Rajnath Singh Inaugurates Defence PSU Bhavan: Boosting India's Military Innovation Hub

According to the post, "Raksha Mantri Shri @rajnathsingh today inaugurated the Defence PSU Bhavan, a state-of-the-art central facility at the World Trade Centre, New Delhi. Envisioned as a hub of synergy, innovation & collaboration among all Defence PSUs under @DefProdnIndia, the Bhavan features advanced conference halls, display zones & a Simulation Room using AR/VR to recreate real battlefield conditions." The Ministry said the new facility symbolises the Department of Defence Production's (DDP) commitment to Atmanirbharta, sustainable growth, operational excellence and global competitiveness.

Raksha Rajya Mantri Sanjay Seth and Secretary (Defence Production) Sanjeev Kumar were also present at the inauguration and review meeting.

The inauguration came ahead of the Defence Minister's annual performance review of the 16 DPSUs. The Ministry of Defence, in a press release, stated that Rajnath Singh had declared 2025 as the 'Year of Reforms', underscoring the importance of development of new technology by DPSUs and the need for enhancing exports and indigenisation. To achieve this objective, he exhorted them to increase their investment and manpower for R&D.

Since then, all the DPSUs have prepared their R&D roadmap for the next five years. Over the last 10 years, a total sum of Rs 30,952 crore has been invested in R&D by the 16 DPSUs. The pace of R&D is now proposed to be doubled with projected expenditure of Rs 32,766 crore over the next five years. While most of the R&D investment over the last 10 years was made by old DPSUs notably Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Bharat Electronics Limited and Bharat Dynamics Limited, the thrust on R&D is now spread across all DPSUs.

In next five years, the seven new DPSUs formed upon corporatisation of the Ordnance Factory Board will invest over Rs 3,000 crore for R&D, while defence shipyards have planned an investment of over Rs 1,300 crore.

During the event, a compilation of D&D/R&D projects carried out in the last 10 years, and the plan for the next five years will be released. In addition, the new R&D Manual of HAL providing flexibility, speed, risk assessment, and allocation in R&D projects will be unveiled.

Notably, the performance of DPSUs in 2024-25 has been commendable. The total turnover stood at Rs 1.08 lakh crore, up 15.4 per cent from that in 2023-24. The DPSUs recorded cumulative Profit After Tax in 2024-25 of Rs 20,021 crore, registering a growth of 19.5 per cent over the previous year. In 2024-25, DPSU's achieved an increase of 51 per cent in exports over the previous Financial Year.

- ANI