India’s Make in India defence manufacturing programme is progressing “very well”, with the government sharply reducing reliance on imports and pushing
domestic sourcing across major weapons platforms, Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh said in an exclusive interview with ET NOW. The Defence Secretary said the Ministry of Defence has set an internal target of ensuring that at least 75 per cent of capital expenditure is spent on domestic procurement, a level that has already been exceeded. “We’ve got an internal target that not less than 75 per cent of our CAPEX budget will be spent on domestic procurements. We’ve exceeded that significantly; we did 89 per cent domestic procurement last year,” Singh said. He added that fresh imports are now treated as an exception rather than the norm. “Fresh imports are done only as an exception and with the specific permission of the Defence Acquisition Council under the Raksha Mantri,” he said.
Contracts and faster procurement
Singh said accelerating procurement timelines has been a top priority since he assumed office, even within the existing Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) framework.“We’ve tried to shorten our procurement timelines to not more than two years after the in-principle approval is granted by the Defence Acquisition Council,” he said.
Reflecting this push, the government has significantly stepped up contract signings. According to Singh, defence contracts worth around Rs 1.6 lakh crore have already been signed this year, following nearly Rs 2 lakh crore worth of contracts last year.
For the future, the Defence Ministry is working on revising the Defence Acquisition Procedure to further streamline processes such as field evaluation trials and cost negotiations.
“Timelines can be compressed through the use of technology, and we can do things much faster,” Singh said.
Defence PSUs, Execution and Accountability
The Defence Secretary said recent reforms have improved competitiveness among defence public sector undertakings (PSUs), particularly after corporatisation and the introduction of competitive bidding.“Competition has resulted in cost savings, which is good from the point of view of the public exchequer,” he said.
Many PSUs now have strong order books, with some holding four to six years’ worth of orders, while exports have recorded around 40 per cent growth last year, Singh noted.
However, he acknowledged that execution remains a challenge due to dependencies on critical imported components.
“Some critical components coming from outside sometimes cause delays… that’s why we want to ensure that the bulk of our supply chain is within the country or in trusted geographies,” he said.
Startups, Air Defence and Indigenous Platforms
Singh said the government is actively engaging with startups through the iDEX prototype funding scheme, with plans to explore assured orders for select innovations.“The Ministry of Defence has been among the first government departments to engage with the startup community,” he said.
On modernisation, Singh highlighted plans for advanced air-defence systems under the Sudarshan Chakra mission, growing use of drones, and the indigenous AMCA fifth-generation fighter aircraft programme. He added that around 60 naval ships are currently under construction domestically, reinforcing the scale of India’s indigenous defence push.
(Interviewed by Sajeet Kesav Manghat, Edited by Daksh Grover)
