Prakash Singh Bhandari asked: What is the difference between DPP 2016 and draft DPP 2018?

Amit Cowshish replies: The Defence Procurement Procedure 2016, or DPP 2016 for short, is the currently-in-force handbook containing policies and procedure for acquisition of capital items – equipment, platforms and other military capabilities – for the Armed Forces and the Coast Guard. It has been amended many times since its release on March 28, 2016.

The latest updated version of DPP 2016 incorporates all amendments made up to April 30, 2019, and another two amendments made thereafter on November 01, 2019.

Broadly speaking, DPP 2016 contains the procedure for procurement under various categories defined therein and for defence shipbuilding, apart from a fast-track procedure for urgent purchases. It also contains some special provisions for procurement based on inter-governmental agreements and through the Strategic Partnership model.

Other important contents of DPP 2016 include a Standard Contract template and the guidelines on offsets required to be discharged by the vendors in the 'Buy and Make' and 'Buy (Global)' categories, which are two of the five procurement categories, in addition to the two sub-categories of the ‘Make’ projects.

While DPP 2016 and the Defence Procurement Manual 2009 (which regulates revenue procurement) are presently being reviewed under the aegis of a high-level committee in the Ministry of Defence (MoD), no draft DPP was released by the MoD in 2018.

Perhaps what the questioner has referred to as the draft DPP 2018 is the draft Defence Production Policy – which also tends to get abbreviated as DPP - issued by the MoD in 2018.

The draft Defence Production Policy 2018 envisions India among the top five countries in the field of aerospace and defence with active participation of the public and private sectors for achieving self-reliance and fulfilling the requirement of other friendly countries.

The draft policy aims at synergising defence procurement and production and lays down the strategy for realising the vision by promoting ease-of-doing business that would entail improvement in matters related to licensing, foreign direct investment, offsets, taxation, outsourcing, infrastructure development, research and development, encouraging start-ups and skill development, just to mention a few.

Posted on December 10, 2019

Views expressed are of the expert and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IDSA or of the Government of India.