New Delhi: In a big push towards self-reliance in Defence manufacturing, Indian Ministry of has announced introduction of import embargo on 101 items. The ministry has already prepared a list of 101 items after consultation with various stakeholders, said a twit by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
“Taking cue from that evocation, the Ministry of Defence has prepared a list of 101 items for which there would be an embargo on the import beyond the timeline indicated against them. This is a big step towards self-reliance in defence. This decision will offer a great opportunity to the Indian defence industry to manufacture the items in the negative list by using their own design and development capabilities or adopting the technologies designed & developed by DRDO to meet the requirements of the Armed Forces” the twit read.
The Ministry of Defence is now ready for a big push to #AtmanirbharBharat initiative. MoD will introduce import embargo on 101 items beyond given timeline to boost indigenisation of defence production.
— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) August 9, 2020
“The list is prepared by MoD after several rounds of consultations with all stakeholders, including the Armed Forces, public & private industry to assess current and future capabilities of the Indian industry for manufacturing various ammunition & equipment within India” it added.
India is the world’s second-largest importer of defence items with Russia being the largest exporter. However, Russia’s share has declined to 56% in 2019 from more than 70% before 2014, while USA’s share has been rising significantly in the last few years.
Almost 260 schemes of such items were contracted by the Tri-Services at an approximate cost of Rs 3.5 lakh crore between April 2015 and August 2020. It is estimated that contracts worth almost Rs 4 lakh crore will be placed upon the domestic industry within the next 6 to 7 years. Of these, items worth almost Rs 1,30,000 crore each are anticipated for the Army and the Air Force while items worth almost Rs 1,40,000 crore are anticipated by the Navy over the same period.
Almost 260 schemes of such items were contracted by the Tri-Services at an approximate cost of Rs 3.5 lakh crore between April 2015 and August 2020. It is estimated that contracts worth almost Rs 4 lakh crore will be placed upon the domestic industry within the next 6 to 7 years. Of these, items worth almost Rs 1,30,000 crore each are anticipated for the Army and the Air Force while items worth almost Rs 1,40,000 crore are anticipated by the Navy over the same period.
The list also includes, wheeled Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFVs) with indicative import embargo date of December 2021, of which the Army is expected to contract almost 200 at an approximate cost of over Rs 5,000 crore.