On Friday, Admiral R Hari Kumar, the Chief of the Naval Staff, announced a historic milestone as the Navy appointed its first woman commanding officer for a naval ship. Speaking at a press conference ahead of Navy Day, Admiral Kumar highlighted the significant impact of the Agnipath scheme, emphasizing its transformative role.

Admiral Kumar shared the noteworthy progress, stating, “Our first batch of Agniveers graduated from the premier-winning establishment, INS Chilka, in March this year. Importantly, this batch includes 272 female Agniveer trainees. Going further, the second batch of Agniveers featured a total of 454 women. With the induction of the third batch, we have now surpassed 1,000 women affiliates in the Navy.” He underlined that these statistics reflect the Navy’s commitment to involving women in all roles and ranks, whether officers or personnel below the officer rank.

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In a groundbreaking move, the Navy appointed its first woman commanding officer for an Indian naval ship. Admiral Kumar emphasized the Navy’s dedication to challenging the status quo to ensure a dynamic and aspirational trajectory for the future.

Reflecting on the accomplishments of the year, Admiral Kumar noted that 2023 has been remarkable for the nation across various sectors. He highlighted the outstanding performance of the Navy, where ships, submarines, and aircraft maintained a high operational tempo, undertaking missions encompassing military, diplomatic, and constabulary roles.

Admiral Kumar emphasized the persistent presence of Indian units across the Indo-Pacific region, conducting extensive deployments to protect and promote national interests. He credited the large number of exercises at sea and mission deployments for maintaining the Indian Navy as a combat-ready, credible, cohesive, and future-proof force.

The Navy chief provided insights into operational readiness exercises, involving over 151 units covering an area of over 21 million square nautical miles. He highlighted successful twin carrier operations with both of the Indian Navy’s aircraft carriers, Vikrant and Vikramaditya.

Among the operational achievements, Admiral Kumar celebrated the maiden take-off of LCA Navy and the MiG29K onboard Vikrant in February. This accomplishment reaffirms the Indian Navy’s commitment to fostering ‘Aatma Nirbharta’ (self-reliance) in the defence sector.

In terms of self-reliance and technology development, the Indian Navy has established a path of budget optimization, with the capital budget surpassing the Rs 50,000 core mark, reflecting a 26% increase in the revenue budget.