SIDM 2024: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh highlights challenges, achievements of private defence sector

New Delhi [India], October 4 (ANI): Defence Minister Rajnath Singh addressed the annual session of the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM) on Friday. During his address, he spoke about the various challenges and the subsequent leaps made in the country's defence manufacturing.
"Our ministry is continually exploring ways to enhance India's defence manufacturing capabilities. Throughout the budget sessions and even beyond, we regularly engage in consultations to gather insights and suggestions from all stakeholders," he said during the address.
He further highlighted the five "indigenisation lists" launched in October 2023.
"I would specifically like to mention the indigenisation lists. As many of you know, after extensive consultations with all stakeholders in India's defence ecosystem, including SIDM, we have released five indigenisation lists, identifying 509 items that will now be manufactured on Indian soil. Additionally, we have also released a separate indigenisation list for defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs), identifying over 1,000 items that will be produced domestically by our own industries. These positive indigenisation lists are not just crucial benchmarks for you, but they also offer significant opportunities for domestic companies to showcase their capabilities," he said.

He added further that such an initiative would be great step towards self-reliance, "This initiative, I believe, sets a strong foundation for India's journey toward self-reliance in defence manufacturing."
Talking about the history of defence industrial manufacturing, he said during the independence there was a mixed economy model adopted for the country, which hindered the growth of the private sector.
"The platform of SIDM has indeed become a very important platform to determine the future direction of India's defence manufacturing. When India became independent, we adopted the mixed economy model to develop our economy. This model was the middle ground between capitalism and communism, which we adopted then. The aim of this was to have the best of both ideologies in the mixed economy model," he said.
Mentioning certain reasons such as "licence raj", "red-tapism" as hindrances to the private sector after independence, he added, "But the private sector could not participate in the economy as much as expected. There were several reasons for this, shortage of capital and manpower, licence raj, red tapism etc. It was unfortunate that the private sector could not get as many opportunities which they should have gotten before."
He also praised the efforts of the Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) and highlighted that most of the value of domestic production has come from these undertakings. "When you look at the overall value of domestic defence production, you'll find that in 2023-24, it has crossed a record figure of Rs1,27,000 crores, which is certainly a matter of pride for us. However, when we closely analyse the numbers, we see that approximately Rs1,00,000 crores of this is generated by the DPSUs," he added.
He further mentioned during his address that the Russia-Ukraine war has shattered certain commonly accepted notions, and has highlighted the importance of a strong defence industrial base.
"We have been closely observing the Russia-Ukraine war for some time now. This shows that the importance of the defence industrial base has not diminished; in fact, it remains as crucial as ever, and there is a need to expand it in the future. The government is always ready to make efforts towards this, and from this platform, I would also like to say that in the coming times, I believe your role in the new phase of defence industrial development will be extremely important," he said.
Secretary, Department of Defence Manufacturing Sanjeev Kumar; and Chief of Defence Staff of Armed Forces General Anil Chauhan were also present during the event. (ANI)