Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today said foreign direct investment in the defence and aviation sector takes time and expressed confidence that indigenisation will gather pace by next year as some of the regulatory issues get sorted out.

Speaking at Adibatla, about 50 km from Hyderabad, where he inaugurated the aerospace facility of Boeing and Tata venture, the Defence Minister said, “Various items required for army and defence applications are not procured off-the-shelf. They take a long time to finalise what to procure and then when the order is placed, it takes time to get executed.”

Referring to defence procurement, he said, “The Prime Minister's Make in India plan will drive indigenisation and attract FDI.”

And for local manufacturing to gather pace, India needs to skill people to handle tasks that are required to meet the specific needs of domestic manufacturing.

“We are keen on skilling manpower for the defence and aviation sectors. We are working with Boeing on the types of skills we would require to facilitate growth of domestic manufacturing,” he said

The Defence Minister said, “I am keen that at least two fighter Make in India projects would come up. But to achieve this we would have to create the right environment, and provide necessary skills.”

“The Government is confident that the Make In India will gather pace and happen on a large scale. We continue to address issues relating to local manufacturing and once these get sorted out, I am confident that by the end of 2017, the defence sector will attract new investments,” he said.

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