Make transparency and fairness buzzwords: Antony to Commanders

NEW DELHI: With India on the verge of concluding mega defence deals, Defence Minister AK Antony on Wednesday told top armed forces commanders and strategic planners to speed up decision making and make transparency and fairness their new 'buzzwords'.

'A change in mindsets' is called for, Antony said adding that the country was in the process of accelerating the pace of modernization of the armed forces by inducting hi-tech weapons systems.

'Technology has compressed distances and times' the Defence Minister said at the Combined Commanders Conference reminding that 'a speedy response time' was called for.

He said significant financial powers had been devolved to services headquarters and it must be ensured that these powers are 'put to best use'.

The minister's remarks are significant in the backdrop of reports of delay in armament procurement due to slow decision making specially in the army. For the last two budgets, army has not been able to fully utilise the allocated funds for arms purchases.

Taking the floor after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressed the services top brass, Antony told the commanders that steps like institutionalization of Defence Planning process and refinement of Defence procurement procedure had added urgency in the methodology and transparency in functioning.