Rs 2.15-lakh cr defence proposals for domestic industry, says govt

New Delhi, July 19

The government on Monday informed the Rajya Sabha that in the past three financial years it had accepted the necessity for 119 military equipment making proposals worth Rs 2,15,690 crore and these are to be made domestically.

Acceptance of necessity is a technical term used by the Ministry of Defence, it defines the first stage of the proposal.

The information was part of the written answers the Ministry of Defence submitted to querries of MPs. The reference was the period commencing April 1, 2018, to March 31, 2021 — that is three financial years.

According to the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP), priority has been accorded to capital acquisition and significant projects, including 155 mm artillery gun system “Dhanush”, bridge laying tank, thermal imaging sight for T-72 tank, Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, Akash surface to air missile system, submarine ‘INS Kalvari’, ‘INS Chennai’, anti-submarine warfare corvette (ASWC), Arjun armoured repair and recovery vehicle, landing craft utility, etc have been produced in the country under ‘Make in India’ initiative of the government in last few years.

In response to another question, the MoD said it had been decided to earmark an amount of Rs 71,438 crore for procurement from domestic sources out of the total allocation of Rs 1,11,463 crore acquisition. — TNS