New defence procurement policy to be launched soon

Source: Deepak Kumar

The government on Monday announced that it will soon launch a new defence procurement policy in order to give a boost to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led “Make in India” initiative. “A lot has happened in the last one year. Some major decisions have been taken, especially in the defence sector. I think we will have a new defence procurement policy coming up soon,” said Amitabh Kant, Secretary of the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP). Speaking at the “Indo-German Business Roundtable” conference on Monday, Kant urged the German business delegation to increase investments in India and said the government was ready to relook the FDI rule and it could enhance FDI to 100% from 49% in cases of state-of-the-art investments. Germany is India’s largest trading partner in Europe. However in 2014-15, bilateral trade between India and Germany declined to $20.32 billion due to various domestic and international factors. Bilateral trade between the two nations was $20.44 billion during 2013-14. India has received FDI worth $8.19 billion from Germany during April 2000 and June 2015. Since 2010, Germany has been India’s 8th largest foreign direct investor.  In 2014, Germany invested $ 1.15 billion through FDI in India. Indian investments in Germany have also gone up significantly in the last few years. India has invested over $6 billion in Germany, majorly through mergers and acquisitions. During the conference, German business leaders sought to invest in various key sectors including defence manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, energy, hospitalities as well as smart cities. However, they also highlighted some of the major challenges in Indian market including the country’s poor infrastructure. In August 2014, India had increased FDI up to 49% in defence sector through government route and over 49% through Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) approvals in case of special technology.