Wednesday, August 31 2005 16:28 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: Cost reduction was imperative for Indian Defence production establishments to become world-class players, Dhanendra Kumar, Secretary, Defence Production, Government of India, said today (August 31, 2005).

Lauding the Defence production units for the good results achieved in the recent years in the area of cost reduction, Kumar pointed out that there was still scope for cost reduction through cycle time reduction, logistics, engaging specialists instead of long-in-house learning cycles, reduction of energy usage and simplification of manufacturing processes systems, procedures and designs.

Defence PSUs' infrastructure requires a sharper focus as they have 25 per cent market cap of the entire PSU in the country, Kumar said while inaugurating the workshop on cost reduction organised by the Society of Defence Technologists (SODET) here.

Stating that last year the total turnover of Defence PSUs in the country was more than 17,000 crore, Kumar said that it was imperative for Defence PSUs to keep abreast of the rapid technological developments taking place around the world.

"Our armed forces are entitled to the best in the world and Defence PSUs should cater to their needs with quality and cost consciousness in the globally competitive era", he said. Defence PSUs should aim at exporting integrated Defence solutions and should have a system of sharing each other's existing infrastructure.

He said it was heartening to know that BEL and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) were among the top five best performing large PSUs while Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), GSL and Garden Research Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) were among the five best performing PSUs.