New Delhi, August 24: The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Monday provided a list of 108 systems and subsystems to Defence Ministry. The list contains items identified for designing and development by the Indian Industry only. The DRDO also assured to provide full support industries in this development process. The defence ministry said, "This initiative will pave the way for Indian Defence industry to develop many technologies towards building an Atma Nirbhar Bharat."

The development came days after the defence ministry banned the import of 101 items. The decision was taken to the Indian defence industry self-reliant and boost indigenisation. The MoD also bifurcated the capital procurement budget for 2020-21 between domestic and foreign capital procurement routes. Defence Minister Holds Security Review Meeting with NSA, CDS, Three Service Chiefs.

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A separate budget head was created with an outlay of nearly Rs 52,000 crore for domestic capital procurement in the current financial year. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had said, “The Ministry of Defence is now ready for a big push to the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative. MoD will introduce an import embargo on 101 items beyond the given timeline to boost indigenisation of defence production.”

The list of 101 embargoed items comprises of not just simple parts but also some high technology weapon systems like artillery guns, assault rifles, corvettes, sonar systems, transport aircraft, light combat helicopters (LCHs), radars and many other items to fulfil the needs of the defence services. The list also includes wheeled armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs) with indicative import embargo date of December 2021, of which the Army is expected to contract almost 200 at an approximate cost of over Rs 5,000 crore.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 24, 2020 05:30 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).