India bans import of 101 Defence items, gives big push for ‘Make in India’

The Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh on August 9 announced that the Defence Ministry has decided to ban the import of 101 defence items ‘beyond the given timeline’ in order to boost the indigenous production as per PM Modi’s vision of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’.

As per the Defence Minister, with this move, the domestic industry will receive contracts worth Rs. 4 lakh crores within the next six to seven years as the embargo will be implemented in phases between 2020 and 2024.

The decision by the government will offer an opportunity to the domestic defence industry to manufacture the items by using their own designs and development capabilities or even adopting the technologies designed and developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to meet the requirements.

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

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. #AtmanirbharBharat

— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) August 9, 2020

Banned defence items on the list: Key Highlights

•   Almost 260 schemes of such items have been contracted by the tri-services at an approximate cost of Rs. 3.5 lakh crores between April 2015 and August 2020.

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.

— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) August 9, 2020

•   Items worth almost Rs. 1,30,000 crores have been anticipated for the Indian Army and Air Force and items worth Rs. 1,40,000 crores have been anticipated by the Navy over the same period.

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. #AtmanirbharBharat

— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) August 9, 2020

•   The list includes high technology weapon systems such as assault rifles, artillery guns, sonar systems, corvettes, light combat helicopters, transport aircraft, radars, and many other items.

•   As per the Defence Ministry, the list also includes wheeled Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFVs) with an embargo date of December 2021, of which the Indian Army is expected to contract almost 200 AFVs at an approximate cost of over Rs. 5,000 crores.

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. #AtmanirbharBharat

— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) August 9, 2020

•   The Indian Navy is also likely to place demands for submarines with an indicative embargo date of December 2021, of which it expects of contracting about six, the approximate cost of which will be almost Rs. 42,000 crores.

•   For the Indian Air Force, it has been decided to enlist the LCA MK 1A with an indicative embargo date of December 2020. Of these, 123 have been anticipated at an approximate cost of over Rs. 85,000 crores.

Preparing for indigenous production of Defence Items:

As per the Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh the list of the banned items has been prepared by the Defence Ministry after the consultations with all the stakeholders including Public and Private industry, in order to assess the current and future capabilities of the Indian Industry for manufacturing various ammunition and equipment in India.

As the embargo on the import has been planned to be implemented between 2020 to 2024, the Defence Ministry’s aim is to apprise the Indian Defence Industry about the requirements of Armed Forces so that they are also better prepared to realize the goal of indigenization.

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 Rs 52,000 crore for domestic capital procurement in the current financial year.

— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) August 9, 2020

Ministry of Defence has also bifurcated the capital procurement budget for 2020-2021 between foreign and domestic capital procurement routes.

A separate budget head has been created which has an outlay of nearly Rs. 52,000 crores for domestic capital procurement for the current financial year.