Rapid Progress Being Made Towards ‘Aatmanirbharta’ In Defence Production: Union Minister

India's defence industry can now produce a wide range of high-end products such as tanks, armoured vehicles, fighter aircraft, warships, submarines, missiles, electronic equipment, special alloys and a variety of ammunition, according to Ajay Bhatt, Minister of State for Defence.

According to the Ministry of Defence, rapid progress has been made toward achieving complete ‘Aatmanirbharta’ (self-reliance) in the production of defence equipment for the country’s armed forces.

As a result of these initiatives, many state-of-the-art products, including the 155 mm artillery gun system – Dhanush, the light combat aircraft – Tejas, the surface-to-air missile system – Akash, the main battle tank – Arjun, the armoured personnel carrier – BMP-II and IIK, Sukhoi-30 MK1, Cheetah helicopter, INS Khanderi, anti-submarine warfare corvette (ASWC), etc. have been produced in the country during the last few years.

The government has taken several policy initiatives and implemented reforms to encourage indigenous design, development, and manufacturing of defence equipment, promoting self-reliance in defence manufacturing and technology in the country, according to the minister.

In April 2018, the Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) ecosystem was launched to foster innovation and technology development in the defence and aerospace sectors by engaging industries such as MSMEs, startups, individual innovators, R&D institutes and academia.

“iDEX provides them with grants and other assistance to carry out innovations that have the potential to be adopted for India's defence and aerospace needs in the future. 233 problems have been opened through iDEX, 310 startups have been engaged and 140 contracts have been signed. In 2022, iDEX launched the ‘iDEX Prime’ framework to support startups with a grant-in-aid of up to Rs 10 crore to enable the development of high-end solutions,” Bhatt stated.

He said that 595 industrial licences were issued to 366 companies operating in the defence sector until October 2022.

According to him, the government has also established two defence industrial corridors, one in Uttar Pradesh and one in Tamil Nadu, to attract investments in the aerospace and defence sectors.

Domestic procurement accounted for 54 per cent of total procurement in 2018-19, increasing to 59 per cent in 2019-20 and 64 per cent in 2020-21. This year, it has been increased to 68 per cent, with 25 per cent of the budget earmarked for procurement from private industry, said the minister.