New Delhi, March 30 (IANS): India's defence sector is expected to provide business opportunities worth $250 billion in the next seven to eight years, a senior industry ministry official said on Monday.

If India is going to import $140 billion of defence equipment in the next seven years and homeland security is going to need another $110 billion, this would spell "$250 billion worth of business in the next seven to eight years", said Amitabh Kant, secretary, department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP).

"How quickly we can transform ourselves into a defence manufacturing country is a key challenge to India," Kant said at an industry chamber Assocham event where invitees included Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit and Belgian Ambassador Jan Luykx.

"We have opened up defence, railways, insurance and medical devices. Other than multi-brand retail, India is the most open economy of the world today. How quickly we can use our defence manufacturing sector... That is a huge area for growth in the future," he added.

Kant also said that the government plans to soon implement a mechanism whereby states will be ranked based on the ease of doing business.

"We are commissioning a professional agency to evaluate all the states and rank best and worst performing states," he said.

"The real action is in the states," he added.