Defence Production Policy

At BS Manthan, experts stress that private sector investment is key to making India's defence industry self-reliant, competitive, and globally influential

The commerce ministry's arm DGFT on Tuesday said the Department of Defence Production has been authorised as the licensing authority for export of all items falling under the munitions category for military end-use. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has notified the updated SCOMET (Special Chemicals Organisms Materials Equipment and Technologies) list for 2024. It said that India's export control list (SCOMET) has been updated, incorporating the recent changes in the control lists of the multilateral export control regimes, and certain policy amendments on the basis of inputs from relevant government organisations and stakeholders. "With the recent update, DGFT has also authorised the Department of Defence Production (DDP), Ministry of Defence, to be the licensing authority for export of all items falling under Category 6 of SCOMET for military end use," it said in a statement. Category 6 list includes munitions such as weapons, rifles and magazines. India is a membe

Defence production should not be left to public sector

The rise in exports comes even as India remains among the world's biggest arms importers, with others such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar topping the list between 2018 and 2023

According to an official press release by the defence ministry, 79.2 per cent of the production was undertaken by the DPSUs and the other PSUs while 20.8 per cent by the private players

The 1.97-trillion-rupee ($24 billion) production-linked incentive scheme (PLI) is India's key industrial policy and covers 14 sectors ranging from electronic products to drones

Investments observed in key defence corridors in Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu

The total amount under defence offset stood at $2.9 billion as of March 2020, according to data from the Department of Defence Production

New Delhi and London are moving closer towards developing marine electric propulsion for the Indian Navy's "second indigenous aircraft carrier", or IAC-2

The government's ongoing policy push for import substitution and exports is a big propellent, driving the 15 per cent CAGR in India's defence production turnover

Total defence exports over the last five years has now crossed Rs 52,000 crore

In Feb 2018, the MoD established two defence industrial corridors to serve as engines of economic development and growth of defence industrial base in the country

"The current value of defence production in FY 2022-23 is a rise of more than 12 per cent over FY 2021-22, when the figure was Rs 95,000 crore," the MoD stated

"Hon'ble Raksha Mantri (Defence Minister) has approved that the DDP will conduct the 14th edition of Aero India 2023 at Air Force Station, Yelahanka, Bengaluru, from 13th- 17th February 2023"

Adds successive govts have failed to create national security strategy

The iDEX initiative was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April 2018, with the aim of fostering innovation and technology development in defence and aerospace

This is first case processed under strategic partnership model

Here are the best of Business Standard's opinion pieces for Friday

In the absence of robust technological and project management structures, MoD's indigenisation drive will remain questionable

This list supplements an earlier import embargo on 101 defence items announced last August