PM Modi Holds a Meeting to Discuss Ways to Boost Defence and Aerospace Sector

PM Narendra Modi held a detailed meeting on 30 April 2020 to deliberate the potential reforms to ensure a robust and self-reliant defence industry in India that caters to short and long term needs of the armed forces and initiatives to give a boost to the economy in the backdrop of COVID-19. The discussions involved reforming of the functioning of the Ordnance factories, streamlining procurement procedures, focused resource allocation, encouraging R&D/innovation, attracting investment in critical defence technologies and promotion of exports.

PM laid emphasis on positioning India among the top countries of the world in Defence and Aerospace sectors, from design to production, with active participation of public and private sector fulfilling the twin objectives of self-reliance & exports. He reviewed the proposed reforms for attracting domestic and foreign investment in defence sector.

It was discussed that defence expenditure be economized and the savings be channelised for strategic defence capital acquisition. Issues relating to defence procurement processes, offset policies, indigenization of spares, transfer of technology, attracting global OEMs to establish manufacturing facilities in India, expanding our presence in international supply chains, etc were also deliberated. For India to emerge as a global leader in defence manufacturing, focus on the export of quality and state-of-the-art equipment/systems/platforms has also been emphasised.

PM directed that India should reduce dependence on imports and take forward "Make in India" to build its domestic capabilities for designing, developing and manufacturing state-of-the-art defence equipment. He emphasized on initiatives to promote export of defence products along with industry participation in global defence product value chain and to create an environment that encourages R&D, rewards innovation, creates Indian IP ownership.

The meeting was attended by the Defence Minister, the Home Minister, the Finance Minister and Minister of State for Finance along with senior officials of the Government of India.