Over 12,300 defence items have been indigenised in last three years; DPSUs have placed orders worth Rs 7,572 crore on domestic vendors
By Vikas Gupta
Defence News of India, 17th July 24
With the aim of boosting Aatmanirbharta (self-reliance) in defence production and minimising imports by Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has notified a fifth Positive Indigenisation List (PIL) consisting of 346 defence items.
The MoD has ordered that “these items will only be procured from the Indian Industry after the timelines of indigenisation as indicated in the list available on the MoD’s Srijan portal (https://srijandefence.gov.in).”
A PIL is expected to provide assurance to the domestic defence industry, which has frequently burned its fingers by expended money and effort on developing a defence product. It led to the MoD importing it from the global market instead.
The MoD had launched the Srijan portal in 2020. This provides a forum for DPSUs and Service Headquarters (SHQs) to offer defence items for indigenisation to private industries, including micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and start-ups.
“Our aim is to apprise the Indian defence industry about the anticipated requirements of the armed forces, so that they are better prepared to realise the goal of indigenization,” declared Rajnath Singh at the release of the first list in August 2020.
The items expected to be indigenised include strategically important line replacement units (LRUs)/systems/ sub-systems/assemblies/sub-assemblies/spares and components and raw materials, with import substitution value worth Rs 1,048 crore.
The DPSUs involved in the fifth PIL include: Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML), India Optel Limited (IOL), Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL), Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL), Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd (GRSE) and Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) .
These have initiated process for issuing Expressions of Interest/Requests for Proposal on their respective websites.
The first PIL of 101 items was promulgated by the MoD in August 2020. This was followed by a second PIL consisting of 108 defence equipment items, bringing to 209 the number of items that must be compulsorily procured from Indian companies, the number rising each year, out to 2025.
In this incremental manner, four PILs comprising 4,666 items have so far been notified by the MoD for DPSUs.
Of this, 2,972, having import substitution value worth Rs 3,400 crore, have already been indigenised.
These five lists for DPSUs are in addition to the five PILs of 509 items notified by the Department of Military Affairs (DMA). These lists include highly-complex systems, sensors, weapons and ammunition.
Till June 2024, over 36,000 defence items were offered to the industry for indigenisation by the DPSUs and SHQs. Of them, more than 12,300 items have been indigenised in the last three years. As a result, the DPSUs have placed orders on domestic vendors to the tune of Rs 7,572 crore.
