Sustaining the momentum in achieving self-reliance in defence manufacturing and minimising import by defence public sector undertakings (DPSU), the Ministry of Defence has notified the fifth Positive Indigenisation List (PIL) consisting of 346 items. It means Indian industry will manufacture these items.
Giving details of the list, officials said here on Tuesday the items include strategically-important Line Replacement Units/Systems/ Sub-systems/Assemblies/Sub-assemblies/Spares and Components and raw materials, with import substitution value worth `1,048 crore. The items will only be procured from the Indian industry after the timelines of indigenisation as indicated in the list available on the Srijan portal.
The Ministry of Defence had launched the Srijan portal in 2020. On this portal, DPSUs and Service Headquarters (SHQs) offer defence items to the industries, including MSMEs and start-ups, for indigenisation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's major push for 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' has yielded remarkable results in the indigenisation of defence productions, with the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh driving the efforts to realise the vision of self-reliance in defence production.
The DPSUs will undertake indigenisation of the items mentioned in the fifth PIL through various routes including 'Make' procedure or in-house development involving the industry, including MSMEs. This will provide impetus to the growth of economy, enhance investment in defence and lead to reduced import dependence. In addition, this will augment the design capabilities of domestic defence Industry due to the involvement of academia and research institutions.
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Bharat Electronics Limited (BHEL), Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), BEML Limited, India Optel Limited (IOL), Mazgaon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL), Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL), Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd (GRSE) and Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) are the DPSUs involved in production of the defence items of the fifth PIL. These have initiated process for issuing Expressions of Interest/Requests for Proposal on their respective websites with a link on the 'Srijan portal dashboard.
Earlier, four PILs comprising 4,666 items were notified by the DDP for DPSUs, of which 2,972, having import substitution value worth Rs 3,400 crore, have already been indigenised. These five lists for DPSUs are in addition to the five positive indigenisation lists of 509 items notified by the Department of Military Affairs (DMA). These lists include highly-complex systems, sensors, weapons and ammunition.
Till June 2024, over 36,000 defence items were offered to the industry for indigenisation by the DPSUs and SHQs. Of them, more than 12,300 items have been indigenised in the last three years. As a result, the DPSUs have placed orders with domestic vendors worth Rs 7,572 crore.
