India cannot afford to remain dependent on defence imports: Rajnath Singh

A huge country like India cannot remain dependent on import of military hardware as such dependency can be fatal for its strategic autonomy Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday showcasing the Modi governments priority for boosting domestic manufacturingIn an address at a conference Singh without elaborating also said that India had to face trouble in difficult times in the past due to its reliance on defence importsHe said the annual volume of domestic defence production has crossed the record figure of Rs 1 lakh crore which was nearly Rs 44000 crore around 2014We will be able to maintain strategic autonomy only when arms and equipment are made in our own country by our own people We worked towards this and we also saw positive results Singh saidWhile around 2014 our domestic defence production was around Rs 44000 crore today our domestic defence production has crossed the record figure of Rs 1 lakh crore and it is continuously growing he said at the DefConnect 2024 conferenceThe defence minister said India cannot afford to remain dependent on imports in any important sectorA huge country like India cannot remain dependent on imports in any important sector If we continue to rely on imports of defence equipment and arms it will make us dependent on other countries This dependency can be fatal for our strategic autonomy he saidSingh argued that without selfreliance in key areas including defence India will not be able to take independent positions on global issues in line with its national interestsUnder the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi when our government came to power in 2014 we saw that a large part of Indias defence hardware is imported If a significant portion of a countrys security related equipment is imported then that country may have to face many difficulties in critical situations he saidThis has also happened with India in the past When India was in difficult times we faced trouble due to our dependence on imports for arms Therefore as soon as we came to government we emphasised that as a nation we cannot remain dependent on arms imports Singh saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever