India will soon formulate a policy to encourage domestic defence manufacturing and cut import of combat planes, ships and submarines, Union minister Arun Jaitley said on Friday, reported PTI. Addressing the annual meeting of the Confederation of Indian Industry, Jaitley, who handles Defence and Finance ministries, said technological tie-ups would help India become a “manufacturing economy”.
India is the world’s largest arms importer, spending some 1.8% of its GDP on defence. It imports about 70% of defence equipment.
“We are in the advanced stages of formulating a policy where we can ensure that instead of just being buyers... on the strength of technological and other tie-ups, India also becomes a manufacturing economy,” he said. However, he did not elaborate on the policy or whether it would include tax incentives and state support.
At the same event, Jaitley criticised the debate on “obsolete” ideas like paper ballot versus electronic voting machines and cash as opposed to digital payment, saying they are diversionary tactics.
Speaking about the debates on the use of Unique Identity Number and electronic voting machines, Jaitley said, “We need to worry about the shrillness and the diversion in the nature of debate.” He was referring to the call by opposition parties against use of EVMs for casting votes in elections.
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