New Delhi, Dec 20 (KNN) A total of 194 Industrial Licenses issued to private companies in Defence sector over 5 years for manufacturing of items like ammunitions, artillery guns, howitzers, air defence guns, UAVs, destroyers, frigates, night vision devices, ballistic protection items, radars, opto-electronic devices etc., Minister of State for Defence, Ajay Bhatt said in a written reply to Ms Saroj Pandey in Rajya Sabha on Monday.

License to manufacture defence equipment is granted by the licensing authorities namely, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and Ministry of Home Affairs under Industries (Development & Regulation) Act and Arms Act respectively, in consultation with the Ministry of Defence.

Further, to provide autonomy and enhance efficiency and unleash new growth potential in the Ordnance Factories, the Government has corporatized OFB and converted it into seven (07) new Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs). All new Defence PSUs have become operational fr0m 1stOctober 2021.

The Government has decided to grandfather the indents/orders, worth more than Rs62,000 crore, pending with the OFB post corporatisation, to ensure continuity in supply of strategic arms and ammunition to the services.

Moreover, two positive indigenization lists for total 209 items have also been notified by the Government with an embargo on the import beyond the timeline indicated against each of them. There has been a decline in the percentage of capital expenditure on procurement of defence equipment fr0m foreign vendors fr0m 48% in 2018-19 to 36% in 2020-21.