Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday said his Ministry will bring about major changes in the Defence Procurement Procedure and the Defence Production Policy to provide greater autonomy to the Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) and Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) units for their expansion and diversification.

Addressing the Consultative Committee attached to his Ministry here, Parrikar said there was a need to delegate powers to DPSUs to enable them to take decisions so that they improve the serviceability of the platforms available to the Armed Forces, officials said after the meeting.“Every machine in operation is like adding additional equipment. DPSUs will be provided support but they must think like a commercial organisation,” he said adding ‘Make in India’ procedure in defence sector needs further improvement. India has 41 Ordnance factories and nien DPSUs.

Taking part in the discussions, Members of Parliament (MPs) wanted to know whether the Government has drawn up a clear roadmap to reduce defence imports. Some members felt that there was a concerted campaign to denigrate the public sector and to promote the private sector. They felt that unlike consumer products, the design and development of defence product has a long gestation and the contribution of DPSUs has to be appreciated in that light.  They were also of the view that the private sector must be promoted in a big way, but not at the cost of the public sector.

MPs who attended the meeting included Mallikarjun Kharge, Raj Kumar Singh, Anil Shirole, Saugata Roy, P Nagarajan, Kirti Vardhan Singh, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, VP Singh Badnore, Mahendra Prasad, Veer Singh, TK Rangarajan, Bhupender Yadav, HK Dua and Ambika Soni.  Defence Secretary RK Mathur, Secretary Defence Production G Mohan Kumar and senior officers also attended the meeting.