Ministry of Defence (MoD) organised a post-budget webinar titled ‘Aatmanirbharta in Defence - Call to Action’ on the announcements made in Union budget 2022-23, on February 25, 2022. The Union Budget 2022-23 related to the MoD has given further impetus to Aatmanirbharta in Defence and the objective of the webinar was to involve all the stakeholders in taking forward the various initiatives of the Government in the defence sector.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered the inaugural address of the webinar where he said that the theme of the webinar indicates the mood of the nation. The recent years’ effort to strengthen Aatmanirbharta in the defence sector is clearly visible in this year’s Budget. The Prime Minister stressed that the, “uniqueness and surprise elements can only happen when the equipment is developed in your own country”.

The Defence Minister delivered the valedictory address in which he hoped that the webinar will add momentum to the budget announcements and pave the way for their speedy implementation. He thanked the participants for providing valuable inputs for strengthening the Government’s intent to make India a global defence manufacturing hub. He made a series of announcements to encourage the industry and the start-ups as follows:

• At least five projects under Make-I during Financial Year 2022-23 to be sanctioned to promote Industry led R&D efforts.
• A monitoring mechanism under DG Acquisition to be created, with representatives from all the three Services to monitor the budget earmarked, specifically for private industry and start-ups, so that it is fully utilised.
• QA process to be reformed so that it is non-intrusive, prevention based and free from Inspector-Raj.
• iDEX-Prime to support projects, requiring support beyond 1.5 crore up to 10 crore, to help ever-growing start-ups in the defence sector.