The country has a strong defence industrial base which includes 41 Ordnance Factories (OFs), 09 Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), 205 Indian Private Companies covering 342 Industrial licenses and several other small and medium enterprises producing parts & components. In the last 3 years government has taken several measures such as liberalizing Industrial licensing regime, liberalizing Foreign Director Investment (FDI) policy, rationalizing Defence procurement process, streamlining defence offset guidelines etc. to further widen domestic defence industrial base.

In the Union Budget Estimates 2017-18 in respect of Ministry of Defence, the provisions are kept for an amount of Rs. 2,57,513.89 crore towards pay, allowances, pensions and maintenance of assets of Defence Services and Rs. 86,488.01 crore towards procurement of major equipments, machineries, etc.

The critical gaps of Indian Army in artillery guns, infantry weapons, light helicopters, night fighting devices, etc., have been identified and have been suitably addressed in 13th Defence Plan 2017-2022 and the Annual Acquisition Plan 2017-19. Modernisation and capability development are ongoing complex processes with long gestation period. The Government has taken a number of effective measures to streamline acquisition process through Defence Procurement Procedures (DPP) 2016 and strategic partnership model etc. This information was given by Minister of State for Defence Dr Subhash Bhamre in a written reply to Shri C Mahendran in Lok Sabha today.

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