 "TANK, military, army, defence, budget, spending")
Announcing a series of measures to galvanise indigenous defence industry and reduce imports, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Saturday a negative list for the import of defence equipment that could be built in India, a separate capital budget for indigenous weapons procurement, corporatisation of the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), raising the cap on foreign direct investment (FDI) in defence production from 49 per cent to 74 per cent, and the reform of defence procurement.
While conceding that “some high-tech equipment” would continue to be imported, Sitharaman stated there would be no import of weaponry already being produced in India.
