India plans to get 70 percent of its defence requirement from local manufacturers, its junior defence minister said on Thursday, opening up a potential $45 billion defence market for local firms over the next five years.
Indian authorities want to increase the role of India's private sector -- currently at around 20 percent of the defence industry market -- because foreign countries are not always keen to share advanced technologies, defence officials say.
"India has evident capacities in information technology and engineering design in the private sector... It now needs to deploy these same capabilities in the armed forces as well," Pallam Raju, Minister for State for Defence, said in New Delhi.
The country is one of the world's biggest arms importers, and the government wants to upgrade its largely Soviet-era arsenal to counter potential threats from Pakistan and China.
"There are significant opportunities for private industry to partner in the homeland security," Raju said.
India wants to build 100 warships over the next 10 years and develop battle tanks, artillery and low-cost shipbuilding capabilities.
The comments show the government's intention to boost defence and provide more opportunities to Indian companies such as Tata, Mahindra and Mahindra, Ashok Leyland and Larsen and Toubro, analysts said.
"The determination of the government to take forward what they announced in parliament is gaining shape and now they are putting together some numbers," Uday Bhaskar of the National Maritime Foundation, a defence think-tank, said.
