By: Vivek Raghuvanshi
NEW DEHLI — Despite a robust push by the National Democratic Alliance political party to kick-start Make in India defense programs, the highest decision-making body of the Indian Ministry of Defence, the Defence Acquisition Council, on Monday failed to formalize the much-awaited Strategic Partners policy, which aims to roll out all big-ticket defense programs in the country.
"The SP policy aims to boost Make in India defense programs worth $30 billion by private sector defense companies and [has been] under formulation for [the] past two years but could not be cleared because of lack of celerity within the government and the [defense] industry," a top MoD official said.
"Several Make in India defense programs, such as submarines, single-engine fighters, multiple types of helicopters [and] other land systems are to be acquired under the SP policy, which is still far away for final clearance."
Basic guidelines have been crafted to create only six strategic partners from domestic private sector companies that will be selected and then asked to prefer their sector — submarines, armored vehicles, or fighters and helicopters — but one [strategic partner] will be allowed only one segment of the four projects, the MoD official disclosed.
Read the full story at DefenseNews