A senior official said on September 22 that efforts are being made to “unleash the energy” of the “Make-in-India” initiative in the defence sector. The country’s “Amrit Kaal” vision is for India to be one of the top five countries in the world in terms of defence production.
During an interview at an event in New Delhi, Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar also said that India has been one of the largest importers of defence products in the world for the last 75 years, which is something the government wants to change.
Few countries do most of the world’s defence production, and if you look at the defence industry as a whole, five countries do a huge amount of the world’s defence production.
“And these are the five permanent members of the UN Security Council,” he said.
“So, India’s goal of becoming a world power in the next 25 years is closely linked to the growth of its defence industry,” he said, adding that the defence industry has a huge effect on the world as a whole.
“In the defence sector, efforts are being made to bring out the full power of the country’s “Make-in-India” initiative, both in terms of production and the innovation ecosystem. And we’ve already started to see results,” Mr. Kumar said.
The Defense Secretary said that there is “a lot of optimism” in the defence industry and that India has “tremendous momentum” that will only grow over the next 25 years.
“This will be caused by the changing nature of war, which is becoming more and more non-contact and non-lethal,” he said.
“Today, the new form of war is more likely to be in the digital domain,” the top defence official said. “This is an area where India is naturally strong, and the country has the chance to use this to become a world leader in building new defence technologies.”
“This is especially clear in the start-up ecosystem and the IDEX programme, which have changed both how things are made and how long they take to make,” he said.
“The ability to unleash the energy of the ‘Make-in-India’ initiative in the defence ecosystem, and when I say ‘Make-in-India,’ I mean the private sector, the industry as a whole, and the energy of the start-ups and others, will help us become one of the top five countries in the defence industry ecosystem, and that’s where we want to see ourselves as part of this (Amrit Kaal) vision,” Mr. Kumar said in response to a question about India’ (next 25 years).
After he spoke at the Public Affairs Forum of India’s (PAFI) interactive session on “India: The New Hub of Global Manufacturing,” he said, “India wants to be one of the top five countries in the world in terms of defence production.”
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