On August 9th, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh announced a ban on import of 101 arms and military equipment by 2024, in an important initiative to boost the domestic defense industry.

The list includes defense materials and vehicles like light combat helicopters, cargo aircraft, conventional submarines and cruise missiles and others.
Singh announced this on Twitter and estimated that with this decision, the domestic defense industry will get contracts worth about four lakh crore rupees in the next five to seven years.
He said that the Ministry of Defense is now ready to take major steps to speed up domestic defense manufacturing, furthering Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for ‘Self-reliant India’.

According to officials, the list of 101 items also includes Towed artillery gun systems (ATAGS), short-range surface-to-air missiles, cruise missiles, offshore patrol ships, electronic warfare systems, next-generation missile ships, floating docks, anti-submarine rocket launchers and Short-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft.

The list in addition includes basic training aircraft, light rocket launchers, multi-barrel rocket launchers, missile destroyers, sonar systems for ships, rockets, air-to-air missiles with BVR feature-beyond the range of visibility.

Singh’s announcement comes a week after the Defense Ministry drafted the Defense Procurement Policy.

In the draft, the Ministry of Defense has an estimated projected turnover of Rs 1.75 lakh crore in defense manufacturing by 2025.

India is one of the most attractive markets for the top global defense companies.

Singh said, “This is a major step towards self-reliance in the defense sector. It will allow the Indian defense industry to make the items included in this list using their own design and development capabilities or by adopting technologies developed and designed by DRDO.”

The Defense Minister also said that as another important step, the Ministry of Defense has divided the capital purchase budget of 2020-21 into domestic and foreign capital purchases.

He said that these measures will also include a coordinated mechanism to uplift the industry through defense services.

He further added that there is a plan to implement this ban on imports progressively between 2020 and 2024. The purpose behind the announcement of the list is to make the Indian defense industry aware of the anticipated requirements of the armed forces so that they can target indigenization. The defense minister said that the ministry has prepared the list after several rounds of talks with all the concerned parties including the three services, the Defense Research and Development Organization, defense sector PSUs, Ordnance Factory Board and private industries.

Singh said the list includes armored combat vehicles, for which the indicative date of implementation is December 2021. It is estimated that 200 such vehicles will be provided to the Army at an estimated cost of five thousand crore rupees. Similarly, there are estimates of purchase of submarines by the Navy with a symbolic execution date of December 2021.

The Air Force is expected to award contracts for 123 such aircrafts at an estimated cost of more than Rs 85 thousand crores.

In concluding remarks, the Defense Minister said that on the basis of consultation with the concerned parties, a list of such goods will be made, which needs to be banned.