File photo of Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. | Photo Credit: ANI Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday (September 17, 2024) said that, in the first 100 days of its third term under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the NDA government had started a series of infrastructure development and welfare programmes. Mr. Singh told reporters that the Central government was taking all possible steps to achieve the objective of making India a developed nation. He said in these three months, the Defence Acquisition Council had decided to procure items costing over ₹1.5 lakh crore. In the effort to make India self-reliant in the defence sector, he said 346 more items had been included in the list of strategically important products to be manufactured in India and by Indians. The public sector undertakings were also being encouraged to develop and manufacture defence related products. “We were confident of coming back to power for the third time and, therefore, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, all the Ministries had already prepared a plan of action for the first 100 days of the third term. After the Cabinet was formed, many key decisions were taken and they are now being implemented,” he said. Published – September 17, 2024 09:30 pm IST