MUMBAI
\nIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi commissioned the country\u2019s first home-built aircraft carrier on Friday, underlining his government\u2019s efforts to boost domestic production to supply a military deployed on two contentious borders.
\nAfter 17 years of construction and tests, Modi commissioned the INS Vikrant, the navy\u2019s second operational aircraft carrier and the largest warship ever built in India, at a state-run shipyard in the south.
\n\u201cToday, India has joined those countries in the world which can manufacture such a huge aircraft carrier with indigenous technology,\u201d Modi said.
\n\u201cIt is a symbol of indigenous potential, indigenous resources and indigenous skills.\u201d
\nDesigned to accommodate a crew of about 1,600 and a fleet of 30 aircraft, the Vikrant will rely on Russian-designed MIG-29K aircraft that already operate from India\u2019s other carrier, the INS Vikramaditya, which India bought from Russia.
\nBoeing and France\u2019s Dassault are seeking to provide India with more than two dozen jets for the Vikrant.
\nIndia is one of the world\u2019s largest arms importers, spending $12.4 billion between 2018 and 2021, but it has been seeking to develop its own manufacturing capabilities as a key supplier Russia fights a war in Ukraine and faces sanctions.
\nIndia has identified some 8,000 imported defence items worth about 82 trillion rupees ($1.03 trillion) in 2022-23 that it wants its firms to make, according to the defence ministry.
\nIndia employs 1.38 million people in its armed forces, with large numbers deployed on borders with nuclear-armed rivals China and Pakistan. \u201cIndia is working with all its might to become self-reliant,\u201d Modi said, referring to the home-built Tejas light-combat aircraft and artillery.
\nThe Vikrant will significantly add to India\u2019s maritime capabilities, allowing the navy to operate an aircraft carrier on each seaboard, alongside its 10 destroyers, 12 frigates and 20 corvettes.
\nChina, which also has two operational carriers and is working on a third, has a much larger fleet of 335 vessels, including about 48 destroyers, 43 frigates and 61 corvettes.
\n\u201cSecurity concerns in the Indo-Pacific region and the Indian Ocean have long been ignored,\u201d Modi said. \u201cBut today this area is a major defence priority for our country.\u201d
\nFriday\u2019s commissioning ceremony also saw the unveiling of a new naval flag without a British colonial symbol left over from India\u2019s colonial era.
\nThe new ensign replaces a prominent Saint George\u2019s Cross, the national flag of England, with the royal seal of the Hindu warrior-king Chhatrapati Shivaji.
\n\u201cIt is a historic date, we\u2019ve made history and discarded a sign of our subjugation,\u201d Modi said during his address.
\nShivaji is lauded by many for challenging the Muslim Mughal dynasty, which ruled much of the subcontinent prior to British colonisation, and which Hindu nationalists see as an era of foreign subjugation.
\nThe ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has also backed a $300 million, a 210-metre-tall statue of Shivaji off the coast of Mumbai, to be unveiled later this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MUMBAI Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi commissioned the country\u2019s first home-built aircraft carrier on Friday, underlining his government\u2019s efforts to boost domestic production to supply a military deployed on two contentious borders. After 17 years of construction and tests, Modi commissioned the INS Vikrant, the navy\u2019s second operational aircraft carrier and the largest warship ever […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281191,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-281178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n