NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday held a "detailed" meeting to discuss the potential reforms to ensure a robust and self-reliant defence industry in India that caters to short and long-term needs of the armed forces to give a boost to the economy in wake of the coronavirus pandemic.During the meeting, the PM laid emphasis on positioning India among the top countries of the world in defence and aerospace sectors, from design to production, with active participation of public and private sector, fulfilling the twin objectives of self-reliance and exports, an official statement said. PM Modi also reviewed the proposed reforms for attracting domestic and foreign investment in the defence sector.The meeting was attended by home minister Amit Shah , defence minister Rajnath Singh , finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman , among others.The discussions in the meeting involved reforming of the functioning of the ordnance factories, streamlining the procurement procedures, focused resource allocation, encouraging R&D/innovation, attracting investment in critical defence technologies and promotion of exports, the government statement said."It was discussed that defence expenditure be economized and the savings be channelised for strategic defence capital acquisition."Issues relating to defence procurement processes, offset policies, indigenization of spares, transfer of technology, attracting global OEMs to establish manufacturing facilities in India, expanding our presence in international supply chains, etc were also deliberated upon," the government said.The meeting also emphasised that for India to emerge as a global leader in defence manufacturing, focus should be on the export of quality and state-of-the-art equipment/systems/platforms.The PM directed that India should reduce dependence on imports and take forward "Make in India" campaign to build its domestic capabilities for designing, developing and manufacturing state-of-the-art defence equipment."He emphasized on initiatives to promote export of defence products along with industry participation in global defence product value chain and to create an environment that encourages R&D, rewards innovation, creates Indian IP ownership," the government said.