Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said that the import ban on 101 defence products announced last year, to be progressively implemented between 2020 and 2024 as part of the ‘Atmanirmbhar bharat’ drive, will boost domestic production and attract foreign companies to invest and set their manufacturing facilities in India.

Manufacturing base

“Going forward, we are inviting large foreign companies to come and make in India. We want them to make India their manufacturing base and meet the demand coming from all over the world,” the Minister said, addressing media on Sunday at Delhi’s BJP office.

The Centre had announced restrictions on import of 101 weapons and military platforms, including artillery guns, assault rifles, sonar systems, and transport aircraft for which the embargo on imports was planned to be progressively implemented between 2020 and 2024.

The idea is to promote the idea of ‘Make in India’ and serve the world, the Minister added.

Goyal said the Budget took care of every section of society without putting extra load on the taxpayer, and despite resource-constraint and a possibility of reduced revenue till next year.

Increasing employment

The Minister added that the 24 key sectors identified to boost their manufacturing by working on separate action plans, together with the Indian industry, would also contribute to make India a self reliant country and increase employment.

He said that these 24 sectors, which included a wide range of items such as toys, furniture, agro chemicals, textiles and processed food, had the capacity of increasing production by ₹20-lakh crore annually.

“Of this, one could expect about ₹6-₹6.5-lakh crore to go directly into the pockets of people and workers associated with these sectors,” he added.

The Minister noted that the US, under the Biden regime, had started bringing about changes in the visa regime that were favourable to Indians.

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