New Delhi, Feb 11 (IANS): Capital procurement of defence equipment are undertaken from various domestic as well as foreign vendors based on threat perception, operational challenges and technological changes so as to keep the armed forces in a state of readiness and to meet the entire spectrum of security challenges, Minister of State for Defence, Ajay Bhatt, said in the Lok Sabha on Friday.

Bhatt said that the defence procurement procedure (DPP) and defence acquisition procedure (DAP) with a focus on ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat' and ‘Make in India' introduced major policy initiatives for boosting indigenous defence capability and reduction of reliance on imports.

Further, DAP-2020 provides the highest preference to ‘Buy Indian (IDDM)' category of acquisition and ‘Buy Global' is only permitted in exceptional situations with the specific approval of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), Bhatt added.

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, the minister said that to achieve self-reliance in defence sector and to provide impetus to design, development and manufacture of defence equipment in India, some initiatives have been undertaken by the government.

As per these initiatives, a new category of ‘Buy (Global - Manufacture in India)' has been introduced to enable ab-initio indigenisation of spares. This category encourages foreign OEMs to set up ‘manufacturing or maintenance entities' through their subsidiaries in India.

The government has also introduced Make III categories with the objective of self-reliance through import substitution. Steps have also been taken for simplification of industrial licensing process with longer validity period.

According to the Ministry of Defence, the launch of the Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) scheme involving startups and MSMEs is also part of these initiative.