Intensifying the pursuit to achieve self-reliance in defence manufacturing and minimise the imports of defence arsenals, the Ministry of Defence has bolstered the drive for indigenisation of defence items by its Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs). Further, the progress is being reviewed on weekly basis by Defence Secretary Dr. Ajay Kumar.
Acting on the same ethos, a comprehensive user-friendly dashboard on ‘Srijan Portal’ has been developed to monitor the status of progress of indigenisation. The dashboard provides real-time end-to-end updates of several activities being taken up by the respective DPSUs during the process of indigenisation.
Notably, transparent information, analytics, and various customised reports to assess the performance of the DPSUs are some of the features of the portal.
As per the official statement by the Ministry of Defence,” Relevant information like details of items to be indigenised, tentative order quantity, concerned DPSU, route of indigenisation to be adopted, details of in-charge Nodal Officer, details of expression of Interests, Requests for Proposal, project sanction order, etc. have been kept in the public domain to make it accessible to the industry.”
The dashboard will be accessible by industry shortly. The industry partners can view the details on the dashboard and avail opportunities as per their capabilities in order to become partners in ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’, it added.
Notably, the Defence Ministry will monitor the actions taken by the DPSUs through this dashboard. It is expected that the dashboard is likely to become a game-changer to intensify the indigenisation process.
Boosting domestic defence ecosystem
To bolster domestic defence manufacturers, the Department of Defence Production (DDP) had notified two Positive Indigenisation Lists in December 2021 and March 2022 in respect of DPSUs.
The first list contains 2,851 defence items, out of which 2,500 items are already indigenised and 351 items are being indigenized. The second list notified 107 major Line Replacement Units/Sub-systems for indigenisation.
These items pertain to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL), Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL), Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd (GRSE), Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL), Armoured Vehicles Nigam Limited (AVNL), Munitions India Limited (MIL), Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) and Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML).
Out of 107 items, DPSUs have already issued Expression of Interest (EoIs) for 98 items and the action is underway for issuing EoIs for the remaining nine items. Out of the 98 EoIs, 28 cases have already progressed to the next stages and 70 EoIs are inactive stages.
Additionally, Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has already issued five Project Sanction Orders (PSO) to the Industry for the development of items under Make –II route. Projects under ‘Make-II’ category involve prototype development of defence equipment or their sub-systems primarily for import substitution or innovative solutions.
Further, 11 items, including nine items of Armoured Vehicles Nigam Limited (AVNL) and two items of Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd (GRSE), are in Prototype Design & Development stage under various routes.
