Team News Riveting
In a big leap forward to translate Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s clarion call of Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) into action, defence ministry Sunday announced to suspend the import of 101 items.
The “embargo items” are not confine to parts but include high technology weapon systems like artillery guns, assault rifles, corvettes, sonar systems, and transport aircraft, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Twitter.
The list of items was prepared after consultations with the armed forces, state-owned and private companies to “assess current and future capabilities of the Indian industry for manufacturing various ammunition & equipment within India”, he said.
Almost 260 schemes of such items were contracted by the three military wings at an approximate cost of Rs 3.5 trillion between April 2015 and August 2020, he said. It is estimated that contracts worth almost Rs 4 trillion will be placed upon the domestic industry within the next 6 to 7 years.
Embargo on imports will be progressively implemented between 2020 to 2024.
The Ministry of Defence 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.
India’s major equipment imports include rockets, simulator and component repair facility for tanks from Russia; laser designation pods, radars, aircraft pods, radios, weapons for ‘Garud’ commandos and missiles from Israel; aircraft, helicopters, missiles, artillery guns and simulators from the US, and aircraft, ammunition, bimodular charge system and high zone modules of artillery guns from France.
