New Delhi: Giving a fillip to India’s Atma Nirbhar Bharat initiative, the defence ministry will stop the import of 101 items "beyond given timeline" to boost indigenous production.
This would mean that the domestic industry will receive contracts worth almost Rs 4 lakh crore within the next six to seven years. The embargo will be implemented in phases between 2020 and 2024, the minister said.
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, the minister said.
Of these, items worth almost Rs 1.3 lakh crore each are anticipated for the army and the Air Force while items worth almost Rs 1.4 lakh crore are anticipated by the Navy over the same period.
The list has been prepared by the defence ministry after consultations with all stakeholders, including the Armed Forces, public and private industry.
"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 and developed by the DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) to meet the requirements of the Armed Forces," the minister said.
All steps will be taken to ensure that timelines for production are met. This would involve a coordinated mechanism for "hand-holding of the industry by the Defence Services", the minister said.
The ministry will identify more such equipment for import embargo.
