Addressing the public at Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM) Annual General Meeting, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh iterated the government’s aim to make India a $10 trillion economy by 2030.
The leader said that Defence sector is one such sector that can contribute towards achieving the dream of $10 trillion economies. The event was organized on the theme of Make in India: Marching Towards $26 billion Defence Industry by 2025. While speaking at the event, Rajnath Singh said that the aim of the Modi government is to gradually expand the scale of the Indian economy. He said that the present size of the Indian economy is around $2.7 trillion. The goal is to take it to $5 trillion by 2024 and subsequently, to reach the final figure of $10 trillion by 2030.
The leader also said that due to several reasons, the Indian defence sector has been unable to realize its potential. Therefore India had to continue its dependence on imported arms and weapons. Now, India’s Make In India program is chartered out to transform the role of India into developing as a net exporter of defence arms. He also assured manufacturers that his government is very much committed to new suggestions and ideas.
During the SIDM Annual Session, I assured the Defence Manufactures of all possible support from the Government.
This government is open to new ideas and is committed to fully harness the energies, entrepreneurship spirit and enterprise of private sector in the defence sector.
— Rajnath Singh (मोदी का परिवार) (@rajnathsingh) September 17, 2019
Rajnath Singh said, “A country of India’s size and global prominence cannot afford to rely on imported arms to conduct its sovereign defence and foreign policy.”
The Minister emphasized the huge defence industrial base of the nation by mentioning the fact that DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) alone comprises nine giant Defence Public Sector Undertakings, 41 Ordnance Factories, and around 50 research & development labs.
The minister also spelled out the objectives of Defence Production Policy that calls for achieving a turnover of $26 billion in aerospace and defence goods and services by 2025. It has been speculated that the policy will create employment avenues for around 2-3 million people. Rajnath Singh also mentioned the steps taken by his government to increase the participation of private players in Defence sector. He said that the government had hiked the FDI capping, simplified the industrial licensing process and integrated the defence offset policy.