Indian Defence and Aerospace sector to become 5 lakh crore by 2047: Rajnath Singh

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has said that the government is further working to expand the Positive Indigenization List of 208 items to 1,000 items. He was speaking at the FICCI’s Annual Convention & 94th AGM on the theme ‘India Beyond 75’ held on Saturday, December 18. “In this decade, we will bring increase the items under the Positive list for Indigenization from current 209 to over 1000. The government now looks at the private industry as their partners and in fulfilling the objective of attaining Atmanirbhar Raksha Utpadan,” Singh said. He emphasized that with the current reforms undertaken by the government, the Indian defence and aerospace sector is likely to reach Rs 5 lakh crore by the year 2047 from the current 85,000 crore. He added that the Indian private sector plays a huge role in achieving the goal.

The Defence Minister said that to promote the Indian domestic companies under Atmanirbhar Bharat, the government is working to expand the Positive Indigenization List of 208 items to 1,000 items. “In this decade, we will bring increase the items under the Positive list for Indigenization from current 209 to over 1000. The government now looks at the private industry as their partners and in fulfilling the objective of attaining Atmanirbhar Raksha Utpadan,” he stressed.

Singh also assured the industry of full government support and said that the role of the government is of a facilitator. “Government is committed to increasing the budget outlay for Defence Procurement from Indian industry,” he noted. He further stressed that going forward India will focus on manufacturing defence equipment and platforms within India. Inviting global companies to invest in India defence and aerospace he said, “Come Make in India, come make for India, come make for the world.”

Highlighting the initiatives taken by the government to increase private sector participation and global companies, the minister said, “The Indian defence industry has realised that the opportune time has come for its take-off to higher trajectories. Corporatization of OFB is probably the biggest reform in Defence Production Sector since independence, he added.

Speaking on the occasion Uday Shankar, President, FICCI said that Indian defence export has increased by 325 % in the last five years, making India one of the major global suppliers of defence equipment. “India is now not just importing from, but working with its major Defence partners including Israel, Russia, South Korea, USA etc, in the co-development and co-production projects in cutting edge technologies,” he added.

The President-Elect of FICCI Sanjiv Mehta said that the provision of the Make category of capital acquisition in Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) is a vital pillar for realising the vision behind the ‘Make in India’ initiative of the Government. “It enables fostering indigenous capabilities through design & development by both public and private sector in a faster time frame,” he added.