- Saturday, May 04, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
India has remained a major arms importer in the world and countries like Russia, France, Israel and the United States have been among its major suppliers. However, the current Narendra Modi government has stressed time and again that India aspires to be an arms manufacturer to strengthen its world image. India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has also been vocal about it. On Tuesday, June 8, Singh invited leading Swedish defence majors to set up manufacturing bases in the country while showcasing India as an attractive destination for investment to produce military equipment and platforms.
Speaking at a virtual conference on India-Sweden defence industry cooperation with the theme ‘Capitalizing Opportunities for Growth and Security’, Singh said the Indian government has carried out a series of reforms to facilitate the defence industries to not only meet Indian requirements but also global standards. At the event which was organised under the aegis of the Department of Defence Production, India’s defence ministry through Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers and Swedish Security and Defence Industry, Singh mentioned allowing up to 74 percent foreign direct investment (FDI) through automatic route and up to 100 percent through government route in the defence manufacturing sector. He also said technology-centric FDI policy will help India’s industries to collaborate with Sweden’s industries in the field of military technology – niche and proven.
“Over the past few years, the Indian defence industry has been galvanised through progressive policy and procedural reforms which have catapulted the industry to serve not only Indian requirements but also meet global demand,” Singh said at the virtual conference. The defence minister invited Swedish firms to invest in defence corridors in states like Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu saying they can benefit from the “unique incentives” offered by the governments of those states and the availability of a highly skilled workforce.
According to Singh, India has a major defence industrial base with 41 ordnance factories and nine defence public sector undertakings and expanding private industries that are supported by an eco-system of more than12,000 micro, small and medium enterprises. He also stressed on Prime Minister Modi’s call for a self-reliant India saying: “The Mission – ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ or ‘Self-Reliant India’ of Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi is about producing cost-effective quality products and in its core has the motto – ‘Make in India’ and ‘Make for the World’.”
‘Defense self-reliance linked to self-respect’
Last September, Singh said a country that banks on imports for its military strength can never be strong and asserted that being self-reliant in the defense sector is linked to a country’s “self-respect” and “sovereignty”. A month before that, PM Modi said India was set to form a big defence industrial base and become a reliable arms provider to friendly countries in the years ahead.
India currently is a big market for global defence giants and figures among the top three arms importers in the world.
