Briefing: Local industry needs more time to benefit from Indian procurement revamp

The impact of India's updated defence procurement procedures (DPPs) on indigenous defence production will be limited unless the Ministry of Defence (MoD) allows local industries more time to draw up detailed manufacturing proposals, according to a senior academic at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) in New Delhi.

Although the updated DPP - which became active on 1 November - states that the MoD will publish a 15-year plan outlining a "technology perspective and capability roadmap" in a bid to assist industries' planning, Laxman K Behera, an associate fellow at IDSA, told Jane's on 18 November that domestic defence companies need to be informed at a far earlier stage that they have been selected to provide services or equipment.

"The 15-year plan will no doubt help the domestic enterprises to know, much in advance, about the requirements of the armed forces and therefore enable them to draw up a specific proposal. But this is not the end of the story," he said.

Speaking to Jane's on 11 November, Behera said the updated DPPs could provide India's defence industries with a "tremendous opportunity" to develop over the next decade.

However, in his comments of 18 November Behera explained that in order for the DPP's newly created procurement category - which is called 'Buy and Make (Indian)' - to be effective and increase levels of indigenous defence manufacturing the government needs to give industries more time between the placement of an order and the actual delivery of a system or platform.