Rajnath reviews prep for air show
NEW DELHI: Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Friday reviewed the preparations for Asia’s largest air show, Aero India, to be staged at the Yelahanka air base outside Bengaluru next year in the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic, officials familiar with development said on Friday.
The biennial air show will be staged from February 3 to 7 with all the necessary precautions, the officials said.
Singh is monitoring all developments related to the international aerospace and defence exhibition. The defence ministry’s spokesperson on Friday tweeted that the minister reviewed the roadmap for Aero India-2021. “All precautions to prevent the spread of Covid-19 will be followed. It’s a prestigious event and will be held as planned. Top defence firms have shown interest in taking part in the show,” the officials said.
The air show is a significant event in the defence ministry’s calendar, given that self-reliance in the sector is a top priority for the government.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said India had the potential to become a reliable weapons supplier to friendly nations and strengthen its strategic partnerships as it takes strides towards self-reliance in the defence sector.
India has taken several key steps to boost self-reliance in the defence sector such as creating a separate budget for the purchase of locally-produced military hardware, notifying a negative import list and raising the foreign direct investment (FDI) limit.
Earlier this month, the government announced a separate budgetary outlay of ~52,000 crore for domestic capital procurement and came out with a negative import list. Indian announced on August 9 that it will ban the import of 101 different types of weapons, systems and ammunition over the next five years. The PM said more defence items would be progressively added to the negative import list to encourage the domestic industry that can look forward to more orders in the coming times as a result of initiatives taken to boost self-reliance. The government is likely to notify a second negative import list early next year.
The defence ministry is likely to issue a request for proposal to build next-generation submarines in the country, one of the costliest Make in India programmes in the military sector.
Six advanced submarines will be built under ~50,000-crore project P-75I to scale up the navy’s undersea warfare capabilities and counter the rapid expansion of China’s submarine fleet. The project will be pursued under the government’s ‘strategic partnership’ model, which seeks to provide fillip to the government’s Make in India programme.