Narendra Modi for self-reliance in defence manufacturing

Tumakuru : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday made a strong pitch for India’s self-reliance in defence production, saying it has to be ensured that the weaponry and equipment its soldiers carry should be “the best in the world”. “If India has to be self-reliant in the area of security, we have to make our own weapons,” he said.

“Indian Armed Forces are ready to make any sacrifice for the country and are second to none. But the time has come now to ensure that the weapons and equipment they carry and use are also the best in the world,” he said addressing a gathering after laying the foundation stone for a `5,000 crore greenfield helicopter project of HAL at Biderhalla Kaval in the district.

The Prime Minister said imported weapons were expensive and India had to spend huge sums of money for defence acquisition. “We import weapons from other countries to equip our armed forces. India not only spends crores of rupees but also gets relatively not so latest technology,” he said. To address the problem, Modi said, before striking a deal for import of weaponry India was now buying only a part of the order directly from the manufacturers and for the rest it was insisting on manufacturing it in the country.

Bengaluru: Prime Minister Narendra Modi pitched for integrating Yoga and traditional Indian medicine more closely into the health care system and make wellness a part of life for all in India and rest of the world. Inaugurating an "International Conference on Frontiers in Yoga Research and its Applications" at Jigani, about 30 km from Bengaluru, he asked health professionals, policy makers, government organisations and industry to bridge the distance between the various forms of medicine systems.

"I hope that you will integrate yoga and traditional Indian medicine more closely into our health care system...," Prime Minister Modi told the gathering at the Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana, a deemed university. "My vision for health care is an integrated system that understands and builds on the best and most effective of different traditions," the PM said.

Meanwhile, ex-J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah hit out at Modi for talking about Yoga at a time when an encounter with terrorists was raging on at Pathankot Air Base. "Business as usual is all well and good but a speech about Yoga while an encounter rages at an Air Base in #Pathankot seems totally out of sync," Abdullah wrote on Twitter.

Modi coins new 'five Es' mantra

The 103rd Indian Science Congress (ISC) began on a high note, with PM Modi coining a new mantra of "five Es" for enquiry and engineering by the scientific community. "Impact of science will be most when scientists and technologists will keep principles of what I call 'Five Es' at the centre of their enquiry and engineering," Modi said after inaugurating the five-day annual science fair, about 140 km from Bengaluru.

The five Es are Economy, Environment, Energy, Empathy and Equity. "Economy is when we find cost effective and efficient solutions, environment -- when our carbon footprint is lightest and its impact on ecology is least possible, energy -- when our prosperity relies less on energy and energy we use keep sky blue and earth green," Modi said.

Elaborating the other two Es, the prime minister said empathy would be when efforts were in tune with one's culture, circumstance and social challenges. The five Es coincide with the centenary of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity - E=mc2, the world famous equation and mathematical formula published in 1916.