New Delhi: With an aim to boost Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mission of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan,’ Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Sunday that the government has declared an embargo on the import of 101 defence items “beyond the timeline indicated against them.” Now they will be produced locally.
The list of 101 items will further be put on a ‘negative list’, said Singh and added that “contracts worth almost Rs 4 lakh crore will be placed upon the domestic industry within the next 6 to 7 years.”
Indian Defence Industry has got a great opportunity in this move and “by using their own design and development capabilities or adopting the technologies designed and developed by DRDO to meet the requirements of the Armed Forces,” they can manufacture these items, said the Defence Minister.
High technology weapon systems like “artillery guns, assault rifles, corvettes, sonar systems, transport aircrafts, light combat helicopters, radars and many other items”, have been included in the list, said the Centre in a statement.
“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,” said Singh.
