PIB TrackerTesting charges waived and three days a quarter reserved at MoD proof ranges
The revised SOP opens firing ranges and test facilities to Indian defence industry, and replaces the arbitration clause with conciliation.
What happened
- The Raksha Mantri approved a revised SOP for use of MoD proof ranges, field firing ranges and test facilities by Indian defence industry.
- Proof and testing charges waived for iDEX, Technology Development Fund, Make and other MoD developmental projects.
- The SOP lists the ranges and laboratory test facilities held by DRDO, government quality assurance agencies and the three Services.
- A three-day slot per quarter is reserved at proof ranges for development firing, including projects on industry’s own initiative.
- The arbitration provision is replaced by a conciliation agreement clause.
For Prelims
- Proof range: a facility where ammunition, guns and munitions are fired under instrumented conditions to verify performance and safety. Certification of a weapon system is not possible without it, and in India the ranges belong to the Ministry of Defence.
- iDEX: Innovations for Defence Excellence, launched 2018, funding startups and MSMEs to develop defence technology through the Defence Innovation Organisation, with challenges run as Defence India Startup Challenges.
- Technology Development Fund: a DRDO scheme financing Indian industry, especially MSMEs and startups, to develop defence technologies not currently available.
- Make procedure: the category in defence acquisition under which prototypes are developed, with Make-I government-funded and Make-II industry-funded against an assured order.
- CEMILAC and DGAQA: the Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification and the Directorate General of Aeronautical Quality Assurance - the agencies whose certification a product needs before induction.
- Arbitration against conciliation: under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, an arbitral award is binding and enforceable as a decree; a conciliation settlement binds only if both parties sign it. Conciliation is faster and cheaper; it is also weaker.
- Why range access is the bottleneck: a defence startup can raise money and build a prototype, but cannot sell without certification, and cannot certify without firing at a government range. The customer controls the only path to qualification.
- Atmanirbharta in defence: pursued through positive indigenisation lists, the Buy (Indian-IDDM) procurement category, iDEX and TDF funding, and now test infrastructure access - the last being the piece that money alone cannot buy.
For UPSC: The least discussed and most binding constraint in defence indigenisation, addressed directly. Use it on defence production and self-reliance, on the startup and MSME route into defence through iDEX and TDF, on ease of doing business in a monopsony market, and as an example of how public infrastructure access shapes private innovation.
What it is NOT: No count of ranges or facilities is given, and no indication of their current utilisation, so whether three days a quarter is generous or token cannot be judged. No allocation rule for the reserved slot - how competing projects are ranked when more want the window than it holds - and no appeal if refused. No figure for what the waived charges amounted to, and no estimate of how many firms were deterred by them. Nothing on turnaround time from application to allotment, which is the delay industry actually complains of. And replacing arbitration with conciliation removes a binding remedy from the weaker party in a dispute with its only customer.
For Mains
Syllabus: GS3.20 · GS3.12 · Linkage L1
Anchor
The Raksha Mantri has approved a revised Standard Operating Procedure for Indian defence industry to use Ministry of Defence proof ranges, field firing ranges and test facilities. Proof and testing charges are waived for iDEX, Technology Development Fund, Make and other MoD developmental projects, and a three-day slot per quarter is reserved at proof ranges for development firing.
Substantiation (data)
The SOP publishes the list of proof ranges, field firing ranges and laboratory test facilities held by DRDO, government quality assurance agencies and the three Services, sets out how charges are calculated and paid where they still apply, and supplies the formats. The reserved quarterly slot covers government-sponsored developmental projects and also projects a company undertakes on its own initiative. The arbitration clause in the previous procedure is replaced by a conciliation agreement clause.
Position
This addresses the part of defence indigenisation that money does not solve. A startup can raise capital and build a prototype; it cannot sell without certification, and it cannot certify without firing at a range that the Ministry owns and the Services use. In a market with one customer, that customer also controls the only road to qualification. Publishing the facility list, waiving charges for development work and ring-fencing slots for firms pursuing their own ideas converts a discretionary favour into a procedure, which is the real change.
Counterpoint
Three days a quarter is twelve days a year, shared across every government-sponsored and self-initiated development project in the country, and the release gives no allocation rule for the window, no count of ranges and no current utilisation figure - so there is no way to tell whether this is generous or symbolic. The arbitration change cuts the other way from how it is presented: an arbitral award is binding and enforceable, a conciliation settlement is not, and the party that loses a binding remedy in a dispute with its sole customer is the small supplier.
Way forward
Three disclosures would make this assessable: the number of ranges and their current utilisation, the rule by which reserved slots are allotted when demand exceeds them, and the median time from application to allotment. If the twelve days fill immediately, the answer is more days rather than a better procedure - and the case for a dedicated industry test range, rather than borrowed slots on Service ranges, writes itself.
Conclusion
A genuinely useful reform aimed at the right constraint, with one provision that is weaker than it sounds. Access to test infrastructure is what turns defence innovation funding into defence products, and this is the first time the arrangements for it have been written down and published.
Deploys into: Defence production and self-reliance · iDEX, TDF and the startup route into defence · Ease of doing business in a monopsony market · Public test infrastructure and private innovation
Ministry of Defence · 2026-10-07 · PRID 2320195 · PIB source ↗