Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has said that the government's endeavour is also to bring down its defence imports by at least $2 billion by 2022, with an aim of encouraging the manufacture of defence related items in the country. He also said the aerospace sector has an important role to play, if India has to reach its targets of domestic defence production of $25billion and exports of $5 billion by 2025.
Singh has stated that between 2016 and 2019, as many as 138 proposals worth over $37 billion for domestic manufacturing have been approved. He also said the order for 83 LCA MK 1A worth over Rs 48,000 crore that has been given by the government will give a big boost to domestic manufacturing and especially to the aviation industry. He noted that it would spawn new and resilient supply chains. He added that the negative list of 101 items for import also means to provide opportunities for the domestic manufacturing sector to strengthen their base and contribute to Aatma Nirbhar Bharat.
The Minister further said a robust domestic manufacturing base relates directly to the potential for defence exports. He said ‘we plan to move from a $11 billion defence base to $25 billion by 2025. Of this, we further intend to create an export component of $5 billion. During the period 2015-2020, defence exports grew from Rs2,000 crore to Rs 9,000 crore.