Indian Army chief General Manoj Pande said on Saturday that the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has highlighted the need to ensure 'Atmanirbhar' (self-reliance) in the defence sector.

He was speaking at 'The Chanakya Dialogues' organised at India International Centre in Delhi.

"We have to be self-dependent. We will work to meet our need of operations and peculiar demand. India is a country of vibrant ecosystem and there are youngsters with brilliant mind and they should come forward and give their suggestions and ideas to make better personal, small range weapons, long range rockets, armoured vehicle and sea weapons," said the Indian Army chief.

He further said that around seven to eight years ago, planning to become self-reliant was started and at that time, there was need for sources, policy, private players, market and strategy. "But today, we have concept of spiral development on each stage."

"We are in touch with premier institutes and 20 projects worth in crores are under development. In IIT Delhi, we have started a pilot project and similar projects will be started soon in other institutes," General Pande added.

"Technology development fund is available with DRDO and Army along with private players will work as partners not as buyer or seller," he asserted.

The Indian Army chief said that they are also trying to make the army most modern through the recently inducted 'Agniveer' scheme. (KB/IANS)