Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted the need for achieving self-sufficiency in defence production in his clarion call on ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ speaking at Atmanirbhar Bharat Defence Industry Outreach Webinar.
Defence sector has already been identified as one of the core areas to boost ‘Make in India’ where immediate transformation is required. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also spelt out his vision of achieving Rs. 35,000 crore defence related exports target to become net exporter of defence equipment in the next five years.
Towards this end, a draft Production and Export Promotion policy has been formulated and it was placed in the public domain seeking suggestions from various stakeholders.
The policy aims at providing greater visibility of armed forces requirements to the defence manufacturing industry. The policy proposes establishment of an aero-engines complex with focus on Maintenance Repair Overhaul (MRO) as well as critical technologies. Under this policy export target has been set as 25 percent of the revenue. By 2025, this policy aims at achieving Rs 1.75 lakh crore in annual turnover.
To promote Atmanirbhar Bharat in the defence manufacturing, a separate budget of Rs. 52,000 crore has been set aside for procurement from domestic vendors.
Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh said, “After a certain period of time these items will not be procured from outside. This list is the beginning of a process that has the potential to transform the defence industry. This list of 101 items includes not only minor parts but also warfare systems, integrated platforms, combat vehicles. This list is just a beginning, so that in the coming time, defence equipment worth Rs. 1.40 lakh crore will be purchased domestically.”
Raksha Mantri said that the government has made several bold policy reforms to promote self-reliance in the defence sector. These include increasing the limit to 74 percent for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) through automatic route in the defence sector and setting up of defence corridors in UP and Tamil Nadu in addition to Strategic Partnership (SP) Model to promote investments, liberalisation of industrial license regime and Defence Investor Cell to address the problems of investors.
Atmanirbhar Bharat Defence Industry Outreach Webinar was jointly organised by Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Department of Defence Production (DDP), Ministry of Defence (MoD).
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