On August 9, 2020, the Department of Military Affairs (DMA), Ministry of Defence (MoD) decided to restrict import of 101 weapons and military platforms, the embargo on which is planned to be progressively implemented between 2020 and 2024, in order to boost indigenous defence manufacturing on the lines of “Atmanirbhar Bharat”. The announcement for the same was made by Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
- In this regard, the Defence Industry will receive contracts worth almost Rs 4 lakh crore within the next five to seven years. 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.
- The focus behind this decision is to adopt the technologies designed and developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to meet the requirements of the Armed Forces in the coming years.
- The list was prepared by MoD after several rounds of consultations with all stakeholders, including the three services, DRDO, defence public sector undertakings (PSUs), ordnance factory board and private industries.
Key Points:
-Import restrictions on 69 items will come into force from December 2020, while the embargo on another 11 items will be applicable from December 2021. A separate list of four items has been identified for import restrictions from December 2022, while the ban on two separate sets of eight items will be applicable from December 2023 and December 2024.
-Apart from this, defence ministry has 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 FY20-21.
Important Points to be noted:
-MoD has set a goal of a turnover of USD 25 billion (Rs 1.75 lakh crore) in defence manufacturing in the next 5 years that included an export target of USD 5 billion (Rs 35,000 crore) worth of military hardware.
-Notably, India is 2nd among the top three importers of military hardware in the world for 2015-19, first being Saudi Arabia and 3rd Egypt, as per Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s (SIPRI) annual report on “Trends in international arms transfers 2019” in March 2020.
– Indian armed forces are projected to spend around $130 billion in capital procurement in the next five years.
What does the list of 101 items include?
The list of 101 items include light combat helicopters, transport aircraft, conventional submarines, artillery guns, short-range surface to air missiles, cruise missiles, offshore patrol vessels, electronic warfare systems, next-generation missile vessels, floating dock, anti-submarine rocket launchers and short-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft, basic trainer aircraft, lightweight rocket launchers, multi-barrel rocket launchers, missile destroyers, sonar systems, etc.
- The list also include, 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.Click Here for Full List
Recent Related News:
On May 20, 2020 The Department of Defence Production(DDP), Ministry of Defence in order to further encourage procurement from local suppliers to boost ‘Make in India’, has approved 26 defence items out of 127 already notified under clause 3(a) of the Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order 2017.
About Ministry of Defence (MoD):
Rajnath Singh constituency– Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh (UP)
Minister of State (MoS)– Shripad Yesso Naik
