NEW DELHI: In a push for indigenisation, the government on Wednesday notified a ban on import of 351 sub-systems and components for the armed forces under a staggered timeline, commencing from December next year.
In the ongoing pursuit of self reliance in defence equipment manufacturing, the listed items will be indigenized in the next three years.
“This Aatmanirbhar initiative will save foreign exchange approximately equivalent of Rs 3,000 crore every year,” a defence ministry statement said.
The items banned from import include indigenous rocket launcher, diffuser, detector for thermal imaging camera, laser radiator Shakti electronic warfare system, double base propellant, laser warning sensor among others. The list also includes 2,500 items that have already been indigenised.
There were two lists issued by the ministry prior to this which mentioned 209 defence items to be procured from domestic sources. While the first list comprising 101 items was released in August last year, the second was released in May. It contained complex systems, sensors, simulators, weapons and ammunition like next generation corvettes, air borne early warning and control systems, tank engines, medium-power radar for mountains, MRSAM weapon systems among others.
Informing of India’s defence and aerospace manufacturing market, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had recently said it is worth Rs 85,000 crore of which present contribution of private sector is approximately Rs 18,000 crore. In 2022, the country’s defence and aerospace manufacturing market will increase to Rs 1 lakh crore and this could further rise to Rs 5 lakh crore by 2047.
Final version of the Defence Production and Export Promotion Policy (DPEPP) 2020 is to be released soon. Mentioning strategic independence, late Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat had said at a DRDO event in 2020 that the country would win future wars with indigenously-developed weapons.