Bhamre: Government aims to halve defence budget in 10 years
HYDERABAD: Stating that nearly $14 billion worth of defence offset obligations will be discharged in India by foreign original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) by 2028, Union minister of state for defence Subhash R Bhamre has indicated that the government proposes to reduce the defence budget by 50 percent within a decade.
“The defence industry has the potential to become a huge foreign exchange earner and also lead the country to its professed goal of self-reliance,” he said delivering the inaugural address at ‘Leveraging defence expenditure as a tool for nation building’ seminar organised by College of Defence Management here on Thursday.
Subhash noted that India has the third largest armed forces in the world and spends approximately 40 percent of its total defence budget on capital acquisitions, and about 60 percent of defence requirements are met from imports.
“The present government is laying emphasis on indigenous manufacturing to reduce the defence budget by 50 percent within a decade,” he said.
Thanks to the Centre’s ‘Make in India’ campaign, the defence sector has moved from the periphery to the core of Indian manufacturing, he claimed.
Bhamre visited Bharat Dynamics Limited and inaugurated a state-of-the-art explosive storage facility, which is a compact layout of storage magazine without compromising on safety aspects.