NEW DELHI - India's announcement of a ban on the import of 101 items of military equipment has been widely welcomed in the country, but experts say it is a move fraught with risks in the medium term.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday announced an import ban on 101 items, which will come into effect between 2020 and 2024, and has indicated he would add more items to the list.India has traditionally relied on Russia for weaponry but has been diversifying over the years, sourcing defence systems and weapons from countries such as the United States and Israel.
Mr Pushan Das of the Delhi based think-tank Observer Research Foundation said:"The list may inadvertently hamstring military planning in the short or medium term. It does not seem to have taken into consideration entry barriers in the form of required knowledge, skill and manufacturing capacity of major defence systems."
India's military expenditure in 2019 grew by 6.8 per cent from the previous year to US$71.1 billion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Over half of the expenditure is on imports. India's defence budget this year was US$66.9 billion. The import ban is part of a recent raft of defence reforms and comes on the back of a renewed push for domestic manufacturing, which has acquired urgency due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic which disrupted global supply chains.
"The corporate sector has to be given incentives. They must be given defence loans or loans only for the defence sector. If you are manufacturing a Humvee armoured protective vehicle for the army, the army order would be limited. So the same plant can also produce civilian versions of the same machine. These kinds of incentives should be there. Otherwise we might be saddled with poor quality," said Mr Panag, who said the import ban was a good move for India.