New Defence Procurement Policy on Nov 1

India will bring out its new Defence Procurement Policy (DPP) on November 1 to promote joint ventures or co-production arrangements for big foreign original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) with domestic firms. The new policy will incorporate changes in the DPP-2008 released last September.

 

Defence Minister A K Antony told a seminar on defence acquisition here that the current review in DPP, which would be carried out annually instead of once in two years, aims at "promoting and facilitating" Indian industry and "transparency and integrity" in defence acquisitions.

"We have, as per our resolve to revise the DPP annually, reviewed the DPP and are ready to promulgate DPP-2009 with effect from November 1, 2009. The current review is primarily focused on two essential areas of promoting and facilitating wide participation of defence industry and enabling transparency and integrity in acquisitions," he said.

Under DPP-2008, the tender papers were issued only to foreign vendors, who are required to transfer technology to an Indian defence industry, called Production Agency, under 'Buy and Make' category.  

"This does not promote setting up of joint venture or co-production arrangements in India by big foreign Original Equipment Manufacturer.

"In order to obviate the above shortcoming, a new category — Buy and Make (Indian) — is being introduced, which allows issue of Request for Proposals (RFP) to Indian industries having requisite financial and technical capabilities to absorb technology and undertake indigenous manufacture through transfer of technology and not through research and development," Antony said.