India Puts Ban on Import of 101 Defence Items to Boost ‘Self-Reliance’: Rajnath Singh

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that India is now ready for the big push to the atma nirbhar or self-dependent initiative announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Earlier his office tweeted that he will make an important announcement at 10 am today. “Raksha Mantri Shri @rajnathsingh will make an important announcement at 10.00 am today,” RMO India tweeted. This comes a day after senior military commanders from India and China held talks on reducing tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.

Raksha Mantri Shri @rajnathsingh will make an important announcement at 10.00 am today. — रक्षा मंत्री कार्यालय/ RMO India (@DefenceMinIndia) August 9, 2020

MoD has also bifurcated the capital procurement budget for 2020-21 between domestic and foreign capital procurement routes. A separate budget head has been created with an outlay of nearly ₹52,000 crore for domestic capital procurement in the current financial year.

More such equipment for import embargo would be identified progressively by the DMA in consultation with all stakeholders. A due note of this will also be made in the DAP to ensure that no item in the negative list is processed for import in the future.

All necessary steps would be taken to ensure that timelines for production of equipment as per the Negative Import List are met, which will include a co-ordinated mechanism for hand holding of the industry by the Defence Services.

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 ₹5,000 crore.

Of these, items worth almost ₹1,30,000 crore each are anticipated for the Army and the Air Force while items worth almost ₹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 ₹3.5 lakh crore between April 2015 and August 2020. It is estimated that contracts worth almost ₹4 lakh crore will be placed upon the domestic industry within the next 6 to 7 years.

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.

The list of 101 embargoed items comprises of not just simple parts but also some high tech weapon systems like artillery guns, assault rifles, corvettes, sonar systems, transport aircraft, LCHs, radars & many other items to fulfil needs of our Defence Services.

Embargo on imports is planned to be progressively implemented between 2020 to 2024. Our aim is to apprise the Indian defence industry about the anticipated requirements of the Armed Forces so that they are better prepared to realise the goal of indigenisation: Defence Minister

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a clarion call for a self-reliant India based on the 5 pillars Economy, Infrastructure, System, Demography & Demand and announced a special economic package for Self-Reliant India named ‘Atamnirbhar Bharat’.

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.

Ministry of Defence (MoD) is now ready for a big push to Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative. MoD will introduce import embargo on 101 items beyond given timeline to boost indigenisation of defence production.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to address the media shortly

Senior army commanders of India and China on Saturday held extensive talks in taking forward the disengagement process along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) at a number of friction points including in Pangong Tso and Depsang in eastern Ladakh, people familiar with the developments said.

The Major General-level talks began at 11 AM at a border personnel meeting point in Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) area on the Chinese side of the LAC and concluded at 7:30 PM, they said.

The meeting primarily focused on implementation of certain decisions taken at the fifth round of talks between Corps Commanders of the two armies last week on the disengagement process as well as to bring down prevailing tension in the region, they said.

The Indian army has already made elaborate plans to maintain current strength of troops and weapons along the LAC during the harsh winter months in eastern Ladakh and all other sensitive areas along the LAC.

It is also in the process of procuring a number of weapons, ammunition and winter gears for the frontline troops.

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Source: LiveMint

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