Why in News ?

The Ministry of Defence has formulated a draft Defence Production and Export Promotion Policy 2020 (DPEPP 2020).

The DPEPP 2020 is envisaged as an overarching guiding document to provide a focused, structured and significant thrust to defence production capabilities of the country for self-reliance and exports.

Goals and Objectives:

• To achieve a turnover of Rs. 1,75,000 crore including export of Rs. 35,000 crore in Aerospace and Defence goods and services by 2025.
• To develop a dynamic, robust and competitive Defence industry, including Aerospace and Naval Shipbuilding industry to cater to the needs of Armed forces with quality products.
• To reduce dependence on imports and take forward “Make in India” initiatives through domestic design and development.
• To promote the export of defence products and become part of the global defence value chains.
• To create an environment that encourages research and development (R&D), rewards innovation, creates Indian Intellectual Property (IP) ownership and promotes a robust and self-reliant defence industry.

Key Highlights

• The opportunities in the aerospace industry have been identified in the following segments – aircraft build work, aircraft Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO), helicopters, engine manufacturing and MRO work, line replaceable units, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and upgrades and retrofits.
• A Project Management Unit (PMU) will be set up for the development and production of technologies involved, life cycle costs and maintenance requirements of platforms, equipment and weapon systems. It also aims to move away from licensed production to design, develop and produce indigenously.
• The indigenisation policy aims to create an industry ecosystem to indigenise the imported components (including alloys and special materials) and sub-assemblies for defence equipment and platforms manufactured in India. 5,000 such items are proposed to be indigenised by 2025.
• Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) has been operationalised to provide necessary incubation and infrastructure support to the startups in the defence area.
• iDEX would be further scaled up to engage with 300 more startups and develop 60 new technologies/products during the next five years.
• Mission Raksha Gyan Shakti was launched to promote a greater culture of innovation and technology development and file a higher number of patents in Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), Ordnance Factory Board (OFB). It would be scaled up for promoting the creation of Intellectual Property in the sector and its commercial utilisation.

Reference:

1. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1643194#:~:text=MoD%20releases%20draft%20Defence%20Production%20and%20Export%20Promotion%20Policy%202020&text=To%20promote%20export%20of%20defence,and%20self%2Dreliant%20defence%20industry.
2. https://www.makeinindiadefence.gov.in/admin/webroot/writereaddata/upload/recentactivity/Draft_DPEPP_03.08.2020.pdf