Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh has called for an increased participation of the private sector in defence manufacturing to realise the Government's vision of making India a $5 trillion economy by 2024. In his address at the ET Global Business Summit, Raksha Mantri said, the manufacturing sector has the potential to reach $1 trillion by 2025 and the Government is striving to achieve the goal by implementing key flagship programmes like ‘Make in India', besides building policies relevant to the digital-economy and fostering human-capital.
Urging the defence industry to make best use of the emerging opportunities, Raksha Mantri said, a slew of structural reforms has been taken by the Government to create increased synergy between the industry and the public sector to overcome the challenges of private investment in defence. "In our envisaged Defence Production Policy, we have clearly spelt out our goal to achieve a turnover of $26 billion in aerospace and defence goods & services by 2025. This will have huge implications for India's endeavours to promote R&D, innovation and its efforts to secure a place in global supply chains," the Defence Minister said. He added that the necessity of becoming internationally competitive, globally innovative and structurally efficient demands that the private sector plays a crucial role in defence production. Raksha Mantri also mentioned about the opportunities being provided by the Government for the manufacture of mega defence programmes including fighter aircraft, helicopters, tanks and submarines through the Strategic Partnership Model  will allow private companies to grow in stature and become global giants in the coming years. He voiced the Government's aim to double the size of aeronautics industry from Rs 30,000 crore to Rs 60,000 crore by 2024 and provide increased opportunities to global aerospace industry to become supplier of Aero‐components.

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