Optimisation of manpower tops agenda of Navy meet

NEW DELHI: Optimising “manpower” in the Indian Navy is the key focus of Navy Commanders Conference that began in New Delhi on Wednesday. Earlier, the 1.3 millionstrong Indian Army had indicated that it, too, was looking to “right size” to meet future requirements. “The conference will among other issues, deliberate upon the combat readiness of units and optimisation of resources including manpower to meet the growing list of missions and tasks that the navy is expected to perform,” said Captain DK Sharma, spokesperson of the

Indian Navy. KEVADIYA(GUJARAT): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday inaugurated the world’s tallest statue dedicated to India’s first home minister, Vallabhbhai Patel, on his 143rd birth anniversary at Kevadiya in Gujarat’s Narmada district. The 182-metre steel and bronze Statue of Unity is nearly twice the height of New York’s Statue of Liberty.

Modi called the statue not only a tribute to Patel but also “an expression of a new India’s new self confidence”. He recalled the role Patel played in “uniting the country” after independence in 1947. “Had Sardar Saheb not vowed (to unite India), then to see lions of Gir, to worship at the Somnath Temple and to visit Charminar, we would have needed a visa,’’ Modi said.

He was referring to landmarks in Gujarat’s Junagarh and Hyderabad, which were among the 562 nominally-independent princely states across India under the British Patel played a key role in integrating with the Indian union after independence.

“If we are able to move freely from Kutch to Kohima and from Kargil to Kanyakumari, it is because of Sardar Saheb,” Modi said, adding he was surprised over the criticism he has faced over the statue that has cost ₹2,989 crore. “We are criticised for praising sons of the soil. We are made to feel as if we have committed a major crime.”

Modi said Patel wanted India to be “empowered, robust, sensitive, alert and inclusive”. Modi said his government was taking “all the steps to fulfill his dreams”. He listed the schemes and projects to highlight how they were in line with Patel’s vision. “We are working on the Bhagirath project to provide concrete houses to the homeless. We have provided electricity to 18,000 villages, which were deprived of power supply for all these years after Independence.”

The work to provide road and digital connectivity to every village is on a fast track. “We are providing gas connection as well as toilets to every household”.

He referred to his resolve for “Ek Bharat, Shrestha Bharat (One India, Superior India)” and called maintaining the country’s unity a “responsibility he [Patel] had passed on to us”. “It is our responsibility to answer, with full force, all the efforts made to divide the country”.

Modi said the statue reflects India’s engineering and technical capabilities. “The structure is a reminder to those questioning India’s existence…. This nation was, is and will remain eternal.”

He said he thought of building the statue when he was the Gujarat chief minister as he wanted the person, who contributed immensely to make the country one, to get the respect he deserved. Modi, who laid the statue’s foundation stone in 2013, added his sentiments were same like “crores of Indians”.