New Delhi, March 28 (FN Agency) Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said that there is no question to weaken the Defence Public Sector Undertakings and the government has taken a number of steps to strengthen them. Replying to the question asked by the Congress MP KC Venugopal during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, Rajnath Singh said that over 80 per cent of procurement has been done from the DPSU. “Every effort is made to strengthen the DPSUs by fully supporting them. They have created liabilities, we are clearing the liabilities,” the minister said. Replying to queries, MoS Defence Ajay Bhatt told Rajya Sabha that the security of the country will strengthen only when the country becomes self reliant in defence technology.
“In the 14 years from 2001 to 2014, we got only 215 licences, while in the seven years since 2014, 353 licences have been awarded so far for manufacturing defence equipment,” he said. He said that from 2001 to 2014, India received a total of Rs 1382 Crore worth FDI in the Defence sector which rose to Rs 3343 crore in last seven years during the present government. Bhatt said that during financial year 2022-23, over 68 per cent of defence procurement has been given to the domestic sector. Congress MP KC Venugopal wanted to know if the government’s policies strengthened the indigenous production in the defence sector specially the public sector units of the defence sector.