Defence minister to launch ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Saptah’

The Defence Minister of India will launch the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Saptah’ on August 10 to focus more on the vision of the government to shift to local manufacturing and ‘Make in India’ It is also in line with the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ scheme of the Prime Minister.

Related Steps

In a related development, the Defence Ministry has published the list of 101 weapons and defence systems that the country will stop importing from December 2020. The manufacturing of all such items will be done within the country. The ministry has published the list containing transport aircraft, conventional submarines, cruise missiles, etc. The defence ministry will place orders for all these items to the domestic manufacturers.

The objective of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Saptah’

The main idea behind this is to emphasize the importance of domestic defence production in the country. The ministry is pushing for domestic manufacturing of defence items very aggressively. This new idea of observing a week is actually going to provide the much-needed impetus to the scheme.

What is Atmanirbhar Bharat?

The main significance of this mission is to cut down on the import dependence of the country by focusing on the substitution of such goods with domestic products. However, it does not imply any kind of isolationist strategy. This mission is being implemented in two phases:

• In Phase I, it will take into account sectors such as medical textiles, electronics, plastics, toys where local manufacturing, as well as export, can be promoted.
• In Phase II, the program will focus on products like gems and jewellery, pharma and steel, etc.

The mission is based on five pillars – Economy, Infrastructure, System, Vibrant Demography and Demand.

Month: Current Affairs - August, 2020