Separate Make in India policy to be out in 2 months: Manohar Parrikar

Bengaluru, Feb 18: Sensing the interest being generated across the aerospace and defence community globally, the Centre is planning to roll out a dedicated Make in India policy in the next two months.

Answering a specific question posed by OneIndia, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said that the separate policy will address the concerns being raised by the industry. He admitted that the current Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) lacked clarity and is not well articulated.

"The DPP has a lot of confusion. We need not squeeze everything into it. We are planning a comprehensive policy which will give more impetus to Make-In-India," the Defence Minister said.

He said the government has taken into account the issues being faced by the small and medium enterprises, who are acting as the foot soldiers in the defence supply chain.

The DPP, which is being rewritten and the Make in India policy, which is being given shape, he said, would offer a level-playing field to the ordnance factories, PSUs, import partners and domestic private industry.

He said as a first step to propel the Make in India idea, the government recently floated a request for information (RFI) globally to manufacture 338 helicopters (for both military and civil use).

He said while Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) has delivered a world-class product in Dhruv and its advances version in Rudra, the company needs to ramp up its production lines.

"HAL needs to augment its production capability. Right now, it has the capacity to make 25-30 helicopters per year, but it needs to be increased to be 50-100," Parrikar said.

Aero India will stay in Bengaluru

To another query on whether the air show will be shifted out of Bengaluru in 2017, as being speculated in a section of media, the minister said that despite the issues being faced by the growing city, he was hopeful of finding a solution.

"It will be Bengaluru next time as well and it is the ideal city. I've already told my men to prepare for the next show. Through better planning, we can create double the space at the AFS Yelahanka," the minister said.

MMRCA deal report before April

On the very sticky multi-billion dollar Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) deal, the minister refused to make any direct comment. "I have asked for a report on the matters linked to this deal. The Cost Negotiation Committee (CNC) is making the report," he said.
DRDO DGs get more powers

He said the Director-Generals heading various clusters in the DRDO have been given additional powers to take faster decisions. "They need not look to Delhi any more for each and every issues. This is the best case of decentralization," Parrikar said.

(The writer is a seasoned aerospace and defence journalist in India. He is the Consultant Editor (Defence) with OneIndia. He tweets @writetake.)

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