Defence Acquisition Council (DAC):
The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) recently accorded Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for capital acquisition proposals worth approximately ₹2.12 lakh crore for the three services, with about 82% of the procurements to be sourced from the domestic industry.
- Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) is the highest decision-making body of India’s Ministry of Defence on procurement.
- Main Objective is to ensure expeditious procurement of the approved requirements of the armed forces in terms of capabilities sought and time frame prescribed by optimally utilizing the allocated budgetary resources.
- It was formed after the Group of Minister’s recommendations on ‘Reforming the National Security System’, in 2001, post-Kargil War (1999).
- Composition:
- The Defence Minister is the chairman of DAC.
- Its members include senior civil and military leaders of the Ministry of Defence, among them the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and chiefs of the Army, Navy, and Air Force; the Defence Secretary; and other senior officials responsible for finance, production, and acquisition.
- Functions:
- Give in-principle approval to long-term perspective planning, as applicable under the current framework.
- Categorisation of the acquisition proposals relating to ‘Buy’, ‘Buy & Make’, and ‘Make’.
- Look into issues relating to single vendor clearance.
- Take decisions regarding the Transfer of Technology under the ‘Buy & Make’ category of acquisition proposals.
- Field trial evaluation.
- The categorisation decisions taken by the DAC are especially significant, because they influence whether contracts flow to Indian designers and manufacturers or to foreign suppliers.
- Through its approvals, the DAC effectively sets the direction of India’s military modernisation.
