Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said that there was no attempt to weaken the Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSU), rather over 80 per cent of procurement has been made from the DPSU.Replying to a question asked by Congress MP K.C. Venugopal, he said that the government has been trying to strengthen the DPSU by giving equity and assistance to these DPSUs to make them liability free.Earlier, responding to the queries from the Members during the Question Hour in the Upper House, the Minister of State for Defence, Ajay Bhatt said that the government is committed to strengthen the Defence Forces and that will happen once the country is self dependent in technology.He also said that the defence sector was opened for the private sector in 2015 and in the last seven years, the government has given 353 licences for manufacturing the defence equipment.
"During 2001 to 2014, a total of Rs 1,382 crore worth of FDI in the defence sector was there which rose to Rs 3,343 crore in the last seven years, We are making everything under Aatmanirbhar Bharat and we give procurement of those components to companies under FDI whose materials or technology are not available with us," Bhatt said.He also said that the orders are also given to DPSU along with other Public Sector Undertakings manufacturing the defence equipment. This will lead to a competitive environment among them, he added.The MoS Defence also said that during the financial year 2022-23, over 68 per cent of defence procurement has been given to the domestic sector.
Responding to a question from Trinamool MP Dola Sen, Bhatt said that there is no reduction in the number of employees of the companies under Ordnance Factory Board but the government has realigned them to make better coordination."Now the companies which are making bullet proof jackets will be under one administrative unit, the arms manufacturing units will be at one platform and so on," Bhatt said further.The MoS Defence also informed the House that at present two defence corridors have been functioning in Lucknow and Chennai, whenever there would be a need, these corridors will be opened in the other parts of the country too.