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NEW DELHI: Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday underlined the need to ensure medium-to-long-term preparedness and a swift decision-making process to navigate the impact of the evolving crisis in West Asia.

Rajnath made the remarks while chairing the first meeting of the informal group of ministers (IGoM) set up to monitor the situation in West Asia. The meeting was attended by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju, petroleum and natural gas minister Hardeep Singh Puri, power minister Manohar Lal, chemicals & fertilizers minister J P Nadda, minister of consumer affairs, food and public distribution Prahlad Joshi, civil aviation minister K R Naidu, and science and technology minister Jitendra Singh.




As part of the meeting, presentations were made by the seven empowered groups of secretaries (EGoS), outlining key sectoral issues identified and the policy measures already put in place to manage the situation. Rajnath provided guidance to the EGoS to continue the close monitoring of the situation, adopt a medium to long-term preparedness approach, maintain high-level coordination, and ensure swift decision-making.

He stressed that all policy efforts should remain in synergy and be implemented in a time-bound manner. He also sought constructive inputs from all the ministers concerned to ensure that India remains resilient and prepared.

Later Rajnath in a post on X said, “A meeting of an IGoM constituting several senior ministers was held today to review the risks to energy supplies, domestic availability of essential commodities, critical infrastructure resilience and robustness of India’s supply chains in the wake of the ongoing conflict in West Asia. There was in-depth discussion on all the measures being taken by the govt of India.”

“There was in-depth discussion on all the measures being taken by the Govt of India. The NDA Govt under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi is closely monitoring the situation and it is committed to safeguard the Indian people from any impact of the conflict," he said. The need for assessing the impact of the situation across various industries was also discussed.

It was also directed that all ministries and departments share relevant information, developments and advisories related to the ongoing situation through the MIB WhatsApp Channel to ensure dissemination of accurate information to citizens and to effectively counter rumours, misinformation and fake news, according to the defence ministry.
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