Ministry of Defence Bans 100+ Military Imports, Domestic Industrial Complex to Get a Boost

India will promote local manufacturing and will put a stop to imports of more than 100 items used by the armed forces. This was reported by the defense minister of India, Rajnath Singh. Among these embargoed items remains not just simple parts, but also some high technology weapon systems.

The statement from the Defense Ministry of India said that the production of these materials will start gradually. Products like the sniper rifles and high combat helicopters will start in December of this year. They are also targeting to start the production of land-attack cruise missiles in December 2025.

Between April 2015 and August 2020, similar items were imported by the government to aid the defense of the country for 3.5 trillion rupees ($47 billion) as reported by Bloomberg. It is estimated that contracts worth Rs. 4 trillion rupees will be handed out to Indian manufacturers within the next seven years as said by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh by twitter. (contd.)

Tweets by Rajnath Singh:

1

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

2

Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi has given a clarion call for a self-reliant India based on the five pillars, i.e., Economy, Infrastructure, System, Demography & Demand and announced a special economic package for Self-Reliant India named ‘Atamnirbhar Bharat’.

— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) August 9, 2020

3

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

4

This decision will offer a great opportunity to the Indian defence industry to manufacture the items in the negative list by using their own design and development capabilities or adopting the technologies designed & developed by DRDO to meet the requirements of the Armed Forces.

— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) August 9, 2020

5

The list is prepared by MoD after several rounds of consultations with all stakeholders, including the Armed Forces, public & private industry to assess current and future capabilities of the Indian industry for manufacturing various ammunition & equipment within India.

— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) August 9, 2020

6

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

7

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

8

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

9

The embargo on imports is planned to be progressively implemented between 2020 to 2024. Our aim is to apprise the Indian defence industry about the anticipated requirements of the Armed Forces so that they are better prepared to realise the goal of indigenisation.

— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) August 9, 2020

10

All necessary steps would be taken to ensure that timelines for production of equipment as per the Negative Import List are met, which will include a co-ordinated mechanism for hand holding of the industry by the Defence Services.

— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) August 9, 2020

11

More such equipment for import embargo would be identified progressively by the DMA in consultation with all stakeholders. A due note of this will also be made in the DAP to ensure that no item in the negative list is processed for import in the future.

— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) August 9, 2020

12

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

(CONTD.):

This is a step taken by the Prime Minister of India to save the Indian economy after the decline during the coronavirus pandemic. During the face of a pandemic, the raw faced supply disruption from China, which posed several problems for the Indian defense. The pandemic also exposed the severe condition of the country’s economy. Moreover, the lockdown across the nation caused not only thousands but millions of job losses. This will boost the economy to a certain extent as it can be foreseen and most importantly, it will reduce the country’s reliance on imports.

Laxman Kumar Behera, a senior fellow at the New Delhi-based Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, said that many objects of the list that have been produced are in the research and development stage. Some of those items are communication satellites, conventional submarines, and light machine guns as reported by Bloomberg.

Bloomberg also reported the comments of Laxman Kumar Behra as he said, “Importantly while assuring Indian industry, the government has kept the door open for foreign collaboration for technology transfer. The move to stop imports is user-driven, therefore there will be accountability.”

Just a week after draft defense procurement policy of the defense ministry projected turnover of Rs 1.75 lakh crore in defense manufacturing by 2025, the announcement was made.

The minister himself added by saying, “This is a big step towards self-reliance in defense. It also offers a great opportunity to the Indian defense industry to rise to the occasion to manufacture the items in the negative list by using their design and development capabilities or adopting the technologies designed and developed by the DRDO”.

According to the minister, they created the list after several meetings and consultations with stakeholders, including the three services, the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), defense public sector undertakings, ordnance factory board, and private industries.

The Ministry of Defense will enforce the embargo on 69 items from December 2020 and on another 11 items on December 2021. A ban on the import of long-range land-attack cruise missiles will start from December 2020. The minister added more such items will be highlighted to be banned after consulting the stakeholders. He added that a note will be added in defense acquisition procedure (DAP) so that no items in the list are up for import in the future as reported by BloombergQuint.

India is among the top five countries that spend most on defense. It joined this feat with the US and China three years back as the geopolitical tension around the border increased substantially during the last few years. With this it is projected that along with decreasing the reliance on other countries and increasing jobs, it will also decrease the cost. With tensions again rising in the Line of Actual Control as Chinese militants are being found to be accumulating their forces in the other side of the border, this move shows a lot of intent to grow the country’s economic and defense structure from the Ministry of Defense and will aid to the Prime Minister’s call for Atmanirbhar Bharat.