India, Sept. 19 -- Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Friday said delays in executing critical military projects can create capability gaps, drive costs up and increase the risk of technological obsolescence, urging domestic defence firms, including Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), to set firm timelines to meet the requirements of the armed forces.

"There are certain issues we need to work on, including delays. Many of our technical projects face delays due to technical reasons. We must take these delays seriously," Singh said. He made the remarks at a function where HAL handed over two light combat aircraft (LCA Mk-1) trainers and the first batch of three HTT-40 basic trainer aircraft to the Indian Air Force, along with four Dhruv NG...