New Delhi: In encouraging signs of growing ‘Aatmanirbharta’ in defence, the defence ministry has used up 65.50 per cent of the capital acquisition budget for 2021-22 on indigenous buys, an official release said on Wednesday morning. This achievement, which will promote the home-grown indigenous industry, has exceeded the set target of 64 per cent for the financial year (FY) 2021-22. "Further, as per preliminary expenditure report of March 2022, MoD has been able to utilise 99.50 per cent of the Defence Services Budget in FY 2021-22," the release added.
Last year’s achievement is also laudable because of the peculiar circumstances in the neighbourhood with Pakistan continuing its proxy war with gusto while China’s unbridled belligerence would have changed the focus of the defence ministry not to speak of the pressure on the economy due to COVID 19. The border row with China led to a spurt in spending from logistical and transportation expenses besides new provisions like assault guns, winter clothing and mountain equipment. These initiatives are based on the prioritization of the procurement of capital items from domestic sources under the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020.
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For 2022-23, the capital expenditure to be incurred for the acquisition of new and advanced weapons, platforms and systems that will be reserved only for local buys has been set at 68%--a 4% hike from last year’s 64%. To promote the ‘Aatmanirbharta’ effort, the government has taken several policy initiatives in the past few years under the “Make in India” plan and brought in reforms to encourage indigenous design, development and manufacture of defence equipment in the country, thereby reducing import of defence equipment.
The other initiatives include the announcement of 18 major defence platforms for industry-led development, notification of three ‘positive indigenisation lists’ of 310 items, simplification of the industrial licensing process with a longer validity period, liberalisation of FDI policy allowing 74% FDI under the automatic route, simplification of ‘Make’ procedure, the launch of innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX), a scheme involving start-ups and MSMEs, implementation of public procurement order 2017, the launch of an indigenization portal namely 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.
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