For encouraging “Atmanirbhar Bharat” further this year as well, 68% of the capital procurement budget in defence will be earmarked for the domestic industry in 2022-23 (up from the 58% last fiscal).To encourage research and development by private corporations, start-ups and academia into defence research and equipment development, states Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while announcing Union Budget on Tuesday 2022.
Sitharaman further added that 25% of India’s defence Resource & Development budget is reserved for private industry and startups. the Private industry will be encouraged to take up the design and development of military platforms and equipment in collaboration with DRDO and other organizations through the SPV model, stated the Indian Finance Minister.
In accordance with the recently announced budget reportedly, the Defence Ministry has been allocated Rs 1.52 lakh crores for capital acquisition for modernisation of Armed forces. Out of this, 68% has been earmarked for procurement from domestic sources. Allocation is around 13% higher than last years allocation of Rs 1.35 lakh crores. Defence Ministry has been allocated Rs 2.39 lakh crores against the Rs 2.33 lakh crores allocated last year. The pension budget of the ministry is Rs 1.19 lakh crores. In total, the Defence Ministry and the services have been allocated a total of Rs 5.25 lakh crores this year which is Rs 47,000 crores more the last year’s 4.78 lakh crores. The allocation is around a 10% increase from last year.
One of the key highlights from her speech is that the private sector can also now develop military platforms in collaboration with the government-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
“An independent umbrella body will be set up for meeting wide-ranging testing and certification requirements,” stated Sitharaman while explaining the collaboration.
The Army expenditure of India in previous years according to the SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute ) data the Military expenditure of India in the year 2004 to 2013 ( During Congress rule ) was 965 Billion to 2846 Billion rupees. Military expenditure in the year 2014 to 2020 ( During current BJP ruling years ) 3195 Billion rupees to 5466 Billion Rupees.
*Boosting The Drone Shakti
In 2021 the union government liberalised the drone rules and with the recently announced budget, the union government is giving a big boost to the drone industry by announcing Drone Shakti. According to the recent Defence Budget, The Finance Minister stated that start-ups will be promoted to facilitate ‘Drone Shakti’ through various use cases and applications.
“The current Government has taken a serious paradigm shift on drone technology and Drone Shakti announcement of the current FY budget proves that the government clear vision & focus towards this emerging industry, Drone Shakti & Kisaan Drones will help take this technology to impact common people on grass root level at a massive scale,” Nagendran Kandasamy, Founder & CEO of Throttle Aerospace Systems Pvt Ltd.
The Drone Rules 2021 were modified by the Central Government on August 25, 2021, which are based on a premise of trust, self-certification and non-intrusive monitoring.
With this new boost to the drone industry, large unmanned aircraft systems weighing more than 150 kilograms will be used for surveillance in sectors like Agriculture, Railway Security, Defence, To deliver COVID-19 vaccines and many more such sectors.
*Drones used By Defence forces which are made by DRDO until now:
Rustom-1: 11 November 2009
TAPAS-BH-201: 15 November 2016
TAPAS-BH-201 ATO
It’s worth mentioning that India has been actively signing deals regarding defence technologies across the globe. Recently, India’s BrahMos Aerospace and the Philippines On January 28, 2022, signed a deal worth almost $375 million for the Philippine Marines to acquire three batteries of the BrahMos cruise missile, a shot in the arm for New Delhi’s efforts to emerge as an exporter of major defence hardware.
*DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) association with a few private companies:
M/s RHD Business Services India Pvt. Ltd
M/s SBNX Innovation [OPC] Pvt. Ltd,
M/s Shiva Texyarn Limited,
M/s Kusumgar Corporates Pvt. Ltd
M/s Ginni Filaments Limited
