The month of August saw some contrasting trends in India’s quest for defence indigenization popularly known as Atma Nirbharata in Defence.
On one hand India’s top leaders the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister highlighted progress made in expansion of defence production and exports by the public and private sector heralding a new era to shake out of the tag of being one of the largest defence importers in the world.
On the other multiple foreign sales offers have been received or inter government agreements inked indicating that the the old yoke of imports is hard to discard even as attempts are being made to expand production by Indian defence industry.
This reality is well established over the decades now as not just the current National Democratic Alliance [NDA] government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] but also its predecessor the United Progressive Alliance [UPA] led by the Indian National Congress had raised similar expectations of expanding Make in India only to return to time tested imports to ensure that the capability of the armed forces and thus deterrence is not impacted.
The Congress faltered in the final year of its government in 2013-14 by dithering on procurement of the 126 Rafale fighters from France, which was compounded by the BJP’s similar vacillation for a decade plus as a result of which the same combat aircraft is now likely to be inducted into the Indian Air Force possibly by end of the decade or later.
Shri Rajnath Singh emphasised that the domestic defence production, which stood at just Rs 46,000 crore in 2014, has skyrocketed to a record Rs 1.78 lakh crore in the Financial Year (FY) 2025-26, nearly a four-fold increase over the last decade.
