New Delhi, August 30
Unveiling its new defence procurement policy, the government today mandated a reinvestment in the country of 30 per cent of all defence deals of more than Rs 3 billion, coupled with providing a level playing field for indigenous manufacturers and their foreign counterparts.

New weapons procurement procedures brought into focus the fast track route, along with making field trials of weapons systems more transparent.

The Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) 2006 provided for a pre-contract integrity pact in all deals worth over Rs 1 billion and the offset clause.

Henceforth, all major decisions would be taken simultaneously in a collegiate manner so as to overcome the cumbersome procedures which had held up direly needed acquisitions for the armed forces for an interminably long period of time.

Simultaneously, the generic requirements of the three services would be placed on the Defence Ministry’s website to enable vendors register themselves on the Internet.

Emphasising that the DPP 2006 was a refinement of the DPP 2005, Union Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said this had been possible because of the reforms initiated by him on assuming office two years ago to ensure greater transparency and probity in defence deals.

He noted that their consistent effort had been to see that all delays in the modernisation of the armed forces were eliminated and funds marked for modernisation were spent fully and on time.

In the past two years, the utilisation of allocations in the defence budget had been consistently around 99 per cent, the minister observed.

Mr Mukherjee was quick to point out that the lacuna connected with the procedure for acquiring defence equipment based on indigenous research and design had been addressed in the DPP 2006.

On the specific issue of make, he expressed confidence that this would bridge the gap in defence procurement procedures and go a long way in the increased participation of the Indian industry in the defence sector.

The new procurement policy indicated that international tenders for some mega defence deals like the acquisition of multi-role combat aircraft would get moving.

Sources said the proposals for 126 combat aircraft might be issued next month at an estimated cost of well above $12 billion.

Then there was the Army keen to acquire 197 helicopters to replace the Chetaks and the Cheetahs.

The Bell helicopter and the European Consortium’s Eurocopter had been shortlisted and evaluated.

Then there was also the purchase of the new upgraded 155 mm guns.