Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday (18 December) announced that France has agreed to manufacture a military engine in India under the strategic partnership model.

“I am happy to say that the French defence minister has agreed that for an engine that is not being made in India, a big French company will come here and will make it in India under the strategic partnership model,” Singh was quoted as saying in a report by Economic Times.

Singh was addressing the FICCI's Annual Convention & 94^th AGM on the theme 'India Beyond 75'.

He underlined that the central government is pushing for co-development in arms acquisition instead of directly importing them.

Singh also emphasised that with the current reforms undertaken by the government, the Indian defence and aerospace sector is likely to reach Rs 5 lakh crore by the year 2047 from current 85,000 crore.

He added that the Indian private sector plays a huge role in achieving the goal.

Singh further said that to promote the Indian domestic companies under Atmanirbhar Bharat, the government is working to expand the Positive Indigenization List of 208 items to 1,000 items, according to a statement by FICCI.

"In this decade, we will bring increase the items under the Positive list for Indigenization from current 209 to over 1000. The government now looks at private industry as their partners and in fulfilling the objective of attaining Atmanirbhar Raksha Utpadan," he said.