Defense Minister And CDS Join Forces At 3-Day North Tech Symposium In Jammu

Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan, and Army Chief General Manoj Pande will be among the guests at the three-day North Tech Symposium, which will be held here by the Army starting on September 11.

More than 250 companies, including 50 start-ups, are scheduled to attend the symposium. They will show off their military equipment at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) campus on the edge of Jammu.

At a news conference here, Lt. Gen. Anindya Sengupta, who is in charge of Northern Command, said, “The North Tech Symposium will start on September 11 and end on September 13.”

He said that the defense minister, the Union minister of state for science and space, the lieutenant governors of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, the chief of defence staff, and the Army chief will all be there.

Lt. Gen. Sengupta said that the symposium makes it easier to evaluate, prioritize, and buy products in a structured way. It also gives actionable feedback for procurement plans.

He also talked about how North Tech Symposium has changed over the years. When it started in 2005, it was a mix of equipment, ideas, innovations, and displays. Since then, it has become more focused on supporting cutting-edge defense technology and self-reliance.

Lt. Gen. Sengupta said that because of the different terrain and weather conditions, the Northern Command needs custom answers to the problems it faces. He talked about how the Northern Command is trying to close the gap between what it has and what it needs.

“This year’s North Tech Symposium will be a bigger step toward closing the gap between wants and needs,” he said.

He said that the theme of this year’s conference, “Synergy, Research, Development, and Innovation in the Modernization of the Military,” is meant to help the military make big steps forward. Using special financial powers given to the Army commander and other capital procurement projects with a current yearly budget of about Rs 1,000 crore, he said, the Army commander will be able to buy a variety of weapons through this platform.

The Director General of the Society of Indian Defense Manufacturers, Dr. Sunil Misra, said that the conference will show cutting-edge technologies that can help the Northern Command deal with operational problems.

He talked about how the event was meant to bring back the spirit of creativity to meet current and future security needs.