The head of India's defence acquisition wing Apurva Chandra said that a high-level committee will align the procurement procedures with the aim of ensuring a seamless flow from asset acquisition to life cycle support.
"The defence minister had made me the chairman of the committee to reconstitute both the Defence Procurement Procedure and Defence Procurement Manuals, and we are going to come out with new versions by March 2020," Chandra said, delivering speech at an event in New Delhi.
The ministry revised the defence procurement process in 2016, but the defence procurement manual has not been updated since 2009. The defence procurement procedure stipulates the process for buying weapons and equipment with money from the defence capital budget, whereas the manual governs acquisitions from the defence revenue budget.
"The DPP and DPM together constitute a complex matter, and therefore what we will come out now, will set the path for the procurement of defence equipment for 5-10 years," the director general (acquisition) told the nation's private defence manufacturers.
A separate chapter is expected to be added on shipbuilding, in consideration of Indian navy chief Admiral Karambir Singh's statement, in which he admitted that a shortage of funds is impacting the "future planning and capability development" of the maritime force. The force extensively discussed the plan to acquire at least 200 ships, 500 aircraft, as well as 24 attack submarines by 2027.
The Indian defence ministry expects that in next few months, defence purchase worth around $790 million wil be concluded for the Indian Army and Indian Air Force. The ministry also confirmed that pricing issue related to the purchase of 83 Tejas MK-1A warplanes have also been resolved with the manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.
