Explore Business Standard
Defence Firms
The government has given approval to "45 companies/joint ventures" operating in the defence sector with foreign OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), the Parliament was informed on Friday. Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt said this in written response to a query in the Lok Sabha. "The government has given approval to 45 companies/JVs operating in defence sector with foreign OEMs," he said responding to a query on the number of foreign companies who have shown interest in manufacturing defence equipment under foreign direct investment in the country. Further, the government has taken several policy initiatives in the past few years and brought reforms to encourage indigenous design, development and manufacture of defence equipment in the country, thereby reducing dependency on imports in coming years, he said. "These initiatives, inter alia, include according priority to procurement of capital items from domestic sources under Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP)-2020; .
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said swift and transparent decision-making and availability of optimal resources were needed for a country's combat readiness. In his address at the Controllers' Conference 2022 organised by the Defence Accounts Department (DAD), Singh further said that a delay in making a decision leads to loss of both time and money, and affects combat readiness. Resources around the world are limited, the defence minister said, and emphasised on exercising "financial prudence" in using them. Resources should be used at the right places and there should be no wastage, he added. "A penny saved is a penny earned, and this applies fully to resources too. You are aware that for a country's combat readiness, not only availability of optimal resources is required, but swift and transparent decision-making is also needed," Singh said. If there is a delay in decision-making, there may be some shortfall in combative readiness, he added.