Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday announced restrictions on the import of 101 weapons and military platforms including artillery guns, assault rifles and transport aircraft in what could give a major fillip to the domestic defence industry.

"The Ministry of Defence is now ready for a big push to #AtmanirbharBharat initiative," Singh said on Twitter while making the announcement. He said the ministry has prepared a list of 101 items for which the embargo on imports is planned to be progressively implemented between 2020 and 2024.

The Ministry of Defence is now ready for a big push to #AtmanirbharBharat initiative. MoD will introduce import embargo on 101 items beyond given timeline to boost indigenisation of defence production.

— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) August 9, 2020

The list of 101 embargoed items comprises some high technology weapon systems like artillery guns, assault rifles, corvettes, sonar systems, transport aircraft, light combat helicopters (LCHs), radars and many other items.

Singh said all necessary steps would be taken to ensure that timelines for domestic production of equipment identified under a negative list for import are met, adding the measures will include a co-ordinated mechanism for hand-holding of the industry by the defence services.

"The embargo on imports is planned to be progressively implemented between 2020 and 2024. The aim behind the promulgation of the list is to apprise the Indian defence industry about the anticipated requirements of the armed forces so that they are better prepared to realise the goal of indigenisation," he said.

Defence Ministry puts an import embargo on 101 items.

Here are the details announced by Defence Minister @rajnathsingh this morning: pic.twitter.com/eW4rJVQymi— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) August 9, 2020

MoD has also bifurcated the capital procurement budget for 2020-21 between domestic and foreign capital procurement routes. A separate budget head has been created with an outlay of nearly Rs 52,000 crore for domestic capital procurement in the current financial year.

It is estimated that contracts worth almost Rs 4 lakh crore will be placed upon the domestic industry within the next 6 to 7 years.

Of these, items worth almost Rs 1,30,000 crore each are anticipated for the Army and the Air Force while items worth almost Rs 1,40,000 crore are anticipated by the Navy over the same period.

First Published:Aug 9, 2020 10:46 AM IST