Article Posted on : - Sep 30, 2020

NEW DELHI (PTI):  Defence Minister Rajnath Singh unveiled on Monday a new Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) that features steps to turn India into a global manufacturing hub of military platforms, reduce timelines for procurement of defence equipment and allow purchase of essential items by the three services through capital budget under a simplified mechanism.

Under the new policy, the offset guidelines have also been revised to give preference to defence majors offering to manufacture products in India instead of meeting the offset obligations through other means, officials said.

The DAP also incorporates new chapters on information and communication technologies, post-contract management, acquisition of systems developed by the state-run defence entities like the DRDO and Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), they said.

In what is seen as a significant move, the DAP featured measures to reduce delay in procurement of essential items by the three services as it proposed a new enabling provision to acquire them through capital budget under a simplified procedure in a time-bound manner.

Singh said the DAP has also included provisions to encourage foreign direct investment (FDI) to establish manufacturing hubs both for import substitution and exports while protecting the interests of Indian domestic industry.

"The offset guidelines have also been revised, wherein preference will be given to manufacture of complete defence products over components and various multipliers have been added to give incentivisation in discharge of offsets," the defence minister tweeted.

He said the DAP has been aligned with the vision of the government's 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' (self-reliant India) initiative and to empower Indian domestic industry through 'Make in India' projects with the ultimate aim of turning the country into a global manufacturing hub.

The policy also provides for single-stage accord of AoN (Acceptance of Necessity) in all cases up to Rs 500 crore to cut delays in approval of acquisition proposals.

The DAP also mentioned measures to reform pre-induction testing of defence equipment.

"Scope of trials will be restricted to physical evaluation of core operational parameters. Other parameters may be evaluated based on vendor certification, certification by accredited laboratories, computer simulations of parameters etc," it said.