Future of Make-I, Make-II, Strategic Partnership Model & iDEX Projects

The preamble of the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020 states that the Make in India initiative of the Government focuses on increasing participation of Indian Vendors including MSMEs, and therefore “Make” procedure has been further refined in DAP 2020 to make it more objective and time bound with focus on Indian industry. Reiterating its commitment to promote indigenization, the Government has earmarked 68% of the capital budget for domestic industry in 2022-23, up from 58% in 2021-22. 25% of the defence R&D budget is earmarked for industry, start-ups and academia.

Make-I projects involving design and development by the industry and for Projects under Make-I sub-category, MoD will provide financial support upto 70% of prototype development cost or maximum INR 250 crores per Development Agency (DA). Make-II projects are industry funded for which no Government funding is provided. MoD has set up Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) initiative under the Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO) to foster innovation in a coherent, strategized, and integrated manner through start-ups and MSMEs. Involving high-end innovation would be pursued under the iDEX category and the Low Orbit Pseudo Satellites been selected under this category.