Lending a big push to the Modi government-led Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan, the Indian Army is taking pragmatic steps in order to procure 'Made in India' Mobile Integrated Network Terminal (MINT) systems to enhance its operational communication capability under the umbrella of the 'Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan'.

According to the the Ministry of Defence, "The Indian Army is in the process of procuring Mobile Integrated Network Terminal (MINT) systems under Make II Category of DAP 2020."

In a statement on Friday (12 March), the ministry said that the system has been envisioned to be a lightweight, portable, state of the art integrated communication solution with satellite backhaul and wireless access system to support voice, video and data.

All the initiatives under the industry-funded 'Make-II' category involve prototype development of equipment, system, platform or their upgrades or their sub-systems/ sub-assembly and components with special emphasis on import substitution and innovative solutions, which required absolutely no government funding for the prototype development purposes.

The ministry further added, "Post evaluation of response submitted by the Indian Industry, a total of 11 (eleven) firms have been issued with the Project Sanction Order on 12 March 2021 for development of prototype."

As per detailed inputs from a report by Swarajya, the contract is set to be placed with one of the firms on successful development of prototype as per provisions of Buy (Indian-IDDM) of DAP 2020.

‘Buy (Indian-IDDM)’ category refers to the acquisition of products from an Indian vendor that have been indigenously designed, developed and manufactured with a minimum of 50 per cent Indigenous Content (IC) on cost basis of the base contract price i.e. total contract price less taxes and duties, the report further elucidated.

In addition, the ministry stated that the development of MINT systems will greatly enhance the operational communication capability of the field army in accordance to the self-reliance vision of “Aatmanirbhar Bharat” for Defence production.

Image courtesy: Doordarshan