India’s business houses hail the government’s move to embargo the import of 101 defence weapons

India Inc on Sunday hailed centre’s decision to impose restriction on import of 101 defence weapons and creation of separate budget for ‘domestic capital procurement’ in this financial year as a ‘path-breaking’ reform to make India self-reliant on defence production.

“Announcement of Rs 52,000 crore for domestic capital procurement coupled with the list of 101 items for import embargo gives a tremendous boost to ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ and indigenous defence manufacturing,” Economic Times quoted Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General of CII as saying.

Godrej & Boyce, which provides solutions for aerospace and defence, said the embargo on import will give much needed filip to Indian defence manufacturing companies. CMD Jamshyd N Godrej said that they are looking forward to developing a domestic eco-system to help boost India's domestic defence manufacturing capabilities in India and support the vision of self-reliance.

On the other hand, Assocham Secretary General Deepak Sood was quoted as saying that self-reliance in defence production is a much desired policy initiative as India is one of the largest importers of weapons, ammunition and high technology systems for the armed forces.