‘Indian companies bagged big share’

Call it the indigenization effort, Indian vendors have bagged a plum share of defence contracts as well as garnered a large chunk of the funds kept aside for capital procurement of defence equipment in the last two years.

Submitting a written reply to a query in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said that in the last two financial years (2014-15 and 2015-16), 73 of the 108 contracts for capital procurement of defence equipment or 68 per cent have been bagged by Indian vendors. This works out to Rs 72,303.34 crore or 64 per cent of the total value of Rs 1,12,736.81 crore.

Capital procurement of defence equipment includes purchase of ships, missiles, frigates, rockets, simulators, aircraft, helicopters and radars etc.

The minister added that the contracts were inked in accordance with the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP), which contains provisions relating to security aspects, which are kept in view before finalising contracts with Indian and foreign vendors.

The new DPP has come into effect from April 1, 2016 and focuses on institutionalising and streamlining procedures to give a boost to the ‘Make in India’ initiative of the government by promoting indigenous design, development and manufacturing of defence equipment, platforms, systems and sub-systems.

The ‘Make’ procedure has also been refined to ensure increased participation of Indian industry.

With the entire procurement process being very time-consuming, DPP-2016 has laid down further provisions to ensure swift decision making in defence buys.