Declaring that the government would soon announce a Centrally-funded incentive scheme to promote the private sector in defence production, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh claimed that India, which was importing all its defence requirements in the past, was fast turning into a defence exporter.
"We have achieved this turnaround in just seven years. A few years back we were the number 1 country in importing defence equipment, but now we have slipped in this ranking after defence manufacturing units started production (in India) in a big way," he said.
Addressing a meeting during the review of the progress of the UP Defence Manufacturing Corridor at the Lucknow residence of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday, Singh said that the government understood the power and need of the private sector.
“If the public and private sectors work together, very soon India will be self-reliant in the defence production sector. In the past seven years, the country's defence production has gone up by 334 per cent and now India is being recognised as a defence exporting country. India is now exporting defence items to 75 countries and it is among the 25 countries which are known as defence exporting countries."
The defence minister also accused the previous governments for not giving any priority to the defence sector. "In the last 14 years from 2000 to 2014, the Centre had issued just 200 defence manufacturing licenses but in our seven years of rule we have already given 350 licences while much more are in the pipeline and the red tape in the Defence ministry has also been abolished and replaced by a transparent system,” he said.
"The Central government has already launched a scheme to allow investments in the defence sector in the country so that both the new defence manufacturing corridors in UP and Tamil Nadu are benefitted," Singh said.
Lauding Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Rajnath Singh said that now no one could stop UP from bringing out an industrial revolution due to the Defence Manufacturing Corridor.
“The Defense Industrial Corridor in Uttar Pradesh is the result of this commitment. Production will start soon in all the six nodes of the corridor. The land has been made available to those investing in Lucknow and Jhansi. We are soon coming up with a Centrally sponsored scheme in which there will be a provision to encourage defence industries to invest in the corridor. Be it the anchor industry or MSMEs, everyone's needs will be taken care of in the new incentive policy,” he said.
On his part, the chief minister said that the Defence Manufacturing Corridor would play an important role in making the country self-reliant in the field of defence production.
“The corridor will also play a major role in realising the prime minister's vision of 'Make in India', '' he said and added that 23 MoUs related to investment of Rs 50,000 crore had been signed in the Defence Industrial Corridor. An investment of more than Rs 11,203 crore is estimated through the corridor,” he added.
Yogi exuded confidence that the Uttar Pradesh Defence Manufacturing Corridor would benefit the vast MSME base existing in the state.
UP Industrial Development Minister Satish Mahana along with several stakeholders and investors were present in the meeting.
Earlier, Bharatiya Janata Party media coordinator Praveen Garg said that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh was given a rousing welcome on his arrival to the city and was received by cabinet ministers including Satish Mahana and Ashutosh Tandon.