Representatives from all three Services to ensure proper utilisation of budget: Defence Minister

New Delhi [India], February 25 : Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday announced that a monitoring mechanism will be created with the representatives of three forces (Army, Navy and Air Force) to monitor the budget earmarked, specifically for private industry and startups, so that it is fully utilised.
"A monitoring mechanism under Director General (Acquisition) to be created, with representatives from all the three Services to monitor the budget earmarked, specifically for private industry and startups, so that it is fully utilised," said Singh addressing a webinar titled 'Aatmanirbharta in Defence - Call to Action' on the announcements made in Union budget 2022-23.
In an effort to encourage the private industry and startups to venture into the manufacturing and services in the Defence sector, Singh announced that Quality Assurance (QA) process will be reformed to make it non-intrusive, prevention-based and free from the Inspector-Raj.
"We would come up with iDEX-Prime to support projects, requiring support beyond Rs 1.5 crore up to Rs 10 crore, to help ever-growing startups in the defence sector," he said.
In a bid to promote Research and Development in the industry, Defence Minister announced that "at least five projects under Make-I during Financial Year 2022-23 will be sanctioned to promote Industry-led R&D efforts."
"In the annual budget of 2022-23, it has been announced that Defence R&D will be opened up for industry, startups and academia. 25 per cent of Defence R&D budget has also been earmarked for this purpose," he said.
Appreciating the detailed discussion during the webinar over the issue of the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) model, Union Minister said, "many projects will soon be undertaken by the private industry for design and development of military platforms and equipment in collaboration with DRDO and other organisations through the SPV model."
Earlier in the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi also addressed the same webinar.
"This Budget is a blueprint for developing a vibrant ecosystem from research, design and development to manufacturing. Around 70 per cent of Defence allocation has been kept just for domestic industry. So far, Defence Ministry issued indigenisation list of over 200 defence platforms and equipment," PM Modi said.
Further sharing details of the procurement, Prime Minister said, "After the announcement of this list, contracts of around Rs 54,000 crores have been signed for domestic procurement."
"Besides this, the procurement process related to equipment worth more than Rs 4.5 lakh crores is in different stages. The third list is going to come soon," he added.