India allows local private firms to build submarines

New Delhi: India has finalised its much-awaited defence policy to allow local private firms to build — through long-term foreign partnerships — high-tech equipment like submarines, fighter aircrafts and armoured vehicles.

The strategic partnership model, whose “broad contours” were finalised by the Defence Acquisition Council on Saturday, may get the Cabinet’s approval this month itself, in a boost to the Centre’s effort to cut reliance on imports in matters of national security.

The defence ministry’s apex procurement panel, which usually meets once a month, has now met twice in a week, in a clear indication of the government’s keenness to push through the critical policy.

Deliberations, chaired by defence minister Arun Jaitley, reviewed ongoing acquisitions of military hardware and finalised “the broad contours of a policy aimed at engaging the Indian private sector in the making of defence equipment in India.”