Article Posted on : - Jan 14, 2010

India aims for “zero imports” of defence products, says Defence Minister Antony.

NEW DELHI (BNS): India must strive to achieve self-reliance in its defence sector, Defence Minister A K Antony has said, calling upon the public and private sector industries to join hands to grab the “huge defence pie” the country is offering.

“As far as we are concerned, we are very clear – in the years to come, if we want to achieve our goal of self-reliance, we have to reduce the dependence on foreign suppliers.

“India needs a strong defence industrial base. That is the main goal,” Antony said on Wednesday.

The minister said that the country’s defence pie was huge enough to “accommodate both private and public sector.” However, dependency on foreign countries to procure arms is not a happy situation, he said.

“At the moment, we are importing 70 per cent of our equipments from foreign sources. It is not a happy situation.

“We have to reduce our dependence on foreign sources. They (PSUs and private firms) have to reverse this trend. Instead of depending 70 per cent from foreign supplies, at least 70 per cent we must be able to produce in our own country,” Antony said.

The Minister said the government's goal was “zero imports” of defence products. Indian government is gradually evolving its policies as the demand of the country’s armed forces is ever increasing along with an expanding market, he said.

To overcome the problem of tardy procurement of critical equipment needed by the defence forces, Antony said his ministry is working towards amending the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP)-2010.

“We have already started next amendments. In this year’s amendments (in the) DPP 2010, we must take two aspects seriously – one is avoiding delay in the procurement process. Another is, speed it up judiciously,” he said.

The Defence Ministry had, in November 2009, unveiled a new policy for procurements by amending the DPP-2008 to provide level playing field for private sector on par with defence PSUs to bid for defence tenders.