Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday pushed for the defence manufacturing in India during his address at the Atmanirbhar Bharat Defence Industry Outreach Webinar through video conference.
“For many years, India has been one of the biggest defence importers. When India got independence, it had great capability in defence manufacturing and an ecosystem of defence manufacturing established over 100 years, unfortunately, this subject couldn’t get requisite attention,” PM Modi said.
“We aim to increase defence manufacturing in India,” PM said.
“A decision has been taken to permit up to 74% FDI in the defence manufacturing through automatic route,” he added.
“Efforts being made to boost defence production, develop new technology and give a big role to private players in the defence sector,” PM said.
“We also saw labour reforms recently; reform exercise not going to stop now. Our resolve for ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ not inward-looking, but for making India capable and boosting global peace and economy,” he added.
While releasing the fourth tranche of the Rs 20 lakh crore relief package during the lockdown induced due to coronavirus pandemic in May, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced that FDI limit in defence manufacturing will be hiked to 74 per cent from 49 per cent.
The minister also said that some weapons and platforms will be banned for imports. These banned items can only be purchased from within the country, Sitharaman had said.
“The decision is taken with an aim to give a boost to government’s ‘Make in India’ in the sector of defence production,” she added.