What’s in the news?

• The Union Government has listed out measures taken for promotion of Micro, Small & Medium enterprises (MSMEs) in defence sector:
  • In the Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020, there are specific reservations on Orders up to Rs 100 crore/year for MSMEs.
  • An innovation ecosystem for Defence titled Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) has been launched in 2018. iDEX is aimed at creation of an ecosystem to foster innovation and technology development in Defence and Aerospace by engaging Industries including MSMEs, Start-ups, Individual Innovators, R&D institutes and Academia and provide them grants/funding and support to carry out R&D which has potential for future adoption for Indian defence and aerospace needs.
  • DRDO through its scheme Technology Development Scheme (TDF) funds industries, especially Start-ups and MSMEs up to an amount of Rs 10 crore, for innovation, research and development of Defence Technologies in the field of Defence and Aerospace.
  • Department of Defence Production (DDP) conducts outreach programs in various parts of the country to interact with Industry Associations, Industry, especially MSMEs and academia, to spread awareness about the potential export opportunities. A scheme aimed to promote MSMEs in defence is in place. Under this scheme, conclaves/seminars are being organized in Tier-II and Tier-III cities across the country having strong industrial MSMEs presence with the support of the DDP.
  • Regular interactions are taking place to settle the grievance of vendors at DPSUs. Defence Investor Cell has been opened in DDP to address the issues being faced by vendors especially MSME vendors.

Reference:

1. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1846935