India must boost production capacity for military-grade drones: Defence Secretary
New Delhi [India], June 20 (ANI): Highlighting the role of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in modern warfare, Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh has said that India must boost its production capacity for military-grade drones. He noted that the Centre wants to cut the defence procurement cycle to a maximum of two years and the government will come up with a new Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP 2025) in six months.
'I would say that India has a significant manufacturing ecosystem for drones, but a lot of it is really for civilian drones. Military-grade drones, not so much. There are, I would say, three to four, five manufacturers who have some capacity in that area. It's something we'll have to build up quickly,' Singh told ANI in an interview.
'And to the extent that, like all military purchases, it's a monopsony. The government is the only buyer. And I guess the government will have to use its buying power to provide the resources and give visibility in terms of orders to that sort of small ecosystem, which hopefully will gradually become a large ecosystem of military-grade drone manufacturers,' he added.
He said that military-grade drone production in the country needs some transfer of technology, as a lot of the technology may not be available domestically.
'I would say that we are looking at least three to four manufacturers who are coming up with this type of capacity in terms of military grade drones. We will encourage them through orders and through tenders so that they can start investing in this area even more, including tying up with a lot of the technologies from outside,' he said.
'The volume that we can generate in terms of the size of the orders that can be bigger than the combined turnover of all the other civilian drone manufacturers in the country. That type of ensuring that they have a full order book if they make investments for inter-military grade drones, we will try to ensure by speeding up procurement and by giving them visibility in terms of orders,' he added.
The Defence Secretary said he would like to see a situation where the maximum time taken for any procurement, even the most complex ones, should not exceed about two years.
'Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020 is a very bulky book. It's a bible for the defence industry. We need to make it simpler. A lot of redundant steps can be avoided. A lot of things can be done concurrently rather than sequentially. And a lot of simplification in terms of the kind of companies that can bid, where we've put in some unnecessary conditionalities, all those have to be removed,' he said.
'So, for that, we have a committee now working. The target date is six months from today. So you'll have a new DAP. It will be DAP-25 rather than DAP-20,' he added. (ANI)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
21 minutes ago
- The Hindu
BMS will not participate in general strike on July 9, says All India Organising Secretary
The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) will not participate in the All India General Strike on July 9, the call for which was given by various trade unions, says B. Surendran, All India Organising Secretary of BMS. He was in the city as a part of a tour of North Andhra on Monday. While other trade unions are totally against the Labour Codes, brought out by the Centre, BMS welcomes certain clauses like the wage code and social security code, which are beneficial to workers, Mr. Surendran said in a chat with The Hindu. At the same time, BMS is opposed to the Industrial Relations Code and the Occupational Safety Health and Working Conditions Code, which are detrimental to the interests of workers, he said. 'Contract system' He felt that the legalisation of the 'contract system' under different names such as 'outsourcing workers' and contract workers was not suitable for India, which has the highest population. The government should realise that human capital is as important as money capital to run an industry or factory. Workers require permanent jobs and forming a trade union to safeguard their interests is a fundamental right of workers. BMS has sent its objections to the Union Minister of Labour, he said. 'Overstaffing in VSP' Replying to query, Mr. Surendran said that the Centre was taking fiscal measures to tide over the losses in Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP). The officials had recruited much more than the required number of contract workers. The production at the plant was not affected even after a few thousands of workers were terminated, indicating that there was huge overstaffing, he said. He, however, said that the manner in which the workers were asked to leave, had caused discontent among them. The non-involvement of trade unions in the process, and failure to give certain benefits to VRS employees was another cause for concern among the staff, he said and expressed optimism that VSP would not be privatised.
India.com
35 minutes ago
- India.com
India's GST Collection Hits Record Rs 22.08 Lakh Crore In FY25, Rises 9.4%
New Delhi: India's Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection for the financial year 2024–25 touched a record high of Rs 22.08 lakh crore, marking a 9.4 per cent increase compared with the previous year, the government announced on Monday. The average monthly collection for the year stood at Rs 1.84 lakh crore. The government highlighted that GST revenues have more than doubled in just five years. In 2020–21, the total collection was Rs 11.37 lakh crore, with an average monthly figure of Rs 95,000 crore. This steady rise in revenue points to stronger tax compliance and consistent economic growth. The trend of rising GST collection has continued month after month. In May 2025 alone, the gross GST collection rose by 16.4 per cent to over Rs 2.01 lakh crore. This increase was driven by both domestic transactions and imports. Domestic revenues grew by 13.7 per cent to Rs 1.50 lakh crore, while import-related GST rose sharply by 25.2 per cent to Rs 51,266 crore. In terms of tax breakup for May, the central GST stood at Rs 35,434 crore and the state GST at Rs 43,902 crore. The Integrated GST (IGST), which is shared between the Centre and states, amounted to Rs 1.09 lakh crore. As of April 30, there are over 1.51 crore active GST registrations in India. These include more than 1.32 crore normal taxpayers, around 14.86 lakh composition taxpayers, and 3.71 lakh taxpayers registered under Tax Deducted at Source (TDS). India is also preparing to mark a major milestone on July 1 as the country celebrates eight years since the launch of the GST regime. Introduced in 2017, GST has become one of the most important tax reforms in India's history, replacing multiple indirect taxes with a unified structure.
Mint
an hour ago
- Mint
High AI maturity fuels long-term project success and trust: Gartner survey
New Delhi [India], June 30 (ANI): A recent survey by Gartner, Inc. indicates that organisations with high AI maturity are significantly more successful at sustaining their AI initiatives, with 45 per cent reporting that their AI projects remain operational for three years or more. The survey, conducted in Q4 2024 with 432 respondents across the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, India, and Japan, assessed AI maturity using Gartner's AI Maturity Model. High-maturity organisations, scoring an average of 4.2-4.5 on a 5-level scale, demonstrated that selecting AI projects based on business value and technical feasibility, coupled with robust governance and engineering practices, is key to long-term success. This stands in stark contrast to low-maturity organisations, where only 20 per cent achieve similar longevity. "Trust is one of the differentiators between success and failure for an AI or GenAI initiative," stated Birgi Tamersoy, Sr Director Analyst at Gartner. The survey found that in 57 per cent of high-maturity organisations, business units trust and are ready to utilise new AI solutions, compared to a mere 14 per cent in low-maturity organisations. "Building trust in AI and GenAI solutions fundamentally drives adoption, and since adoption is the first step in generating value, it significantly influences success," Tamersoy added. Additionally, the report also reveals that, despite varying maturity levels, data availability and quality remain prominent hurdles in AI implementation. The survey revealed that 34 per cent of leaders from low-maturity organisations and 29 per cent from high-maturity organisations identified these as top challenges. For high-maturity organisations, security threats were also a significant barrier (48 per cent), while low-maturity organisations frequently struggled with identifying the right use cases (37 per cent). A notable finding is the strong trend towards dedicated AI leadership in high-maturity organisations, with 91 per cent already having appointed such roles. These AI leaders are primarily focused on fostering AI innovation (65 per cent), delivering AI infrastructure (56 per cent), building AI organisations and teams (50 per cent), and designing AI architecture (48 per cent). Furthermore, nearly 60 per cent of leaders in high-maturity organisations reported centralising their AI strategy, governance, data, and infrastructure capabilities to enhance consistency and efficiency. (ANI)
