India Clears New Defense Procurement Procedure, Guidelines On Blacklisting Next Month

The Indian defense ministry has cleared the new defense procurement procedure of 2016 except for the guidelines on blacklisting norms and strategic partnerships which will be ready by next month.

The new DPP will be available on the defense ministry website from March 28 and will come into effect from April 2.

“One chapter remains to be cleared, Chapter 6, which deals with the appointment of "strategic partners" in the private sector. It governs the selection of private industries as the ministry's priority partners in manufacturing equipment like aircraft, warships, helicopters, submarines, tanks, etc, based on technology from foreign vendors,” Defense Minister told reporters after the Defense Acquisition Council meeting Monday.

"It's going through an extensive exercise that will take another month or two. It will require financial and Cabinet Committee on Security approvals," Parrikar, said.

"The well-calibrated guidelines are almost finalized now... they should be out in the first half of April," Parrikar said when asked about the blacklisting policy.

The defense policy pursued by the previous government under former Defense Minister A K Anthony insisted on putting defense deals on hold if there were allegations of corruption and the firm concerned automatically blacklisted.

Currently, there are fifteen companies including six foreign firms that are blacklisted by MoD while 23 other companies are under scrutiny for allegations of corruption.