India announces ban on import of 101 defence equipment

New Delhi: Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday said that India is now ready for the big push to the atma nirbhar or self-dependent initiative announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“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,” Singh announced on Twitter.

“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’,” he further said in the deries of tweets.

The defence minister said that taking cue from PM Modi’s evocation, the defence ministry 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,” he said on Twitter.

“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,” said Singh.

The defence minister said that the list of 101 items has been prepared by the defence minister after several rounds of consultations with all stakeholders, including the armed forces, public and private industry.

“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,” Singh tweeted.

“The list of 101 embargoed items comprises of not just simple parts but also some high technology weapon systems like artillery guns, assault rifles, corvettes, sonar systems, transport aircrafts, LCHs, radars and many other items to fulfil the needs of our Defence Services,” his tweet further said.

Singh said that 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.”