India to ban import of 101 defence equipment, announces Defence Minister

New Delhi: – Import of 101 items in the defence equipment list from rifles to artillery guns will be banned. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh announced that a decision has been taken to manufacture these items indigenously and become ‘Atmanirbhar’ (Self Reliant).

Atmanirbhar campaign has been started even in the defence sector. Accordingly, the defence ministry has prepared a list of items. The list includes weapons and other defence equipment. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh made an announcement, regarding this, on Sunday in the morning. India is the biggest importer of defence equipment. Therefore, this ban is considered to be a historic decision. The defence ministry has said that the final decision will be taken only after discussions with all the parties involved.

Since the last five years, large-scale efforts are being made in the defence sector under the ‘Make in India’ campaign. India has even started exporting defence equipment. But now, this will be made more comprehensive, and priority will be for manufacture and purchase of indigenous defence equipment.

Thus every year, in May, the FDI limit in the defence sector was raised from 49% to 74%. But a government clearance was necessary for FDI above 49%. It has been reported that moves are being made for relaxing these rules to attract maximum investors. This makes it clear that the government intends to attract maximum investment into this sector and promote indigenous manufacture.

Against this background, the defence ministry has banned the import of 101 items in the defence equipment list. Contracts worth ₹3.5 trillion were awarded for the items in this list between 2015 to 2020. But following this decision, equipment worth nearly ₹4 trillion will be purchased from the domestic market in the next five to seven years.