New Delhi, Aug 9 (UNI) The Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday said that the Indian defence industry’s production was Rs 80,000 crore in 2018-19 of which Rs 16,000 crore the contribution from the private sector.Addressing CEOs of top Defence and Aerospace companies at a round table with the theme ‘Make in India in Defence Industry’ here, Mr Singh said defence companies have huge opportunities in contributing to domestic market in addition to exports.He also voiced government’s desire to encourage private industry investment in defence sector while also strengthening defence Public Sector Units (PSU) and Ordnance Factory Board (OFB).
While highlighting various measures initiated by the government to encourage defence exports, Mr Rajnath Singh urged the industry to work towards increasing exports to friendly countries. He said export procedure has been simplified and defence procurement procedure was revised in 2016 to encourage indigenous design, development and manufacture.
“Self reliance in defence sector would not be possible without development of indigenous technology and called for steps to develop related technologies within the country”,he said.
While mentioning that the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy in defence sector has been liberalized, Mr Singh further said that strategic partnership model has been notified to establish defence manufacturing infrastructure and supply chain through which Indian companies could choose a partner through a competitive and transparent process.“Ministry has set up an end-to-end offset processing portal through which proposals of value US Dollar 1.5 billion were processed. Entry barriers for Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) were also reduced and this resulted in doubling of defence licenses issued from 215 in 2014 to 440 in 2019”, Mr Singh informed the gathering.
Defence Investor Cell established a year ago in the Ministry has processed nearly 550 queries and grievances, he further said.Calling for multi-pronged approach to achieve the aim of ‘Make in India’, the Defence Minister said our nation is confidently scaling new heights based on strong political leadership strengthened by strategic economy.Minister of States for Defence Ministry Shripad Yesso Naik, senior officials of the Ministry, Defence PSUs, OFB and CEOs and representatives of top Defence manufacturing companies were present on the occasion.
