On August 14, 2020, i.e. on the final day of Atma Nirbhar Week celebration (Atmanirbharta Saptah) between August 7-14, 2020 of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and to boost Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan (self-reliant India movement), Union Defence Minister (Raksha Mantri) Rajnath Singh virtually launched Department of Defence Production (DDP) portal SRIJAN as a part of “opportunities for Make in India in Defence”.
- This portal provides information about defence equipment and items which are being imported currently or are going to be imported by the Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs)/Ordnance Factory Board (OFB)/ Service Headquarters (SHQs) so that they can be taken up for indigenisation by Indian companies that can design, develop and manufacture as per their capability or through joint venture with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
- In the first stage, DPSUs/OFB/SHQs have displayed those items which they have imported in 2019-20 and are going to import in 2020-21, for the annual value of the items as Rs 1 million and above.
- For 2019-20 the number of items displayed is 1557 with an import value of Rs 34035 million while for FY2020-21 the number of items are 739 with an import value of Rs 34514 million.
Signing of Contracts and MoUs
On the occasion four Contracts of Defence India Start-up Challenge (DISC) under Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) and four MoUs between industry partners and Defence PSUs were also signed in presence of Raksha Mantri. A number of Expressions of Interest (EoI)/Requests for Proposal (RFP) were also issued.
Contracts of Defence India Start-up Challenge under iDEX:
Under DISC 3, there were 14 winners from three challenges (one each from Army, Navy and Air Force), out of them, three winners from Army challenge and one winner from Air Force challenge have been cleared and signed the SPARK Grant Contract.
About iDEX:
Launched in 2018, iDEX aims to foster innovation and technology development in Defence by engaging research and development (R&D) institutes, academia, industries, startups and individual innovators.
- iDEX is being implemented by Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO), a Section 8 company formed for this purpose, with Rs 50 crore support each from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).
MoUs between industry partners and DPSUs:
i.DPSU Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) signed MoU with M/s Medha Servo Drives Pvt Ltd for indigenous overhauling of main motor of SSK (Shishumar) Class Submarines. Presently this equipment is carried out in Germany by a foreign firm.
ii.Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) signed MoU with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Goa for Artificial Intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT)-Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and other technology related fields including Naval ship building design, Smart Manufacturing, Industry 4.0, Artificial Intelligence, 3D printing and Composites. It also facilitates internship of students of IIT-Goa with GSL.
iii.Defence PSU BEML (previously Bharat Earth Movers Limited) inked MoU with IIT, Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh) for development of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicle).
iv.BEML also signed MoU with NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Service Companies), Bengaluru (Karnataka) on development of AI products .
Expressions of Interest (EOI)/Requests for Proposal (RFP)
-HAL issued EOI for indigenization of 46 items for Russian projects under Make-II (industry funded) having total value of Rs. 100 crores.
-BEL issued EOI/ RFP for indigenisation on following 5 items having total value of Rs. 31 Crore.
- Brazing wire: Brazing wires are special alloys, presently being imported, are required for the Vacuum Brazing Process.
- Motion Platform, 6 degrees of freedom & Payload 1000-2000 kg
- Dummy Weapons for Small Arm Simulators
- Single Board Computer (SBC) – Printed Circuit Board (PCB)
- Design & Development of 62X Day Zoom Lens.
-Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) issued EOI/ RFP for indigenisation of 11 items under Make-II having total value of Rs 15 Crore.
- The items include components and sub-assemblies of naval products like, under-water connecters, contactors, Ring Laser Gyro, Pressure Transducer, Free Gyro, Heli Receiver, ATGM components & sub-assemblies like Amplifiers, Communication Unit, Transducer Sub-assemblies and Octol for War head of surface-to-air missile (SAM) missiles.
Recent Related News:
On May 15, 2020 Rajnath Singh approved the launch of Defence Testing Infrastructure Scheme (DTIS) with a cost of Rs 400 crores to create testing infrastructure for the defence sector so as to boost domestic defence and aerospace manufacturing.
About Ministry of Defence:
Rajnath Singh constituency– Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh (UP)
Minister of State (MoS)– Shripad Yesso Naik
