Modi commissions India’s first home-built aircraft carrier

NEW DELHI, Sept 02 (Express Tribune): Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi commissioned India's first home-built aircraft carrier on Friday, underlining his government's efforts to boost domestic production to supply a military deployed on two contentious borders.

After 17 years of construction and tests, Modi commissioned the INS Vikrant - the navy's second operational aircraft carrier and the largest warship ever built in India - at a state-run shipyard in the south.

"Today, India has joined those countries in the world which can manufacture such a huge aircraft carrier with indigenous technology," Modi said. "It is a symbol of indigenous potential, indigenous resources and indigenous skills."

Designed to accommodate a crew of about 1,600 and a fleet of 30 aircraft, the Vikrant will rely on Russian-designed MIG-29K aircraft that already operate from India's other carrier, the INS Vikramaditya, which India bought from Russia.

Boeing and France's Dassault are seeking to provide India with more than two dozen jets for the Vikrant.

India is one of the world's largest arms importers, spending $12.4 billion between 2018 and 2021, but it has been seeking to develop its own manufacturing capabilities as key supplier Russia fights a war in Ukraine and faces sanctions. India has identified some 8,000 imported defence items worth about 82 trillion rupees ($1.03 trillion) in 2022-23 that it wants its firms to make, according to the defence ministry.

India employs 1.38 million people in its armed forces, with large numbers deployed on borders with nuclear-armed countries China and Pakistan.