AK Antony directs Indian Army to streamline acquisition

In the backdrop of army chief Gen VK Singh raising the issue of shortage of equipment, Defence Minister AK Antony on Monday directed the force to streamline its acquisition process to fix accountability in case of delays in procurement.

In an hour-long meeting with Gen Singh and senior Army and ministry officials to review proposals relating to capital acquisition in the service, the minister favoured providing more financial powers to the services' headquarters if it helped in speedier acquisition of equipment and weapon systems.

"Antony directed the Army to streamline its acquisition process in such a manner that accountability can be fixed in case of any slippages. He also asked the ministry and the Army officials to examine the possibility of compressing the time taken for technical evaluations and trials," ministry officials said.

He also asked "the ministry and the Army officials to examine the possibility of compressing the time taken for technical evaluations and trials," they said.

Ministry officials said the meeting was in continuation of the earlier review meetings held in September last year and January this year.

Another meeting would be held next month to review the progress made on the decisions that have been taken today, they said.

Besides Gen Singh, the meeting was attended by Defence Secretary Shashikant Sharma and a number of other senior ministry and service officials.