While several of its products are in the field trial stage under the Eastern Command, the RFPs have been received from the Northern Command of the Indian Army. Among the products being developed by the company are boots and crampons, ice pitons, hammer pitons, sleeping bags and multi-purpose bags, besides clothing items. TCL commenced functioning under its present format in October 2021 after it was carved out of the erstwhile Ordnance Factory Board.

TCL is working on indigenously developing specialised gear needed for our personnel posted in difficult terrain, from mountainous regions to extremely cold conditions. We had been importing most of these gear entirely or at least major components of them.

With four manufacturing units located across the country, TCL besides catering to the requirements of the defence personnel, including those in the Ministry of Home Affairs forces, also supplies to the police of various states. Its range of products includes clothing items, accessories and technologically advanced products to equip personnel serving in environmental conditions from -50 degrees Celsius to 50 degrees Celsius – from glaciers to deserts.

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With a notification issued on 1 October 2021, the Union government had announced the decision to dissolve the erstwhile OFB and constitute seven new DPSUs which would take over the operations of the 41 ordnance factories in the country and their allied facilities. Munitions India Limited (MIL), which is the largest among the seven DPSUs, took over the operations of the 12 factories involved in development, production, testing and marketing of ammunition and explosives for the armed forces and civilian entities.

In end-September, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh reviewed the working of the seven DPSUs carved out of the OFB at a meeting organised in New Delhi to mark the completion of one year of their operations. The Defence Minister was briefed by the officials of Department of Defence Production on the progress made by these new DPSUs in the last one year and he also addressed the officers and employees of the seven companies virtually.

Listing various achievements of these DPSUs over the first one year of their operations, MoD said in a press statement that MIL has obtained export orders worth more than Rs 1,500 crore for various types of ammunition in the last one year. Officials said among these orders, one single order was of Rs 500 crore, one of the largest ever export order of ammunition by any Indian entity. Without naming particular countries, the MIL has said, “Our foreign customers include countries located in North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. The patronage we receive from our customers both in India and abroad reflects their faith in the quality of our products and services.”

The MIL group of ordnance factories includes Ammunition Factory Khadki, Cordite Factory Aruvankadu, High Energy Projectile Factory Tiruchirapalli, High Explosive Factory Khadki, Ordnance Factory Bhandara, Ordnance Factory Bolangir, Ordnance Factory Chanda Chandrapur, Ordnance Factory Dehu Road, Ordnance Factory Itarsi, Ordnance Factory Khamaria, Ordnance Factory Nalanda and Ordnance Factory Varangaon.

The 12 factories under the MIL are involved in production of small, medium and high calibre ammunition, mortars, rockets, hand grenades and also manufacturing of onitiatory explosives, propellants and explosives. The MoD said that MIL has also achieved a milestone as it successfully proof-fired new variants of Pinaka Rocket which is Pinaka Mk-I Extended Range and Dual Purpose Improvised Conventional Munitions (DPICM), which are specially designed warheads. MIL has also successfully developed 40 mm Under Barrel Grenade Launcher (UBGL) ammunition, 500 kilogram General Purpose Bomb and various Super Rapid Gun Mount SRGM and High Explosive Dual Purpose Ammunition.

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Policy initiatives taken by the government in the past few years were:

• Announcement of 18 major platforms for industry led design and development.

• Notification of two ‘Positive Indigenisation Lists’ of total 209 items of Services and one ‘Positive Indigenisation List’ of total 2851 items of Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), for which there would be an embargo on the import beyond the timelines indicated against them.

• Launch of an indigenization portal namely SRIJAN to facilitate indigenisation by Indian Industry including MSMEs.

• Launch of Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) scheme involving start-ups & Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

• Simplification of Industrial licensing process with longer validity period.

• To provide autonomy and enhance efficiency and unleash new growth potential in the Ordnance Factories, the Government has corporatized OFB and converted it into seven new Defence Public Sector Undertakings.

• Simplification of Make Procedure.

• Implementation of Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order 2017.

• Establishment of two Defence Industrial Corridors, one each in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

The capital budget for procurement from domestic industries is continuously increasing. In the last few years, it has gone up from 58% of total capital budget to 68% for the year 2022-23 amounting to Rs. 84597.89 Crore. In addition to it, Government of India has also funded some DPSUs & Ordnance Factories in last five years to enhance their manufacturing capacity which is as follows:

• A total of Rs 90.08 crore has been invested under Repair & Refurbishment of Machinery and Infrastructure (RRMI) Scheme in Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL).

• Rs 880 crore has been provided to Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) under Infrastructure Augmentation Plan as Government funding.

• A total expenditure of Rs 5,263.92 crore has been incurred by erstwhile OFB under modernisation [Renewal & Replacement (RR), New Capital (NC) P&M, Capital Civil Works].

• An amount of Rs 2,765.95 crore has also been released to the 7 new companies during the current financial year for capital works and equity.

There has been a decline in percentage of capital expenditure on procurement of Defence equipment from foreign vendors from 48% in 2018-19 to 36% in 2020-21.

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