Mirage jet crash not setback for indigenisation: Sitharaman
Coimbatore, Feb 3 : Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday accused the previous UPA government of doing "nothing" during its 10-year rule to upgrade Defence Public Sector Undertakings, two days after a Mirage-2000 crashed in Bengaluru during a sortie killing both the pilots.
She also said the crash of the trainer aircraft after an upgrade under a programme being carried out by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) on Friday was "not a setback for indigenisation". "It is a fact that many things have to be improved in PSUs."
Sitharaman said this to reporters in reply to a specific question on the crash and the reported statement of Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa, who was in Bengaluru on the day of the jet crash, that while indigenisation is important, it comes with a price.
"It was not a setback. For 10 years, they (UPA dispensation) did nothing to upgrade the DPSUs, whether it was HAL or BEL," the defence minister said.
She said the previous governments could have gone for capital investments in DPSUs, upgraded machinery skilled workers to international-level results.
"If they had done these things during the 10 years, the opportunity could have been there to take the PSUs at part with world standards, but they failed," Sitharaman said.
She said the NDA government is making efforts to upgrade the PSUs and also shipyards.
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Rickelton's ton in vain as SRH beat MI by 6 wickets
Mumbai (PTI): Ryan Rickelton's whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Heinrich Klaasen's unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH.
Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.
Earlier, Rickelton's knock powered MI to 243 for five.
MI rode on a 93-run stand between Rickelton (123 not out off 55 balls) and Will Jacks (46 off 22) in 7.1 overs for the opening stand to power the side.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya scored a valuable 31 off 15 balls before being dismissed.
Praful Hinge (2/54), Eshan Malinga (1/29), Sakib Hasan (1/39) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/31) were the wicket-takers for SRH.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indian: 243 for 5 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 123 not out; Praful Hinge 2/54).
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 249 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Travis Head 76, Heinrich Klaasen 65 not out; AM Ghazanfar 2/51).
