Earlier in August, the Ministry of Defence announced an embargo on 101 items in order to encourage indigenous production. India aims to minimise its defence imports and increase domestic production as well as become a global leader in defence exports.  India is the second-largest importer of defence equipment after Saudi Arabia.

Last week, the Ministry of Defence launched the ‘Srijan’ online portal. The Srijan portal is a one-stop-shop online portal that provides information about defence equipment and items that can be taken up for indigenisation by private sector companies. It will promote the indigenisation of defence items’ production.

The Srijan portal

The new ‘Srijan’ portal advertises opportunities for local companies to supply to Indian state-run tier-one manufacturers a wide range of components and materials that are currently being imported for integration into Indian defence platforms such as the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA).

Products advertised on 17 August numbered more than 2,000 and included components such as gyros, antennas, jig assemblies, transmitters, lenses, cooling systems, electronics modules, capacitors, power systems, bearings, sensors, diesel engines, containers, munitions, and underwater sound equipment.

According to the website, Indian original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) – including defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs) and the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) – will “display their items on this portal, which they have imported or going to import, each item having sizeable import value.”

PIB recorded:

The portal displays information in a structured way, which includes the item name, image and specification, values of imports, NATO Classification (indicative), etc. It also has a search facility.

In the first stage, DPSUs/OFB/SHQs have displayed those items which they have imported in 2019-20 and are going to import in 2020-21, for the annual value of the items as Rs 1 million and above. The number of items and their value of annual imports displayed year wise are as below.

The details

The Defence Ministry said two Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) were signed between the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs). These took place in the presence of Defence minister Rajnath Singh on August 14, the concluding day of “Atmanirbhar week.”

Two MoUs were signed between private entities and the DPSUs on Friday. According to the ministry, “Till sometime back, for our defence procurement, we have been looking towards the best technologies available in the world. But now our outlook has changed.”

“We are thinking about how to manufacture the latest equipment ourselves or through joint ventures or transfer-of-technology,” he added, as per the ministry’s statement, the Defence minister said.

  • The DPSUs, Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and headquarters of the armed forces (SHQs) can display on SRIJAN those items that are currently being imported so that the Indian industry can design, develop and manufacture them domestically as per its capability, the ministry noted.
  • The concerned DPSU or the OFB or the SHQ will interact with the Indian industry based on its requirement of the equipment and as per the guidelines.
  • The ministry said Goa Shipyard Limited signed an MoU on Friday with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Goa on areas such as artificial intelligence, the internet of things and computational field dynamics.
  • The DPSUs, Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and headquarters of the armed forces (SHQs) can display on SRIJAN those items that are currently being imported so that the Indian industry can design, develop and manufacture them domestically as per its capability, the ministry noted.
  • An MoU on the development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) i.e drones was signed between BEML Limited and IIT Kanpur. The company also signed an MoU with Nasscom, the Bengaluru-based apex body of IT companies.

Major companies seen investing

The Mazgaon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) signed an MOU on Friday for “indigenous overhauling of main motor of SSK Class Submarines” with Medha Servo Drives Private Limited.

The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) issued an EOI for indigenisation of 46 items having a total value of ? 100 crores, said the ministry. These items are for a Russian project.

The Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) issued an EOI for indigenisation of five items having a total value of ? 31 crore.

Similarly, Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) issued an EOI for indigenisation of 11 items having a total value of ? 15 crore.