Nagaland: Indian Navy Hornbill on Mission in 2022 Naval Chief’s Grace Day-7

Indian Navy Hornbill On Mission 2022

KOHIMA: The Indian Navy is on a mission at the 23rd edition of the Hornbill Festival held at the Naga Heritage Village, Kisama. On Wednesday, the seventh day of the 10-day celebration, Navy Chief Admiral R. Harikumar, who attended the afternoon cultural session as chief guest, said that the festival aims to create maritime awareness.

Addressing a press conference outside the Indian Navy’s stall near the main arena, Kumar said, “The Hornbill Festival is popular and globally renowned. We are very proud that such a festival has gained recognition across the world. So, what better opportunity than to come here and be a part of this festival to celebrate it and use it as an opportunity to convey to the people of Nagaland and the Northeast what the Navy does.

As part of the Indian Navy’s outreach program at the fair, a stall has been set up by the Indian Navy to create awareness about opportunities with the Navy and its contribution to national security.

He said the outreach program is aimed at creating better awareness about the “silent services” of the Navy in the state and region as this part of the country is under-represented. He said that at present there are only about 200 personnel in the Pakistan Navy, and hoped to increase this number.

“We are very keen to increase the number of personnel in the Navy from Nagaland,” he said. Visitors to the Navy stalls experienced film screenings that featured the Indian Navy, a ship (INS Kolkata) KVR and an aircraft carrier (INS Vikramaditya).

The Naval Chief said that the response to the Navy stall has been very positive and more than 6,000 visitors have visited the Indian Navy stall. He hoped that this large number would lead to more recruitment in the Navy.

He also explained the opportunities in Indian Navy, Agnipath scheme, and types of recruitment along with eligibility criteria.

Further, the Navy chief said that for the first time around 3,000 Agnewers have been recruited out of which 341 are women.

He also said that the Indian Navy is working towards ensuring that all key technologies are developed in India over the next 25 years for which it is in talks with start-ups and MSMEs.

In this regard, he said that the Navy is working on ways to sign MoUs with startups in Nagaland that can help build technology for defense purposes.

The awareness campaign has started with the Hornbill Festival and Kumar hopes that the campaign will continue beyond the festival.

The Naval Band with a total of 17 musician sailors is also performing at the Hornbill Festival from December 5 to 7 and has been a hit with the audience. Meanwhile, Kumar also informed that the outreach program will continue during the next Hornbill Festival.

As part of the outreach programme, motivational lectures on ‘Career in Indian Navy’ were organized for school children in Dimapur and Kohima in association with the State Education Department.

The Indian Navy also organized a multi-specialty medical and welfare camp in Newland district, about 35 km from Dimapur, two days before the fair.

In the multi-specialty camp, medical specialists, pediatricians, paediatricians, ENT specialists, ophthalmologists, radiologists, community medicine and dental specialists offered consultations. Medicines prescribed by experts were distributed to patients free of charge. 698 beneficiaries were enrolled.

A motorcycle expedition involving 31 naval personnel, including 2 women officers, covering a distance of 3500 km in 21 days in two stages was also started.

Indian Navy’s motorcycle team, ‘The Sea Riders’, in partnership with Royal Enfield, embarked on a bike ride commemorating the 75th year of Independence across seven states as part of the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav Celebration’. . Northeast India from 25 November to 14 December.

The bike rally will cover a distance of 3500 km over a period of 24 days in two phases. The first leg of the bike rally passed through the states of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland and ended at Kisana and was flagged off by Chief of Naval Staff Admiral R. Harikumar.