New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday shared his mantra for a vibrant defence industry while addressing a post budget webinar titled ‘Atmanirbharta in Defence - Call to Action’ on the announcements made in the Union Budget today. “Contract worth Rs 54 thousand crore have been signed for domestic procurement. Apart from this, procurement process for more than Rs 4.5 lakh crore worth of equipment is at various stages. Transparent, time-bound, pragmatic and fair systems of trial, testing and certification are essential to the growth of a vibrant defence industry,” he said.
He recalled that India’s defence manufacturing was quite strong even during the period of slavery and in the immediate aftermath of independence. Indian made weapons played a major role during the Second World War. “Though, in the later years, this prowess of ours went into decline, still it shows that there has been no dearth of capabilities, neither then nor now,” he said, while stressing the importance of customization and uniqueness of the defence systems for having a surprise element over the adversaries.
“Uniqueness and surprise elements can only happen when the equipment is developed in your own country,” he said. This year's budget, the Prime Minister mentioned, has a blueprint for developing a vibrant ecosystem from research, design and development to manufacturing within the country. About 70 percent of the defence budget has been kept for domestic industry only, he added.
The Prime Minister lamented the long-drawn process of weapon procurement which often results in a scenario where weapons can get outdated by the time they are commissioned. “Solution for this is in ‘Aatmnirbhar Bharat’ and ‘Make in India’”, he emphasized. The Prime Minister lauded the armed forces for taking decisions while keeping the importance of Atmanirbharta in mind. The Prime Minister stressed the need to keep the pride and feelings of the Jawans in the matters of weapons and equipment. This is possible only when we are Aatmnirbhar in these areas, he said.
As a result of the government's encouragement to ‘Make in India,’ the Prime Minister emphasized, more than 350 new industrial licenses have been issued for defence manufacturing in the last seven years, whereas in the fourteen years from 2001 to 2014, only 200 licenses were issued. The Prime Minister also said that the private sector should also come on par with DRDO and defence PSUs, hence 25 per cent of defence R&D budget has been kept for Industry, Start-ups and Academia. /BI/
