Russia has identified about 19 companies in India to manufacture defence products and provide spares and components of Russian platforms currently being used by India’s defence forces, Defence Production secretary Ajay Kumar said.

“It (the JVs) brings down our cost, reduces the delay in terms of getting the spares, getting the servicing done (which) in turn again reduces the cost of keeping a certain level of inventory. These will open up huge opportunities for manufacturing in India, both for Indian needs and exports,” Dr. Kumar said on the sidelines of a CII conference on Aerospace and Defence Manufacturing Technologies here.

He also said India was in the process of finalising the security agreement with the United States that would enable classified information to be shared between the industries of India and the U.S. “so that greater amount of industry-to-industry linkage can take place”.

The Defence Ministry is also in the process of setting up an indigenisation portal which is likely to be ready in about six months. “There are about 1.1 lakh items (defence parts) that need to be indigenised. “To make this simple and to make easier access for industry, we are setting up an indigenisation portal,” he said.

In addition, the Ministry is toying with the idea of providing a certificate to attest the technical capabilities of Indian defence products for companies that lose out during the bidding process.

“We will give a certificate saying these goods were technically qualified and suitable for induction in Indian forces, so that you can go and use this to export to other countries,” Dr. Kumar added.