DEFENCE LEADS DRIVE TO INNOVATE MAKE IN INDIA

INDIA'S defence ecosystem has undergone major transformations in recent years with key institutional and policy changes spurring indigenisation, domestic capital procurement and exports.

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Atmanirbhar Bharat and Make In India are two goals of the government that have fueled large-scale changes in the sector.

In an era of uncertainty, achieving these goals would help mitigate risks on account of disruption or manipulation of critical supply chains-precisely the kind of challenges that have constrained Ukraine's performance on the battlefield against Russia.

The Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020 prescribed 50 percent indigenous content in procurement contracts. Further, in a bid to encourage foreign original equipment manufacturers to set up maintenance and manufacturing facilities in India, a new procurement category has been introduced to enable ab initio indigenisation of spares. The defence ministry has released several Positive Indigenisation Lists for procurement, including 5,000 items currently imported by defence public sector units.

A notable step was the 'Srijan' indigenisation portal launched in August 2020 to help domestic partners play an active role in the goal of self-reliance. Over 34,000 items that were being imported have been uploaded on the portal, of which nearly one-third are already in the process of being indigenised.

Two defence industrial corridors have been established in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. These have attracted investments to the tune of 7,000 crore. In November 2023, the Swedish arms major SAAB announced the first 100 percent FDI project to manufacture the Carl Gustav M4 rocket system in India.