Rajnath Singh Readies Plan to Streamline Procurement, Promote Partnerships

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Rajnath Singh Readies Plan to Streamline Procurement, Promote Partnerships

Ministry of Defence has prepared a roadmap that will focus on streamlining procurement, promote integration between the services, encourage public-private partnerships and technology transfer in the new year 2025.

At a meeting chaired by Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh, the year 2025 has been declared as the year of reforms with several initiatives set to be rolled out in the coming months.

Officials said that among the areas that have been identified for focused intervention is the acquisition procedure, which has often been marred by delays and time overruns.

"Acquisition procedures need to be made simpler and time-sensitive to facilitate swifter and robust capability development," they said.

Sources added among the new initiatives being placed is an accelerated procurement procedure that will be on the lines of emergency procurements done by the services over the past four years.

Such a procedure will drastically cut down selection time as well as delivery of weapons systems to the armed forces, they said.

Another focus area is going to be improving ease of doing business, with the ministry looking to promote technology transfer and public-private partnerships in the defence sector.

It is known that public sector entities have a lot of manufacturing infrastructure and expertise but have been unable to fully absorb technology due to constraints like hiring and rewards policies.

The government is likely to encourage public sector units to enter into partnerships with the private sector.

Officials said that the idea is to position India as a credible exporter of defence products and focus on research and development partnerships between domestic companies and foreign original equipment manufacturers.

 

For example, the partnership between Tata and Airbus to manufacture C295 transport aircraft in India is expected to bring in key aviation technologies to the private sector.

(Courtesy: Defence.Capital)

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