Defence Minister approved the Defence Procurement Manual (DPM) 2025, revising the 2009 manual to streamline, simplify, and rationalise revenue procurement under the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

Objectives of DPM 2025

• Ensure timely and cost-effective procurement of goods and services worth ~₹1 lakh crore annually.
• Enhance operational readiness and jointness among the three Services.
• Promote self-reliance through indigenisation, innovation, and private sector participation (MSMEs, start-ups, academia).
• Align with updated provisions of the Ministry of Finance’s Manual for Procurement of Goods.
• Guarantee fairness, transparency, accountability with greater use of technology.

Key Features of DPM 2025

• Promotion of Indigenisation: New chapter included to promote self-reliance through innovation and indigenisation by engaging public/private industries, academia, IITs, IISc, and other reputed institutions.

• Ease of Doing Business: Relaxation in development contracts by not levying Liquidated Damages (LD) during the development phase.
• • Assurance of orders in terms of quantity for five years, extendable up to another five years in special circumstances.
  • Handholding by Services through sharing of technical knowhow and equipment.
• Decentralisation of Decision Making: Competent Financial Authorities (CFAs) empowered to take decisions at field level in consultation with financial advisors, including granting delivery extensions.
• Streamlined Special Procurement:  Simplified procedure for Government-to-Government agreements in high-value procurements.
  • Dispensation of requirement to obtain No Objection Certificate from some DPSUs; tenders to be awarded purely on a competitive basis.

Government Initiatives for Defence Indigenisation

• Make in India:  launched in 2014 gave a strong policy push to indigenous design, development, and manufacturing (IDDM) in the defence sector, with preference given to Indian vendors in procurement.
• Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020: It  prioritises domestic procurement and reserves around 75% of the defence modernisation budget (₹1.1 lakh crore in FY 2024-25) for Indian industries.
• Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) scheme:  launched in 2018, engages startups and MSMEs, providing grants up to ₹25 crore under the ADITI sub-scheme, and has resulted in more than 430 contracts and procurement of 43 items worth ₹2,400 crore.
• SAMARTHYA, showcased during Aero India 2025, provided a platform to highlight indigenised items and innovations from iDEX, including missiles, alloys, radars, and counter-drone systems.
• SRIJAN Portal: It launched in 2020, lists imported items for indigenisation, with more than 38,000 items uploaded and over 14,000 already indigenised.
• Positive Indigenisation Lists (PILs): The MoD has issued five Positive Indigenisation Lists (PILs) between 2020 and 2025, covering over 5,500 items such as LRUs, assemblies, and high-end technologies, of which more than 3,000 have been indigenised.
• Defence Industrial Corridors: The government established Defence Industrial Corridors in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in 2018 to promote industry clusters, which have attracted ₹8,658 crore in investments and 253 MoUs worth ₹53,439 crore.
• Defence Testing Infrastructure Scheme (DTIS):  launched in 2020, supports the creation of eight greenfield testing and certification facilities, with seven already approved in areas such as unmanned systems, electronic warfare, and electro-optics.
• MAKE Procedure:  First introduced in 2006 and revised in 2016, 2018, and 2020, promotes indigenous R&D through three categories: MAKE-I (government-funded), MAKE-II (industry-funded), and MAKE-III (manufacturing through technology transfer). A total of 145 projects are currently being implemented.
• FDI policy of 2020: It  allows up to 74% foreign direct investment in defence through the automatic route.

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