Adm. Dhowan: Navy future depends on self-reliance

The appointment of Naval chief Admiral R.K. Dhowan was announced 50 days after Admiral D.K. Joshi resigned as naval chief, owning moral responsibility for the spate of accidents and incidents involving naval submarines and warships that had rocked the Indian Navy from August, 2013, to February, 2014.
Adm. Dhowan, 59, now has over two years in service as naval chief and will retire on May 31, 2016. He has taken over as the 22nd CNS in Independent India. He was earlier vice-chief and had been functioning as officiating chief for the past 50 days after the resignation of Adm. D.K. Joshi on February 26.
Adm. R.K. Dhowan said on Thursday: “Being a professional Navy, we have to ensure these incidents do not happen in future. And the way to do that is to follow standard operating procedures that are laid down and we don’t take any shortcuts that lead to these accidents.”
The Navy Chief said that the future of the Indian Navy is based on self-reliance and indigenisation and added that 45 warships and submarines are under construction in the country. He said: “Till the time we don’t work together as a team and carry out our daily tasks and face challenges, we would not be able to become a top-class Navy. That is why our priority would be that we will work as a team, whether it is a sailor or the commands, take forward the Navy and face the challenges in the maritime domain,”.