Government issues naval armament business licence to private, public companies

NEW DELHI: Government has issued industrial licences for naval armament business to large public and private sector companies including Larsen & Tubro, Pipavav and BHEL.

Industrial licences have also been awarded to ABG Shipyard and Alpha Design Technologies.

These licences have been given for works relating to warships, sub-marines, weapon platforms, high-speed boats and patrol research vessels, as per a presentation posted on the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion's website.

It said that armed forces and homeland security would procure capital equipment worth over USD 200 billion in the next seven years throwing open a huge business opportunity.

It also lists Central and state government's measures to boost defence manufacturing in the country besides incentives for setting up projects in states including Karnataka, Maharashtra and Telangana.

India has the world's eighth largest annual defence budget and about 70 per cent of its defence requirement are met through imports.

"The Indian aerospace and defence market is among the most attractive globally and the government is keen to leverage this in order to promote defence manufacturing," it said.

To attract FDI, the government had increased the cap from 26 per cent to 49 per cent.