To align its "Make in India" initiative with defence production, the union ministry of defence will be coming out with a revised defence procurement procedure (DPP) and manual, incorporating amendments to the DPP 2013.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar disclosed this while addressing the Consultative Committee attached to his ministry in New Delhi on 18 December.

Besides the DPP, the Defence Procurement Manual is also under internal vetting and is expected to be finalised by end of June 2016.

The DPP intends to continue to give priority to buy defence equipment in India, with the second preference to buy first from abroad and make them in India in the subsequent years. The last option will be to procure globally.

The new procedure and manual will be in line with the existing Long Term Integrated Perspective Plan (LTIPP) spells out the capability desired to be achieved by the Armed Forces over a duration of 15 years (2012-27) as spelt out in DPP 2013.

The order of preference under the DPP is: 

(i) Buy(Indian)

(ii) Buy & Make (Indian)

(iii) Make

(iv) Buy & Make

(v) Buy (Global)

"This hierarchy of Categorisation clearly marks a shift towards indigenous equipment," a defence ministry press statement said.

The meeting was attended by lawmakers Pinaki Mishra, Saugata Roy, A Seetaram Naik, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Mahendra Prasad, TK Rangarajan, Bhupender Yadav and Shri Samsher Singh Manhas.

Besides, defence secretary G Mohan Kumar, defence production secretary Ashok Kumar Gupta, DG, DRDO S Christopher and other senior officials of the defence ministry also attended the meeting.

It may be recalled that the Modi government recently decided to open defence facilities to private sector players to test defence equipment in India, doing away with the current practice of sending them abroad for certification. 

Besides giving a fillip to make defence equipment in India, the government is also encouraging defence exports. In a statement on 11 December, 2015, the government said that while the full year exports stood at Rs 686.27 crore in 2013-14, the figure for the first half of the current fiscal was Rs 695.70 crore.

To speed up the indigenisation of defence equipment, the Modi government increased the foreign Direct Investment (FDI) limit from 26% to 49% through approval route in August 2014. Any investment proposal above 49% would be subject to consideration on case-to-case basis.

Recently, the government said it has given industrial licences to Indian companies to make artillery guns, armoured fighting vehicles, warships, military aircraft, UAVs and radars in India and eased norms for exports.

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