ET GBS: Punish law breakers instead of more regulations, says Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar

NEW DELHI: Batting for lesser restrictive regulations for promotion of business, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today said the focus should be on quickly and effectively punishing the person who breaks law.

Talking about "unleashing" Make in India initiative in the defence sector, Parrikar said that the Ministry has undertaken a number of measures and added in a lighter vein that defence sector was like a Doberman and one has to be careful while unleashing it.

"In India, we have a tendency, not totally wrong from a bureaucratic angle, we try to curb the wrong by creating more regulations rather than believing in punishing the person who misused the law. More restrictions lead to a situation where ultimately you are tied down," Parrikar said speaking at the Economic Times Global Business Summit.

He said 'Make in India' can succeed if we can change the mindset.

"Rather than putting up more regulatory systems, there should be a mechanism by which you punish quickly and effectively who violate the existing laws. It should be quick," he said.

Talking about defence exports, he said that the government has removed almost all restrictions and in 2016 there will be easier ways of exporting even higher level material.

Parrikar said that his ministry is also improving the framework for defence purchases and has increased the FDI cap besides easing it.

"The 49 per cent FDI (increase in cap) was absolutely essential. On a case to case basis we can consider even more. The process for that has been reduced to the ministerial level instead of the cabinet level which was much more difficult," Parrikar said.

"We have done the unleashing but there is a difference between unleashing a doberman and a mild mannered... defence is more like a doberman. When you unleash it, you have to be more careful that it does not bite you. I have to take care of that. I think we have done a lot," he said.