New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday held a detailed meeting to deliberate the potential reforms to ensure a robust and self-reliant defence industry in India that caters to short and long term needs of the armed forces and initiatives to give a boost to the economy in wake of the coronavirus situation.

During the meeting, Prime Minister Modi laid emphasis on positioning India among the top countries of the world in Defence and Aerospace sectors, from design to production, with the active participation of public and private sector fulfilling the twin objectives of self-reliance and exports. He reviewed the proposed reforms for attracting domestic and foreign investment in the defence sector,said Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

It was discussed that defence expenditure should be economised and savings be channelised for strategic defence capital acquisition. Issues relating to defence procurement processes, offset policies, indigenisation of spares, transfer of technology were also deliberated.

Further, the discussion involved reforming of the functioning of the Ordnance factories, streamlining procurement procedures, focused resource allocation, encouraging R&D/innovation, attracting investment in critical defence technologies and promotion of exports.

For India to emerge as a global leader in defence manufacturing, focus on the export of quality and state-of-the-art equipment/systems/platforms has also been emphasised.

The Prime Minister directed that India should reduce dependence on imports and take forward “Make in India” to build its domestic capabilities for designing, developing and manufacturing state-of-the-art defence equipment.

He emphasized on initiatives to promote export of defence products along with industry participation in global defence product value chain and to create an environment that encourages R&D, rewards innovation, creates Indian IP ownership.

The meeting was attended by the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur along with senior officials of the Government of India.

In another development, earlier today PM Modi held a meeting to discuss strategies on ways to attract foreign investments to India as well as to promote local investments in order to give a boost to the economy against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He also held a detailed meeting to deliberate the potential economic reforms in Mines and Coal Sectors to give a boost to the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic. (ANI)