Prime Minister Narendra Modi,  said that India has provided defence equipment and services to more than 75 countries. In his inaugural address at the bost-budget webinar – ‘Aatmanirbharta in Defence-Call to Action’, PM Modi said that as a result of the government’s boost to Make in India, in the last seven years more than 350 new industrial licenses issued for defence manufacturing.

“In the last few years, India has been focussing on ‘aatmanirbharta‘ in its defence sector. You can see the commitment for it in this year’s budget too… Around 70 per cent of defence allocation is kept just for domestic industry. So far, Defence Ministry issued indigenisation list of over 200 defence platforms & equipment,” PM Modi said.

Stressing that Budget 2022 is a blueprint for developing a vibrant ecosystem from research, design and development to manufacturing, PM Modi said that India’s defence manufacturing strength was high during the British era, but declined in the subsequent years

“Contracts of around Rs 54,000 crores have been signed for domestic procurement. Besides this, the procurement process related to equipment worth more than Rs 4.5 Lakh Crores is in different stages,” he said.

Elaborating upon the procedures adopted for procurement of defence equipment, PM said that self-reliance in defence manufacturing is the only solution to reducing the delay between procurement of arms and their delivery to the security forces.

“When we import arms and ammunition, the process is so long that by the time they reach our security forces many of them become outdated. Its solution lies in is ‘aatamanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan and Make in India,” PM said.