Pune: The Ministry of Defence has significantly reduced the time taken for processing defence industry licence proposals by streamlining the approval mechanism, with the process expected to come down from three to six months to less than a month, Defence Secretary (Defence Production) Sanjeev Kumar said on Friday.Addressing a national seminar on safety in the explosives and defence manufacturing sector, Kumar said the Department of Defence Production (DDP) had reduced the number of stakeholders involved in consultations from 19 to just three as part of reforms aimed at improving ease of doing business in the defence sector.“This would reduce the time taken in DDP, which earlier used to be three to six months, to less than a month or not more than a month,” Kumar said.He added that the government was also working with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) to further shorten the time required for issuing industrial licences.“We are also recommending various measures to DPIIT which can certainly reduce the time taken in giving industry licences. I am sure that would be helpful not only for the explosives industry but also for other industries working in defence,” Kumar said.The Defence Secretary said the reforms stemmed from discussions held with industry representatives in May 2025, when concerns were raised over varying regulatory standards and delays in approvals involving multiple agencies.“Many of those issues have either been resolved or are on the verge of being resolved after extensive coordination between the Department of Defence Production, DPIIT and the regulatory agencies,” he said.Kumar, however, acknowledged that the reform process was still evolving.“It does not mean that everything the industry wanted has been achieved. The role of the ministry is to strike a balance between the regulator and the regulated, and we remain open to further suggestions if additional improvements are required,” he said.He said the government was committed to continuously improving the regulatory framework to facilitate faster establishment of defence manufacturing facilities while maintaining necessary oversight and safety standards.Kumar said that there is a huge demand for explosives in the evolving geopolitical scenarios across the globe.“Therefore, there is a significant growth in terms of exports in the last few years and our private industry has a scope to capitalize on it. Therefore, our endeavour has been to create a conducive ecosystem for ease of doing business. We are also taking suggestions from private industries,” he added.
