage with the other constituencies of India, the startup organisations. We said we would engage; with startup organisations, we will engage with MSME, engage with Indian industry at large and create new conditions where we can work together and give them targeted challenges where they can respond to the operational challenges of the Navy and produce technology in quick time so that we can plug in the capability gap of the Navy as we see them," the Vice Chief said.

Swavlamban- 2024 is being held in Delhi on October 28 and 29. According to the Defence Ministry the seminar is expected to provide new and substantial impetus to the innovation and indigenisation endeavour. The event will showcase products of niche technologies such as air and surface surveillance, autonomous systems in surface, aerial and underwater domains, Al and quantum technologies.