India on Friday said it would come out with a new Defence Production Policy in the next two months under which domestic industries would certainly get orders for products developed by them after indigenous research.
The move comes in the backdrop of reluctance on part of Indian companies to get into the sector due to high R&D costs and uncertainty over orders from the armed forces.
Defence Production Secretary R K Singh said all Indian industries bidding for the same tender for products will be given the orders in a sharing formula.
"If there are two Indian companies bidding for the same tender then the lowest bidder would get 65 per cent of the orders and the other company would get 35 per cent of the order's share.
"To increase indigenised capability, which is about 30 per cent to 35 per cent today, we are adopting a new Defence Production Policy," Singh said.
But, the focus remains that the Indian armed forces should get the best systems available," Singh said to queries on plans to improve self-reliance on defence production and if there would be changes in awarding contracts to the lowest bidder.
Singh said the Defence Ministry had already held consultations with Indian industry on the policies and one of the plan was to reintroduce the 'make' procedure for procurements from the Indian market.
"We have to combine transparency and equity in our defence production policy. Equity determines we give opportunity to all of the domestic manufacturers and transparency demands that it be done openly," he added.
