India bans 101 defence items' imports in bid for self-reliance: Rajnath Singh

"Taking cue from that evocation, the Ministry of Defence has prepared a list of 101 items for which there would be an embargo on the import beyond the timeline indicated against them. This is a big step towards self-reliance in defence," Singh announced.

The list includes high technology weapon systems like "artillery guns, assault rifles, corvettes, sonar systems, transport aircrafts, light combat helicopters, radars and many other items," the Centre said in a statement.

Singh said the 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 DRDO to meet the requirements of the Armed Forces.

He informed that the list has been prepared by MoD after several rounds of consultations with all stakeholders, including the Armed Forces, public & private industry to assess current and future capabilities of the  Indian industry for manufacturing various ammunition and equipment within India.

Eventually, the domestic industry will receive contracts worth almost Rs. 4 lakh crore within the next six to seven years.

"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. It is estimated that contracts worth almost Rs 4 lakh crore will be placed upon the domestic industry within the next 6 to 7 years," the Defence Minister said.

Of these, items worth almost Rs 1,30,000 crore each are anticipated for the Army and the Air Force while items worth almost Rs 1,40,000 crore are anticipated by the Navy over the same period.

"The list also includes, wheeled Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFVs) with indicative import embargo date of December 2021, of which the Army is expected to contract almost 200 at an approximate cost of over Rs 5,000 crore, Singh said.

The embargo on imports is planned to be progressively implemented between 2020 to 2024.

"Our aim is to apprise the Indian defence industry about the anticipated requirements of the Armed Forces so that they are better prepared to realise the goal of indigenisation," said Singh.

The embargo on imports is planned to be progressively implemented between 2020 to 2024. Our aim is to apprise the Indian defence industry about the anticipated requirements of the Armed Forces so that they are better prepared to realise the goal of indigenisation.

— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) August 9, 2020

"All necessary steps would be taken to ensure  that  timelines  for production of equipment as per the Negative Import List are met, which will include a co-ordinated mechanism for hand holding of the industry by the Defence Services," he added.