Context: Recently, the government has approved the launch of ‘Defence Testing Infrastructure Scheme (DTIS)’ in order to give a boost to domestic defence and aerospace manufacturing.
Key Points

• Under “Make in India”, the Government has accorded high priority to development of manufacturing base of Defence and Aerospace sectors in the country to reduce dependence on imports. 
• Towards this, Government has announced establishment of Defence Industrial Corridors (DICs) in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
• The objective of the proposed Scheme is to promote indigenous defence production, with special focus on participation of MSMEs and Start Ups by bridging gaps in defence testing infrastructure in the country. 
• Setting up of Defence Testing Infrastructure will provide easy access and thus meet the testing needs of the domestic defence industry.

About Defence Testing Infrastructure Scheme

• It is launched with with an outlay of Rs 400 crore for creating state of the art testing infrastructure for defence sector.
• It is aimed to provide boost to domestic defence and aerospace manufacturing.
• The Scheme would run for the duration of five years and envisages to setup six to eight new test facilities in partnership with private industry.
• It will facilitate indigenous defence production, consequently reduce imports of military equipment and help make the country self-reliant.
• The projects under the Scheme will be provided with up to 75 percent government funding in the form of ‘Grant-in-Aid’.
• The remaining 25 per cent of the project cost will have to be borne by the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) whose constituents will be Indian private entities and State Governments.
• The SPVs under the Scheme will be registered under Companies Act 2013 and shall also operate and maintain all assets under the Scheme, in a self-sustainable manner by collecting user charges.
• The Scheme aims at setting up of Greenfield Defence Testing Infrastructure (required for defence and aerospace related production), as a common facility under private sector with Government assistance mainly in DICs.

Concerns

• One of the main impediments for domestic defence production is lack of easily accessible state-of-the-art testing infrastructure. 

• Defence Testing Infrastructure is often capital intensive requiring continuous upgradation and it is not economically viable for individual defence industrial units to set up in-house testing facilities.