Defence Minister Rajanth Singh on Monday, November 11, claimed that India will become a $10 trillion economies in the next 10 to 15 years.
Speaking at the inaugural session of Def Connect 2019 organised by the Ministry of Defence to display, Singh said, “Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a target of USD 5 trillion economies by 2024. Looking at the talent India possesses, I am pretty confident that we can become a $10 trillion economy in the next 10-15 years.”
Defence minister’s statement comes at a time when India is witnessing an economic slowdown. In October, the World Bank revised India’s Growth rate to 6.1 per cent from 7 per cent. This is the second consecutive year India’s economic growth has decelerated.
Singh said he feels proud to see the Indian startups growing exponentially and stressed that passionate incubation is required for them to push them to the forefront.
Describing incubation of startups as the most critical challenge, he said, “The idea may be great, and the innovative mind can also find a solution. However, unless the process of careful and passionate incubation provides the ideal environment for nurturing and hand holding a creation, projects might fail.”
However, soft banks that aid Indian startups reported a 6.4 billion dollar loss in the second quarter of the current financial year. This rings alarm bells for Indian startups as they depend upon these startups for initial funding.
Singh later ensured that over the time of 10 years, India will emerge as a net innovator and net exporters of defence technologies rather than importing it from outside.
He also called for bridging gaps between the private sector and public sector by building cohesion between them as Defence Minister believes that research, development and manufacturing are collaborative processes. The defence minister assured the government’s full support in the indigenisation of the defence industry and nation-building.
However, the dream appears distant of going self-reliant in the defence sector as India’s spending on defence is about 1.6 per cent of the GDP. As much as 30 per cent of India’s total defence budget is spent on capital acquisitions, and 90 per cent of requirements are currently met through imports.
Over Rs 4 lakh crore worth of military purchases have been cleared in the past four years, and the government asserts that two-thirds of the total approvals are under the Make in India category. However, in the same period, only 128 contracts worth about Rs 1,19,000 crore have been signed with Indian vendors for capital procurement of defence equipment. Others international investors are yet to seal the deal with India.
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