Steps taken to boost indigenisation: Parrikar

The government has initiated steps to boost indigenisation of defence equipment and a vast majority of new acquisitions were in "buy (Indian)" or "buy and make (Indian)" categories, parliament was told Friday.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said during question hour in the Lok Sabha that government was for manufacturing defence equipment in India.

"As far as new acquisitions are concerned, of Rs.75,000 crore cleared by the DAC (defence acquisition council), Rs.65,000 crore is for buy (Indian) and buy and make (Indian) categories," he said.

The minister, however, said that manufacturing certain equipment may not be economically feasible and the country would need to import these.

Referring to the proposed acquisitions such as of medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA), the minister said the government will stick to the process that have been finalized.

"Where defence acquisitions have almost come to end stage, we will stick to RFP (request for proposal)," he said.

However, he said India will seek to derive maximum benefit where defence equipment was being imported.

Parrikar said that the government was also looking at export of defence equipment but a proper mechanism had to be evolved on "whom to export to and what item".

He said action had been initiated by the government to increase in export of defence equipment may take some time.

Answering a query on indigenisation, he agreed that statistics may be "hiding more".

He said indigenization implied that equipment had been manufactured in India and more than 50 percent of its parts were indigenous. "There is 100 percent indigenisation in a very few items," he said.

The DRDO and defence public sector undertakings had been asked to keep increasing the level of indigenisation, he said.