New Delhi, Oct 1 (UNI) Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday commended the Defence Accounts Department (DAD) for focusing on technology adoption and urged the department to prepare a roadmap to make it a ‘Centre of Excellence’ in the field of defence finance and economics.
Speaking at the 277th Annual Day celebrations of Defence Accounts Department at Bharat Mandapam here, he batted for establishing a robust and comprehensive data management system that gives analytical reports to the government on the impact of defence expenditure on the country’s economy, such as the contribution of defence vendors in revenue generation and employment generation.
“This will prove to be helpful in establishing a holistic policy regime, which would develop a sense of ‘Whole of the Government approach”, he added.
Rajnath exhorted DAD to remain innovative in its thinking, and continue exploring new frontiers in defence accounting and financial management. He emphasised that every individual would have to contribute to realise the government’s vision of ‘Viksit Bharat by 2047’.
The Defence Minister commended the department for successfully linking 30 lakh defence pensioners to SPARSH (System for Pension Administration (Raksha) portal.
He asserted that despite numerous challenges, the department has been successful in the implementation of this web-based system, which processes pension claims and credits the pension directly into bank accounts of defence pensioners without any external intermediary.
Rajnath also lauded the efforts of DAD towards modernisation and strengthening of the country’s defence ecosystem through optimum utilisation of resources, efficiency and transparency in accounting and adoption of latest technologies.
Reflecting on the progress achieved in the defence sector in the last few years, Singh stated that there was a time when acquisitions were mainly dependent on imports, and the positive impact of defence expenditure on the economy was very limited. But due to the Government’s efforts to attain self-reliance, India is today seen as a defence exporter.
He highlighted the vital role DAD plays in supporting the Defence Ministry’s vast network of organisations, including the Armed Forces, Indian Coast Guard and Border Roads Organisation.
“There are over 50 lakh personnel associated with the Ministry, and the budget is larger than the GDP of many small countries. DAD is a link which connects all the units of the Armed Forces and civilian organisations. Whether it is our resolve of self-reliance, the efforts to encourage the participation of MSMEs and start-ups or issues related to the three services, all these different dimensions ultimately come to DAD,” Singh said.
SPARSH Audit Manual was among the publications of DAD launched by the Defence Minister to mark the day. Other publications and initiatives include Comprehensive Statistical Handbook on Defence Expenditure (COSHE) 2024, Market Intelligence Report 2023-24 and Defence Travel System 2.0.
He also gave away the Raksha Mantri Awards for Excellence 2024 to two teams for exhibiting exemplary initiative in implementing key department projects, namely, the team of PCDA (Pensions) Prayagraj for ‘Achieving Milestone in redressing Grievances’ and the team of PIFA (Air Force) New Delhi for the ‘Automatic Replenishment System (ARS) Scale Analysis’.
Present on the occasion were Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi, Chief of the Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi, Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane, Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman DRDO Samir V Kamat and others.
