Centre brought reforms to encourage indigenous design, development, and manufacture of defence equipment by Indian industry
The value of India’s defence production has crossed the figure of Rs.one lakh crore for the first time ever during the financial year 2022-23, the ministry told Parliament.
In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt said that the government has taken several policy initiatives in the past few years and brought in reforms to encourage indigenous design, development, and manufacture of defence equipment by Indian industry, including MSMEs and start-ups, thereby promoting ease of doing business in defence manufacturing and technology in the country.
Under this scheme, workshops and seminars are organized in collaboration with Industry associations and other stakeholders from different parts of the country, Bhatt added.
Besides this, the Indian Army has received the patent for the project ‘Accident Prevention System based on Artificial Intelligence’ developed indigenously by research and development within the organization. The Accident Prevention System would save lives by alerting drivers falling asleep while driving and reducing the vulnerability to accidents caused by drowsiness.
Bhatt also said that the government promotes the participation of MSMEs and startups in the development of defence technology under various schemes like Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX), Technology Development Fund (TDF), and ‘Make’ procedure under Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020.
The DAP 2020 provides special provisions to encourage MSMEs and startups.
Moreover, Public Procurement Policy for MSEs Order, 2012 has been implemented at DPSUs under which the price preference is given to MSME bidders under certain conditions. Further, DPSUs and services have uploaded more than 30,000 defence items on ‘The Srijan portal for indigenization’ and offered them to Industry including MSMEs to become partners in the indigenization process, Bhatt added.
The Minister also said that Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) had boosted the defence industrial manufacturing ecosystem by promoting the formation of startups by individual innovators and supporting sustenance to existing startups/ MSMEs. This has also led to the generation of employment opportunities.
Moreover, to bring MSMEs into the defence supply chain and thereby boost the country’s self-reliance in defence sector and contribute towards defence exports, the Ministry of Defence has made a scheme for the promotion of MSMEs in defence.
[With Inputs from IANS]
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