New Delhi: Weeks after India‘s defence ministry listed defence products that it intends to buy only from domestic industry, the nation’s defence research organisation today listed 108 systems and subsystems it wants locally designed, developed and manufactured by the private sector.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said it has responded to the call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ‘Atmanirbar Bharat‘ (or Self-Reliant India), and the initiative to list items for design, development and manufacturing by India’s own industry was to strengthen indigenous defence production ecosystem.

The DRDO said it will not take up development of these 108 items but would provide support to the Indian industry to design, develop and manufacture these on requirement basis.

“All the requirements of these systems by Research and Development establishments, armed forces, and other security agencies can be met through development contracts or production orders on suitable Indian industry. This will allow DRDO to focus on design and development of critical and advanced technologies and systems,” an official statement said.

“(The) DRDO has been partnering with industry for realisation of its systems. Collaborating with DRDO in the development of major weapon systems, the Indian industry has matured to a stage where they can develop systems on their own. Indian industry has progressed from a ‘build to print’ partner to ‘build to specification’ partner,” the statement said.

The present industry base for DRDO consists of 1,800 Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises along with Defence Public Sector Undertakings, Ordnance Factories and large-scale industries. The DRDO has already taken major initiatives through various policies to involve Indian industry as ‘Development-cum-Production Partners‘, offering its technology to industry at nominal cost and providing free access to its patents.

“This initiative will support the fast growing Indian defence industrial ecosystem and will help the industry to contribute towards ‘Atmanirbar Bharat’ in a big way.”

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