Make-in-India the focus, MoD plans to allow only few imports

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, January 11

After Defence Minister Rajnath Singh asserted at an function recently that “make in India” would be the focus for military equipment in the future, the Ministry of Defence is formulating a policy that will allow import of only specific items which cannot be produced in India.

Only cutting-edge technology will be imported and that too will have some kind of clause of servicing and maintaining the equipment, sources told The Tribune.

The import could be allowed in items such as aircraft engines, armed drones and long-range planes.

The US, Russia, France and Israel — the countries that have been supplying weapons and military equipment to India — have been told they would have to ‘make in India’. Also, foreign companies can ‘make for the world’ or export the India-produced equipment.

The MoD is now coming up with a policy framework to decide which items can be imported and why. It is called the “Defence Production and Export Promotion Policy”. The upcoming policy will also lay down items that can be exported to friendly countries.

As the policy gets finalised, the ministry will review the existing programmes that are listed for import — termed as “buy global category” under the MoD acquisition procedure. The review will provide list of items that cannot be imported and can be made within India.