Aatmanirbhar Bharat: Defence Ministry Proposes To Ban Import Of Weapons That Can Be Produced Indigenously

In a major development towards the manifestation of Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi's clarion call to build an Aatmanirbhar Bharat, the Union Ministry of Defence (MoD) led by Rajnath Singh has proposed to ban the import of weapons which can be produced locally, reports Hindu Businessline.

The suggestion has been made in the second draft of the Defence Procurement Policy (DPP) 2020 which will now be called the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020. The draft has been released by the MoD.

As per the proposal, the MoD will put out a negative list of weaponry and platforms which will be banned for import so as to give a fillip to the domestic industry. The list will be updated from time to time based on the needs of the armed forces. The list is presently in the making.

Major weaponry and platform imports of the Indian armed forces include Russian rockets, simulators and component repair facility for tanks; Israeli laser designation pods, radars, aircraft pods, radios, weapons for the elite ‘Garud’ commandos and missiles; aircraft, helicopters, missiles, artillery guns and simulators from US, and French aircraft, ammunition, bimodular charge system and high zone modules of artillery guns.

Meanwhile, India is also an exporter of various such systems, like patrol vessels, helicopters, sonars and radars, avionics, radar warning receivers, small arms, small calibre ammunition, grenades, telecom equipment, coastal surveillance gear, simulators, bullet-proof jackets and body armour.