Rajnath Singh to launch ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat Saptah’ today

New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will launch ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat Saptah’ on Monday.

As per the Office of the Defence Minister of India, the event will take place at 3.30 pm today.

On August 9, Singh had announced that the Defence Ministry will introduce import embargo on 101 items beyond given timeline to boost indigenisation of defence production while stating it as a big step towards ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ (self-reliance) in defence.

In a series of tweets, the Minister had said that the Defence Ministry has also bifurcated the capital procurement budget for 2020-21 between domestic and foreign capital procurement routes. A separate budget head has been created with an outlay of nearly Rs 52,000 crore for domestic capital procurement in the current financial year, he had said.

“The Ministry of Defence is now ready for a big push to #AtmanirbharBharat initiative. MoD will introduce import embargo on 101 items beyond given timeline to boost indigenisation of defence production,” Singh had tweeted.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a clarion call for a self-reliant India based on the five pillars, i.e., Economy, Infrastructure, System, Demography and Demand and announced a special economic package for Self-Reliant India named ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’,” he had said in another tweet.

The Defence Minister had said that the decision will offer a great opportunity to the Indian defence industry to manufacture the items in the negative list by using their own design and development capabilities or adopting the technologies designed and developed by DRDO to meet the requirements of the Armed Forces.

“MoD has also bifurcated the capital procurement budget for 2020-21 between domestic and foreign capital procurement routes. A separate budget head has been created with an outlay of nearly Rs 52,000 crore for domestic capital procurement in the current financial year,” he had tweeted.

“Almost 260 schemes of such items were contracted by the Tri-Services at an approximate cost of Rs 3.5 lakh crore between April 2015 and August 2020. It is estimated that contracts worth almost Rs 4 lakh crore will be placed upon the domestic industry within the next 6 to 7 years,” he had said.

“Of these, items worth almost Rs 1,30,000 crore each are anticipated for the Army and the Air Force while items worth almost Rs 1,40,000 crore are anticipated by the Navy over the same period. #AtmanirbharBharat,” the Minister had tweeted.

Singh had said that more equipment for import embargo would be identified progressively by the Department of Military Affairs (DMA) in consultation with all stakeholders.

“The list also includes, wheeled Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFVs) with indicative import embargo date of December 2021, of which the Army is expected to contract almost 200 at an approximate cost of over Rs 5,000 crore,” he had tweeted.

“The embargo on imports is planned to be progressively implemented between 2020 to 2024. Our aim is to apprise the Indian defence industry about the anticipated requirements of the Armed Forces so that they are better prepared to realise the goal of indigenisation,” the Minister had said in another tweet.

“All necessary steps would be taken to ensure that timelines for production of equipment as per the Negative Import List are met, which will include a co-ordinated mechanism for handholding of the industry by the Defence Services,” he had said.