The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), which met on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, accorded Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for capital acquisition proposals of armed forces worth ₹8,357 crore. These include procurement of night sight (image intensifier), light vehicles GS 4X4, air defence fire control radar (Light) and GSAT-7B communication satellite for the Army.
“Acquisition of these equipment and systems will enhance operational preparedness of armed forces by providing better visibility, enhanced mobility, improved communication and increased capability of detecting enemy aircraft,” a Defence Ministry statement said.
As an impetus to ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’, all of these proposals have been approved under ‘Buy [Indian IDDM (Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured)]’ category with focus on indigenous design, development and manufacturing in India, the Ministry stated.
To encourage innovation, the DAC also accorded consolidated AoN for procurements amounting to ₹380.43 crore from the iDEX startups and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME).
To accelerate the pace of indigenisation, achieve self-reliance in defence and to facilitate ease of doing business for defence industry, DAC approved several policy initiatives in the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020. “All modernisation requirements of defence forces to be indigenously sourced and import to be resorted to only as exception,” the statement said.
To reduce financial burden on defence industry, requirement of Integrity Pact Bank Guarantee (IPBG) is to be dispensed with and Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) to be introduced as bid security and PCIP cover upto contract stage. EMD will be applicable only for proposals of Rs 100 Crore and above and MSMEs and startups will be exempted from EMD, the Ministry said.
Vendors whose products are successfully trial evaluated will be provided a certificate to that effect. Further, iDEX and Make-II procedures have been simplified thereby compressing timelines and ensuring early placement of contracts on successful vendors, the statement added.
