Defence firms set to fire up

Bharat Forge, Ashok Leyland, L&T, BEML are among the top defence equipment makers

Defence stocks are likely to surge on the government decision to impose restrictions on import of 101 weapons and military platforms, and creation of a separate budget for domestic capital procurement in the current financial year.

Bharat Forge, BEML, Bharat Electronics, Ashok Leyland, Bharat Dynamics, L&T, Reliance Naval & Engineering, Rolta India, Walchand Nagar Industries and Hindustan Aeronautics are some of the domestic companies catering to the defence sector.

India Inc has hailed the move as a ''path-breaking'' reform towards becoming selfreliant and will boost indigenous defence manufacturing.

In a major reform initiative to boost the domestic defence industry, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday announced restrictions on import of 101 weapons and military platforms, including artillery guns, assault rifles and transport aircraft.

"The Ministry of Defence is now ready for a big push to #AatmanirbharBharat initiative," Singh said on Twitter while making the announcement.

He said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has prepared a list of 101 items for which the embargo on imports is planned to be progressively implemented between 2020 and 2024.

CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said the defence minister's announcement of negative import list of defence systems and platforms marks the launch of a new glide path for 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat'.

"Announcement of Rs 52,000 crore for domestic capital procurement coupled with the list of 101 items for import embargo gives a tremendous boost to Aatmanirbhar Bharat and indigenous defence manufacturing," he added.

"As a long-term partner with deep partnerships with key strategic organizations like DRDO and ISRO for over 30 years, we look forward to developing a domestic eco-system to help boost India's domestic defence manufacturing capabilities in India and support the vision of self-reliance," said Godrej & Boyce CMD Jamshyd N Godrej.

The CII termed the announcements as "path breaking" and stated, "Today is a historic day for Indian industry in the defence and aerospace. Can assure the Defence Minister that the Indian defence and aerospace industry will rise to the challenge and opportunities therein." S P Shukla, Chair, FICCI Defence Committee, said the move is a great leap forward towards building a self-reliant India.