New Delhi. According priority to procurement of capital items from domestic sources under Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP)-2020 are among the several policy initiatives the government has taken in the past few years and brought in reforms to encourage indigenous design, development and manufacture of defence equipment, thereby promoting self-reliance in defence manufacturing & technology in the country, parliament was informed on August 1.
These initiatives, inter-alia, include announcement of 18 major defence platforms for industry led design and development; notification of three Positive Indigenisation Lists of 310 items of Services and two Positive Indigenisation Lists of 2,958 items of Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), for which there would be an embargo on the import beyond the timelines indicated against them; simplification of industrial licensing process with longer validity period; liberalization of FDI policy allowing 74 per cent FDI under automatic route; simplification of Make Procedure; launch of Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) scheme involving start-ups & Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs); implementation of Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order 2017; launch of an indigenisation portal SRIJAN to facilitate indigenisation by Indian Industry, including MSMEs; reforms in offset policy with thrust on attracting investment and transfer of technology for defence manufacturing by assigning higher multipliers; and establishment of two Defence Industrial Corridors, one each in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu; opening up of defence R&D for industry, start-ups and academia with 25 per cent of defence R&D budget; and progressive increase in allocation of defence budget of military modernization for procurement from domestic sources, et al, Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.
Three Positive Indigenisation Lists comprising of 310 (101+108+101) items were promulgated by Department of Military Affairs (DMA), on August 21, 2020, May 31, 2021 and April 7, 2022 respectively.
In addition, to minimise import by defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs), Department of Defence Production (DDP) notified two Positive Indigenisation Lists (PIL) of sub-systems/assemblies/sub-assemblies/components on December 27, 2021 and March 28, 2022 respectively.
The first list contains 2,851 items out of which 2,500 items have already been indigenised. The second list consists of 107 strategic important line replacement units/major sub-assemblies.
All these lists have been placed in the public domain on the website of MoD/SRIJAN defence portal. These lists include wide range of defence products including light tanks, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles etc. for which there would be an embargo on the import beyond the timelines indicated against them, Bhatt said.
