Despite having better self-reliant defense policy, systemic issues need to be addressed effectively by the Ministry of Defense. Explain (200 Words)
Refer - Financial Express
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 2 years
KEY POINTS
· The prime minister recently highlighted the many challenges attached to defence import as he exhorted Indian industry to work towards atmanirbharta in defence production.
· Although the soundness of complete self-reliance, especially in a technology-heavy sector such as defence equipment, is debatable, even the staunchest critics of such an approach wouldn’t deny the importance of domestic capacity.
· This is more so in a context like India’s dependence on supply from Russia forcing its hand in not taking a more forceful stand on the war against Ukraine.
· The Defence Acquisition Policy (DAP) 2020 and the draft Defence Production and Export Policy (DDEP) 2020 were designed to enthuse industry.
· DAP 2020 pushed up the indigenous content requirement for various procurement categories while the DDEP aims to grow procurement from domestic players, public sector and private, from Rs 80,000 crore in FY20 to Rs 140,000 crore by 2025.
· A few pain points need addressing. Domestic procurement has to be robust and long-running. The government has been maladroit here, best illustrated by the case of L&T’s gun manufacturing concern flagging order-book issues last year this looks to have been somewhat resolved.
· Procurement is beset by systemic and external delays, something that DDEP acknowledges and talks about tackling. However, whether these can be resolved soon remains to be seen.
