The Indian government Thursday approved a proposal of joint ventures between state-run defense companies and private players, in a bid to give private sector greater access to the country's military arena, sources said.

"The proposal was approved by the Cabinet of Minister in a meeting this morning. As India is still overwhelmingly dependent on foreign military hardware and software, the moves are a step towards bolstering the domestic defense industrial base," the sources said.

The new policy was also a necessity as more than 40 offset contracts totaling over 500 billion rupees (10 billion U.S. dollars), including an 20 billion-dollar medium multi-function combat aircraft, are currently under negotiation with global armament firms which have bagged or about to clinch a big share of Indian defense deals, the sources said.

"The Indian Navy also has 46 warships on order, and several more in the pipeline. So private players are jostling with each other to grab both Indian as well as foreign warship-building contracts. It will be a major boost for them," the sources added.

The Indian government has reiterated its commitment to achieve the much-publicized target of procuring 70 percent of its defense requirements from indigenous sources by 2010. Despite its utmost efforts over the last two decades, India is nowhere near that goal as yet.