Embracing the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, the Defence Ministry has proposed to ban the import of weapons that can be manufactured in India. The suggestion was made in the amended draft Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) on July 28.
"The amended second draft is in line with the defence reforms announced as part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan and has been placed in the public domain," the ministry said.
The DAP's focuses on promoting self-reliance in defence equipment production, with an ultimate aim to develop India as a global defence manufacturing hub. The Ministry has sought comments from stakeholders by August 10, 2020.
"The Defence Ministry will notify a list of weapons/platforms banned for import, which will be updated from time to time based on the requirements of the various services," the draft said, according to a report by Business Line.
A budget head has been created by the Defence Ministry for ‘Make in India’ projects and a provision is being made for domestic capital procurement.
The first draft of the DAP, which was then called the Defence Procurement Procedure, was issued on March 20 this year. In a statement, the Defence Ministry said on Tuesday it received suggestions from various stakeholders running into more than 10,000 pages on the first draft. Therefore, after analysing those suggestions and holding meetings with stakeholders, the ministry said, the amended DAP was issued.
The Ministry said there are four new chapters in the amended DAP -- leasing; simplified capital expenditure procedure; acquisition of systems products and ICT systems; procurement from DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation), DPSUs (Defence Public Sector Units) and OFB (Ordnance Factory Board).
According to the Department of Defence Production, India aims to export defence products worth Rs 15,000 crore in 2020-21. Between April 1 and July 23, India has been able to export defence equipment and platforms worth Rs 1,892 crore, it said on its website.
In 2019-20 and 2018-19, India's defence exports stood at Rs 9,115 crore and Rs 8,320 crore, respectively, the department noted.
(With PTI inputs)
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