Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: The Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) will undertake the indigenisation of these items through various avenues in the ‘Make’ category. In-house development utilising the capabilities of MSMEs and the private Indian industry will also be explored.
To promote ‘Aatmanirbharta in Defence’ under the government’s “Make In India” initiative and strengthen the capabilities of MSMEs and the private sector, Defence Ministry released the Fourth Positive Indigenisation List (PIL) on Sunday. This list includes 928 strategically important Line replacement units (LRU), subsystems, spares, and components to be procured from the local industry. This step comes at a time when India is focusing on building resilience in the defence sector.
This list of 928 strategically-important LRUs is expected to help the government in import substitution, to the tune of Rs 715 crore. The government has added details of these items on its Srijan portal (srijandefence.gov.in).
Line replacement Units or Line replacement items are the modular components of an aircraft or a ship, which are designed to be replaced quickly, simply by unplugging and removing them during the time of operations or combat. Hence, these critical units do not need special equipment to be installed and include items such as radio or other auxiliary equipment.
The first Positive Indigenisation List was launched in December 2021, followed by two more lists in March 2022, and August 2022. According to the Srijan portal, the government had identified 1,238 LRUs to be indigenised across the first three lists. Out of these 1,238 items, almost 310 products have already been indigenised. There are 262 products from the first PIL, 11 from the second and 37 from the third PIL. With the release of the fourth list, the total count of items to be indigenised within the provided timelines has reached 2,166.
The Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) will undertake the indigenisation of these items through various avenues in the ‘Make‘ category. In-house development utilising the capabilities of MSMEs and the private Indian industry will also be explored. This initiative aims to attract increased investment in the defence sector and reduce the dependence on imports by the DPSUs.
The DPSUs will soon commence procurement procedures for these designated items and will put up Expression of Interest (EoIs) and Request for Proposal (RFPs) on the Srijan Portal.
The Ministry of Defence was the largest buyer of MSE goods in the financial year 2022-23, doubling its procurement from the previous fiscal via the Government eMarketplace portal. The ministry made purchases worth Rs 28,732.9 crore in FY23, up by 90.4 per cent from Rs 15,090.8 crore worth of goods and services bought in FY22, according to the data tweeted earlier by GeM.
