Military veterans, industry welcome defence reforms, say self-reliance will strengthen nation's war-fighting abilities

New Delhi [India], May 16 : Military veterans and the defence industry on Saturday welcomed the defence reforms announced by the government saying it will help remove the tag of being one of the largest defence importers and strengthen warfighting abilities of the country.
The strategic and defence industry representatives were reacting to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's announcements to hike Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to 74 per cent from existing 49 per cent and creation of a negative import list along with a separate budget for domestic capital acquisition for armed forces.
Former Director-General of Military Operations Lt Gen Vinod Bhatia said that for a country aspiring to be a regional power, self-reliance in the defence sector was one of the most important requisites.
From the industry, Missile manufacturing firm JSR Dynamics chairman and former Air Force Vice Chief Air Marshal SB Deo said the domestic industry is delighted with the announcements as it will give an opportunity to it to realise and prove their potential.
Deo dismissed suggestions that sudden dependence on indigenous industry would hamper combat capabilities saying the move was the best decision towards strengthening warfighting capabilities of the country.
Bhatia said that for a country like India, the road to becoming a power in the COVID-19 scenario goes from being self-reliant in the defence industry and not being the second-largest importer of weapon systems in the world.
Former Western Air Force commander Air Marshal SS Soman (Retd) said the defence sector has been marred historically by the lack of private players in this space which has resulted in dependence on imports.
He said that the steps taken by the government will help in ensuring that the private sector industry comes up in the field.
Maj Gen SB Asthana (Retd) said, "Whenever we import a weapon system from foreign countries, it is accompanied by a lot of spares and other equipment."
"In the long run, the cost of the spares and maintenance itself becomes very high. With the government now focusing on working for indigenisation of spares, it will help in reducing the cost of operating weapon platforms as well as create jobs and opportunities within the country," he added.
CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said, "The stress laid on domestic manufacturing is very encouraging as today India is among the largest importers in the world of defence equipment. The list of non-importable items and corporatisation of OFB are some landmark steps and will boost the confidence of domestic manufacturers."
He said it was a much need step for reducing imports and building self-reliance as mentioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.