New Delhi, October 4

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday called for an increased and active participation of the private sector in defence manufacturing to achieve the Government’s target of making the Indian defence industry worth $26 billion by 2025.

He was addressing the captains of industry at the 22nd India International Security Expo, 2019 (Defence & Homeland Security) here today. The defence sector will play a pivotal role in achieving the goal of 5 trillion dollar economy. “Our aim is to make a world class domestic defence industry that is self-reliant and less dependent on imports”, the minister said.

He hoped that the industry partners would come up with concrete investment and technological intervention proposals related to defence and avail the business opportunities present in the sector.

Rajnath assured the defence industry that the government was open to new ideas and remained committed to harness the entrepreneurship spirit and energies of the private sector. He invited domestic as well as foreign defence manufacturers to participate in DefExpo 2020 to be held in Lucknow in February next. He said the corridors were being established to provide state-of-the-art infrastructure for defence production facilities. — TNS