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Govt assures action on Ease of Doing Business in Defence Sector
Apr 26, 2018
NEW DELHI, 26 April 2018: Dr. Ajay Kumar, Secretary (DP) has assured the industry that the Ministry of Defence was keen to align procurement and production and the recently constituted Defence Planning Committee chaired by the NSA will also undertake this issue.
In an interactive meeting with industry leaders at FICCI on the Draft Defence Production Policy (DProP) 2018, yesterday, he also shared that the process of facilitating the 'Ease of Doing Business' will be a priority of his ministry and a slew of new measures may soon be announced.
The DProP-2018 released by the Government recently is aimed at increasing India's turnover of defence goods and services to USD 26 billion by 2025 and adding three million more jobs to the market.
FICCI has done an extensive study of the document and has submitted the comments of its members to the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Industry reaction to the new DPP has been positive but it feels that the real hurdle to growth of defence business is the implementation of the policy actions.
MoD wants FICCI to create a platform for collecting feedback on a National Indigenisation Plan from its members. The scheme will offer MSMEs the opportunity to bid for parts and components that hitherto has been imported by DPSU/OFB for integration into their systems. Once shortlisted by following the selection procedure, the vendor will be assured a minimum order quantity to support their business case.
Dr. Kumar also added that the implementations of the Public Procurement Order and Third Party Certification Guidelines for Quality Assurance are other reforms that the MoD is keen to implement soon.
While delivering the keynote address at the Industry interaction jointly organised by FICCI and the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), Dr. Ajay Kumar said, "Success of Defence Procurement Orders depends on a realistic notification," calling for continued inputs from industry during the policy planning phase.
The conference deliberated on topics such as Ease of Doing Business in Defence, Defence Start-up Ecosystem, Public-Private Partnership in Defence Production, before the industry interaction with the Secretary.