"Procurement categories like Buy (Indian-IDDM) are as much industrial policy as defence policy." Discuss with recent examples.

The Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020 puts Buy (Indian-IDDM) (Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured) at the top of its priority list for capital acquisitions [3]. The category decides who builds as well as what is bought. That makes it a tool for military capability and for growing domestic industry at the same time.

Defence-policy dimension

• Maritime strike capability: In October 2026 the MoD signed a ₹661.50-crore contract with BrahMos Aerospace for Fire Control Systems and launchers for Navy ships [1].
• Multi-platform deterrence: BrahMos is a DRDO–NPOM supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from land, sea and air [2]. Building its supporting systems at home makes supply more secure in wartime.
• Strategic autonomy: Test firings with an indigenous seeker [4] and with other major indigenous systems [6] reduce dependence on any single foreign supplier.

Industrial-policy dimension

• Local value addition: The contract requires at least 68% indigenous content [1], which moves orders to domestic suppliers.
• MSMEs and jobs: It is expected to bring in MSMEs and create jobs over three years [1].
• Import substitution: The Estimates Committee (2018) was told that only 40% of defence production was indigenous and 60% imported [5]. Preference categories are the demand-side lever behind the Defence Production Policy 2018 goal of making India a top-five defence producer [5].

Limits to its industrial role

• Content is not control: Up to 32% can still be imported. A single critical imported component can halt production.
• Tests are not production: Subsystems that work in trials [4] still have to enter series production.
• Delivery gaps: The Committee found that DPSU deliveries lagged behind orders. It also found that ordnance factories struggled to sign long-term vendor agreements [5].
• JV constraint: Because Russia co-owns BrahMos [2], swapping in Indian parts is slower than in a fully Indian design.

Buy (Indian-IDDM) therefore combines battlefield readiness with industrial upgrading. Its success should be judged by systems actually delivered and made in India, not by contracts signed. Three steps would help: publish the indigenous-content and MSME shares of each contract, give vendors multi-year agreements, and move tested subsystems into production. These match the Estimates Committee's call for monitored roadmaps to self-reliance [5]. Aatmanirbharta in defence is then both a security goal and a development goal.