Lockdown exit-strategy: PM Modi chairs high level meeting with his ministers

May 01: As India has almost approached the end of Lockdown 2.0, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his ministers on Friday to firm up a post-lockdown strategy. Lockdown 2.0 will end on 3 May. The top ministers with whom Modi sat for meeting are Home Minister Amit Shah, Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, and Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba.

The discussions involved reforming of the functioning of the Ordnance factories, streamlining procurement procedures, focused resource allocation, encouraging R&D/innovation, attracting investment in critical defence technologies and promotion of exports. He reviewed the proposed reforms for attracting domestic and foreign investment in defence sector. It was discussed that defence expenditure be economized and the savings be channelised for strategic defence capital acquisition. India should reduce dependence on imports and take forward “Make in India” to build its domestic capabilities for designing, developing and manufacturing state-of-the-art defence equipment, said the Prime Minister.

The home ministry has indicated that there will be considerable relaxations for many districts from Monday, while restrictions will continue in the “red zone”, or areas worst affected by COVID-19. One of the important agendas of the meeting is the restarting of the aviation industry. However, the final decision on relaxing lockdown measures will be taken by PM Modi.