NE NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, DEC 9
The Mission DefSpace was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Gandhinagar Gujarat during DefExpo in October, 2022 with 75 Defence Space Challenges relevant to the end users. These challenges have been categorised into existing DDP initiatives of iDEX, Make-I and Make-2, according to details provided by the government in Lok Sabha on Friday.
Private Industries, including Start-ups, MSMEs and Individual Innovators, are eligible to apply for these challenges. The challenges, classified into five buckets viz. Launch System, Satellite System, Communication & Payload System, Ground System and Software System, provide a holistic 3600 overview of space, , Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt said in reply to a question.
The Government has taken several policy initiatives in the past few years and brought in reforms to encourage indigenous design, development and manufacture of defence equipment, there by promoting self-reliance in defence manufacturing & technology in the country. These initiatives, inter-alia, include according priority to procurement of capital items from domestic sources under Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP)-2020; Announcement of 18 major defence platforms for industry led design & development in March 2022; Notification of four ‘Positive Indigenization Lists’ of total 411 items of Services and three ‘Positive Indigenization Lists’ of total 3738 items of Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), for which there would be an embargo on the import beyond the timelines indicated against them; Simplification of Industrial licensing process with longer validity period; Liberalization of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy allowing 74% FDI under automatic route; Simplification of Make Procedure; Launch of Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) scheme involving start-ups & Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs); Implementation of Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order, 2017; Launch of an indigenization portal namely SRIJAN to facilitate indigenization by Indian Industry including MSMEs; Reforms in Offset policy with thrust on attracting investment and Transfer of Technology for Defence manufacturing by assigning higher multipliers; Establishment of two Defence Industrial Corridors, one each in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu; Opening up of Defence Research & Development (R&D) for industry, startups and academia with 25 percent of defence R&D budget; and Progressive increase in allocation of Defence Budget of military modernisation for procurement from domestic sources, etc.
This information was given by Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt in a written reply to Raja Amareshwara Naik and others in Lok Sabha on Friday.
To a separate question, he said approximately 45,906 acres of defence land under the management of different services and organisations of the defence ministry is presently lying vacant.
In response to another question, Bhatt said the government has undertaken the modernisation of the defence airfield infrastructure in two phases.
The budgetary allocation made for modernising airfields under phase-I was Rs 1,215.35 crore and phase II is Rs 1,187.17 crore, he said.
The Modernisation of Air Field Infrastructure (MAFI) (phase-I) was for 30 Indian Air Force airfields and the project has already been completed, Bhatt noted.
The MAFI (phase-II) for the modernisation of another 37 airfields is under progress, he said.
