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Defence Minister Rajnath Singh (PTI/File) The Defence Acquisition Council for the first time has cleared the procurement of 14 items worth Rs 380.43 crore from Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) start-ups. These items will be procured by the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force.
In a meeting chaired by Defence minister Rajnath Singh Tuesday, the DAC also approved a new, simplified procedure to fast-track procurement from iDEX startups and MSMEs.
“The procurement cycle…. will be around 22 weeks as per the new procedure. Suitable incorporation will be made in the Defence Acquisition Procedure 2022. The DAC also
approved the simplified procedure for Make-II category projects on similar lines of iDEX procedure and would considerably bring down the time taken from prototype development to Contract signing in Make-II projects,” said a statement from the Ministry Tuesday.
The iDEX programme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018 to foster innovation and incorporate cutting-edge technology in the Armed Forces within a swift time-frame.
It is expected that around 25-40 items, after the successful prototyping by the iDEX start-ups, will be ready for procurement by the year’s end.
On Tuesday, the DAC also accorded Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for Capital Acquisition proposals for the Armed Forces amounting to Rs 8,357 crore.
The DAC said modernisation requirements of the defence forces are to be indigenously sourced and import should be resorted to only as an exception.
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