Government is committed to strengthen DPSUs, says Defence Minister

New Delhi, March 28: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has reiterated the government's commitment to bolster Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs). Speaking in the upper house Rajya Sabha, he said that the government is giving equity support to Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) and clearing their committed liabilities in order to strengthen them and make them liability-free.

In response to a question asked by Congress MP K.C. Venugopal, he underlined that over 80 percent of procurement has been made from the DPSU. Defence Minister emphasized that there was no attempt to weaken the DPSUs.

"As far as DPSU's are concerned, our government is trying to strengthen them by giving them complete equity support. We are providing maximum high-level order to DPSU's as possible. As per my knowledge, 80% of the orders are being received by our DPSU's even today", later Defence Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted.

Earlier, in response to a parliamentary question, Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt informed that the defence sector was opened to the private sector in 2015 and in the last seven years, the government has given 353 licences for manufacturing defence equipment. He also said that the orders are also given to DPSU along with other Public Sector Undertakings manufacturing the defence equipment to create a competitive environment among them.

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