New Delhi: A few days back while doing a press conference explaining 20 lakh crore fiscal stimulus Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had requested the Ministry of Defence to provide a list of defence items. List of items that will be supplied only by Indian manufacturers. Taking a cue the Ministry of Defence has issued a Public Procurement order (Preference to "Make in India') vide Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Notification No.P-45021/2/2017-B.E.-II dated June 15, 2017 (as amended on May 29, 2019). Under this order which was originally issued in 2017, the Department of Defence Production (DDP), Ministry of Defence had notified a list of 127 items where purchase preference is given to local suppliers.

Further, in order to encourage MSMEs and procurement from local suppliers, 26 items out of 127 already notified, have now been notified under clause 3(a) of the Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order 2017. This means all the procuring entities shall procure these items only from local suppliers, irrespective of the purchase value, provided that the local suppliers meet the Minimum Local Content (MLC) as prescribed for each item. There are a variety of items in the amended list which is used in defence manufacturing Industry and some specifically in Shipbuilding Industry.

It is worth mentioning here that Sitharaman has announced Rs 3,00,000 crore lending facility to the MSMEs in order to boost the sector. As per NSSO estimates, there are an estimated 110 million (mn) MSMEs of which 97 percent are micro (less than Rs 25 lacs investment in plant and machinery and Rs 10 lacs if it's a service unit). Admittedly they contribute to about a third of the national GDP as well as some 40 percent of exports employing some 114 mn workforces (30 percent of the labour force of 464 mn in 2015 –labour Bureau estimates. 

Find the full list of the 26 items notified by the Ministry clicking here for the convenience of readers related to MSME sector.