Don’t miss the latest developments in business and finance.

Govt committed to self-sufficiency in defence sector: Parrikar

Parrikar said the govt's decision to increase FDI cap in the defence sector to 49% will bring in techonology

Image
Press Trust of India New Delhi
Last Updated : Mar 10 2015 | 6:14 PM IST
'Make In India' is a long drawn exercise but the government is committed to bring about self-sufficiency in defence sector, government told Rajya Sabha today.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said the government was stressing on 'Make In India' in defence acquisition and "we are promoting" it in almost all defence acquisition, he said.

Government has increased the defence budget by 9.87% to Rs 2.46 lakh crore for the next fiscal as compared to the revised estimates of Rs 2.22 lakh crore for 2014-15 as it pushes 'Make in India' initiative to curtail over-dependence on imports.

Also Read

Parrikar said the government's decision to increase FDI cap in the defence sector to 49% will bring in techonology.

To a question if the fund allocations for defence were adequate, he said, "in principle, nothing is adequate in defence of country," but if the rupee is spent wisely it could do more.

He said that at January-end, the expenditure under the defence service was 78.36% of Rs 2.22 lakh crore allocation for the current fiscal. The expenditure was 99.92% of the allocation in 2013-14.

In his budget speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said the government was working towards self-sufficiency through the Make in India programme in defence equipment including aircraft.

More From This Section

First Published: Mar 10 2015 | 5:28 PM IST

Next Story