The Ministry of Defence has approved 119 defence proposals, worth Rs 2,15,690 crore approximately, under the various categories of capital acquisition, in the last three years, to promote domestic manufacturing under the Make in India programme, Parliament was told on Monday.
“In the last three financial years – from 2018-19 to 2020-2021, the government has accorded Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) to 119 Defence proposals, worth Rs 2,15,690 crore approximately, under the various categories of capital acquisition, which promotes domestic manufacturing as per DAP,” Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt told Loktantrik Janata Dal Rajya Sabha member M.V. Shreyams Kumar in a written reply.
“As per Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP), priority has been accorded to capital acquisition through ‘Buy (Indian-IDDM)’, ‘Buy (Indian)’, ‘Buy and Make (Indian)’, ‘Buy and Make’ (Strategic Partnership Model) or ‘Make’ categories over Buy (Global) category,” Bhatt said.
Significant projects including 155mm artillery gun system ‘Dhanush’, bridge-laying tank, thermal imaging sight Mark-II for T-72 tank, light combat aircraft ‘Tejas’, ‘Akash’ surface to air missile system, submarine ‘INS Kalvari’, Kolkata-class stealth guided-missile destroyer ‘INS Chennai’, anti-submarine warfare corvette (ASWC), Arjun armoured repair and recovery vehicle, landing craft utility, etc. have been produced in the country under ‘Make in India’ initiative of the government in last few years, the Minister said.
Further, the production of indigenous defence equipment and innovations therein is a dynamic process and their development is decided on the basis of operational requirements of the armed forces, he noted.
“So, no specific timeline can be assigned in such cases. Procurement of defence equipment is undertaken from various domestic as well as foreign vendors, based on threat perception, operational challenges and technological changes and to keep the Armed Forces in a state of readiness to face the security challenges,” he said.
…With IANS inputs