New Delhi, Mar 26 (KNN) The Defence Ministry recently released Draft Defence Production Policy 2018, which aims at a target of achieving Rs 1,70,000 crore in defence goods and services by 2025, has called for public responses by the end of March 2018.

The Union government has requested the Public for their inputs and suggestions, with an aim of creating more than 30 lakh jobs with an additional investment of nearly Rs 70,000 crore.

The draft that has been made public on the website has suggested further liberalization of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) by allowing up to 74% FDI under the automatic route against the present allowing rate of 49% with no significant investments.

With this policy framework, it is expected that India achieves a target of Rs 35,000 crore in defence goods and services by 2025 and make India a global leader in cyberspace and AI (Artificial Intelligence) technologies.

The policy says the vision is to make “India among the top five countries of the world in the aerospace and defence industries, with the active participation of the public and private sectors, fulfilling the objective of self-reliance as well as the demand of other friendly countries,” as announced in the Budget 2018-19.

Further it aims to build an environment that encourages a dynamic, robust and competitive defence industry as an important part of the ‘Make in India initiative’.

The policy also aims to “reduce current dependence on imports and to achieve self-reliance in development and manufacture of several weapon systems/platforms, among them fighter aircraft, medium lift and utility helicopters, warships, land combat vehicles, autonomous weapon systems, missile systems and gun systems.” (KNN/YV)