Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a post-budget webinar named ‘Atmanirbharta (Self-sufficient) in Defence-Call to Action’. Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, Union Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh and Principal Secretary to PM Narendra Modi, P.K. Mishra were also present at the webinar. PM Modi started the webinar lauding the country and its defence staff for focussing on ‘Atmanirbharta’ in the Defence Sector, and stated that this year too, a major amount of the annual budget has been allocated to the Defence Sector.
Emphasising the importance of self-reliance, PM Modi said that the country that does not manufacture their ammunitions lacks the ‘uniqueness’ and the ‘surprise element’ in the battlefield. Giving a history lesson, PM Modi said, “Even during British rule & right after independence, our defence manufacturing strength was very high. In World War II, arms manufactured in India played a major role. However, in the following years, this strength weakened. But this shows that India never had a dearth of capabilities.”
Talking about the need of the hour of becoming self-reliant, PM Modi said that our defence becomes outdated by the time the imported arms and ammunition reaches them. Providing an indigenous solution to this, PM Modi said, “Its solution lies in ‘Atamanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ and Make in India.” The Prime Minister spoke about the importance of Information Technology as well as the use of IT in Defence, saying that the more we strengthen our IT sector and use its power, the more “assured” our defence sector will be.
Giving data of licences issued by the incumbent government during his tenure, PM Modi said that the Centre has provided 350 new industrial defence manufacturing licences in the last seven years. PM added that the previous governments from 2000-2014 just provided 200 industrial defence manufacturing licences.
“This Budget is a blueprint for developing a vibrant ecosystem from research, design & development to manufacturing. Around 70% of Defence allocation is kept just for domestic industry. So far, Defence Ministry issued an indigenisation list of over 200 defence platforms & equipment. After the announcement of this list, contracts of around Rs 54,000 crores have been signed for domestic procurement. Besides this, the procurement process related to equipment worth more than Rs 4.5 lakh crore is in different stages. The third list is going to come soon,” PM Narendra Modi said.
Union Budget 2022: Second session
The Union Budget for the year 2022-2023 was presented on February 1. Deputy Chairman of the Upper House adjourned the Rajya Sabha for one month after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s response on Budget 2022-2023. The House will remain adjourned from February 12 to March 13 and the Parliament will begin the proceedings from March 14.