India needs to become defence manufacturer: Arun Jaitley

Pune: Union finance and defence minister Arun Jaitley has said the nation needs to develop itself as a defence manufacturing hub and a manufacturing hub in order to strengthen its security and the economy respectively.

Mr Jaitley, who was in Pune as the chief guest for the ninth convocation ceremony of the Defence Institute of Advanced Technology, said, “National security is an important aspect. As we cannot change the neighbour we have to deal with them. Since the last 70 years, we have been facing a challenge of national security on two levels — war and insurgency. We are one of the few nations facing such a challenge. No country can depend on other nations for national security.”