Defence Acquisition Council

Story hook

It is 30 November 2023, South Block, Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) meeting. Rajnath Singh chairs the meeting. On the agenda: an Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) worth Rs. 2.23 lakh crore — the largest single tranche of approvals in DAC history.

Items cleared that day:

• 97 additional Tejas Mk-1A fighter jets (~Rs. 65,000 crore).
• 156 Light Combat Helicopter Prachand (~Rs. 45,000 crore).
• Su-30 MKI upgrade package (~Rs. 50,000 crore).
• AK-203 rifles indigenisation deepening.
• Naval anti-ship missiles, air defence guns, counter-drone systems.

Behind these numbers sits a two-decade-old institutional design — the Defence Acquisition Council (created 2001 from the Group of Ministers recommendations). And behind every DAC clearance sits the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020 — the 700+ page rulebook that defines how India buys weapons.

For UPSC, DAC + DAP 2020 is the back-end plumbing of Aatmanirbhar Defence. Examiners test whether you understand who decides what, which committee reports to whom, and why the IDDM-first hierarchy matters.

Why this matters for UPSC

This is a frequent Prelims topic — UPSC has asked direct questions on DAC composition (2019), DAP 2020 categories (2022), and offset policy (2017). Mains uses DAC/DAP as evidence in self-reliance, defence reform, and procurement governance answers.