New Delhi: Rajnath Singh said that the government pf India has prepared a list 101 items on which there would be an embargo on import to give a push to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’.
Announcing the development on Twitter, Singh said it would be a big step towards self-reliance in defense.
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 includes artillery guns, missile destroyers, ship-borne cruise missiles, light combat aircraft, light transport aircraft, long-range land-attack cruise missiles, communication satellites, basic trainer aircraft, multi-barrel rocket launchers, a variety of radars, assault rifles, sniper rifles, mini UAVs and different types of ammunition.
The list also spells out when the embargo kicks in for different items. Sing said, all necessary steps would be taken to ensure that the timelines for the production of the equipment on the negative import list are met.
The minister said, “The list also includes, wheeled Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFVs) with indicative import embargo date of December 2021, of which the Army is expected to contract almost 200 at an approximate cost of over Rs 5,000 crore”.
The ministry has split 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,” he mentioned.