New Delhi (ANTARA News) – India, which plans to purchase billions of dollars worth of military hardware in the next five years, will soon relax strict rules on arms imports, officials say.
A new Defence Procurement Policy, or DPP, will be unveiled by April,
Defence Minister A.K. Antony said Saturday at a defence fair in the capital.
“We have been fine-tuning and improving the DPP based on periodical reviews (and) the current procurement procedure is also under review to make it more transparent and user-friendly,” he said.
Many of the major players in the race to grab a share of arms deals worth 30 billion dollars by 2012 see the current so-called offset policy part of the DPP as restricting growth.
The policy stipulates foreign firms selling products to India must re-invest up to 50 percent of the total amount through tie-ups and services in the country.
Antony promised the new policy would help India’s fledgling defence sector.
“For our defence industry to expand and to be able to meet critical technological requirements of armed forces, there is need for far greater synergy between private players and the government.”
Global vendors have recently “publicly questioned” the capacity of India’s private sector to absorb largescale joint ventures with overseas companies, the Press Trust of India said.