India have spent big from the 2011 fiscal year to the last fiscal year on the Army, Air Force and Navy for procuring arms, weapons and other defence-related systems.
Defence minister Manohar Parrikar said the three services have placed orders worth Rs Rs 83,858 crore. During this period, India's own defence sector earned Rs 69 crore by export of military hardware.
According to the Parrikar, the IAF placed orders worth Rs 55,406 crore to foreign companies between 2011-12 and 2013-14 while the Navy and the Army placed orders worth Rs 25,454 crore and Rs 2,998 crore respectively.
Replying to questions in the Lok Sabha, the defence minister also said that foreign direct investment amounting to Rs 24.36 crore has been received after government opened the defence industry for private sector.
"The expenditure on capital acquisition in respect of orders placed on Indian vendors and foreign vendors during the period 2011-12 to 2013-14 was 53.9 per cent and 46.1 per cent respectively," he said.
Giving details of efforts by the government to strengthen the domestic defence industry, he said a total of 144 companies have been issued licences and letters of intent for manufacture of military hardware in the last 14 years.
He said 29 joint ventures and FDI proposals have been approved while noting that the procedure for "buy-and-make (Indian) and make" categories of acquisition over "buy (global)" category to encourage Indian defence industry.
As per the new FDI policy in defence, foreign investment upto 49 per cent has been allowed through FIPB (foreign investment promotion board) route and beyond 49 per cent, with the Cabinet committee on security.
The defence minister said Indian private sector industry has also been allowed to receive maintenance transfer of technology (MToT) in "buy (global)" cases.
He also said that an online system of receiving application for issue of no-objection certificate for export of military stores has been introduced besides formulating a defence export strategy.
Parrikar said during the last four years, NoCs for export of goods which are in the nature of military stores have been issued for many countries including Algeria, Nigeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sri Lanka, Paraguay, Japan, Afghanistan, Spain, Nepal, Belgium, Malaysia, Norwat, Romania and Port of Spain.
The NoC has also been issued for supply of such goods to Vietnam, France, UK, UAE, Bangladesh, Ghana, Sweden, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Egypt, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Israel, Republic of Korea, Macau, Oman, Tunisia, Kazakhstan, Uruguay, Canada, Russia, Tajikistan and Singapore among others, Parrikar said.
He said Indian defence sector earned Rs 46.08 crore by exporting military goods in 2011-12, Rs 5.62 crore in 2012-13 and Rs 17.74 crore in 2013-14.
The defence minister said in the last four years, orders have been issued debarring six firms along with their allied and subsidiary firms from business dealings with the defence ministry for a period of 10 years.
He said allegations of kickbacks and commissions are dealt with as per provisions of defence procurement procedure (DPP) and wherever necessary, the cases are referred to the appropriate agency including the CBI.
Replying to another question, he said a proposal to procure medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) from French firm Dassault Aviation was under consideration and no agreement has been signed yet.
India has been holding talks with Dassault for the nearly $10 billion deal for 124 Rafale fighter jets.
To a separate question, Parrikar said six Scorpene submarines are currently under construction at Mazgaon Dock Ltd, Mumbai, in collaboration with DCNS of France.
He said no proposal has been received from Japan government for construction of submarines.
"The defence acquisition council has constituted a core committee in December 2014 to identify suitable Indian shipyards for construction of submarines indigenously which is required to submit its report within three months," he said.
