Ministry Selects 25 Defense Projects Under Make In India Initiative

The Indian defense ministry has identified 25 defense manufacturing projects under the Make in India initiative.

"We have initially shortlisted these. There will have to be many interactions with the ministry and other stakeholders to finalise them," AK Gupta secretary, defence production was quoted as saying by the Economic Times news daily Tuesday.

Any details in regard to the estimates or the size of the projects were not specified.

Gupta also said government's new, simplified defence procurement procedure has made things much more 'transparent'.

"A lot of things have been streamlined. Earlier what used to happen in offset agreements was that once you are part of an agreement, you can't change anything. Now full flexibility has been given to the industry to choose their offset partners and components provided both are in the eligibility list," he said.

Gupta added that the government has provided 319 licenses to 190 companies since 2001. Of these, 50 companies having 79 licences have already started production.