Accelerating defence export, India becomes 4th nation to provide int’l standard bulletproof jackets to 100 countries

New Delhi, September 13: Aligning itself with top countries like United States, United Kingdom and Germany, India becomes the fourth nation to have its own national standard on bulletproof jacket which provides 360-degree protection. Highlighting its significance, India has begun exporting bulletproof jackets as per its own standards, which conform to international norms, to over 100 countries, including European nations.

 

According to the Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS), a national body that sets quality standards for various products and services, it has noted that India has set more than 20,000 standards. The BIS Deputy Director Rajesh Bajaj said that the bulletproof jackets are not only produced and procured in India as per the BIS standards but also being sold in 100 other countries.

Highlighting salient features of the bulletproof standard, Gupta said tough quality norms are set to ensure jackets can be manufactured in various sizes to suite requirement of soldiers and provide 360-degree protection, including from AK-47 hard steel core bullets approaching at 700 metres per second.

It has a provision for dynamic weight distribution system and design flexibility as well as uniform and detailed testing protocol to ensure everyone is able to adopt the same standard, he said. Besides, the BIS has incorporated testing protocols in the standard to ascertain the shelf-life of jackets, he added.

India is the fourth country in the world having its own national standards on this product. Adding further Bajaj said that India has brought all stakeholders together and decided on a national standard, which is of international quality. Armed forces are now procuring as per this standard. In December 2018, the BIS framed a national standard for bulletproof jacket following a direction from the Prime Minister's Office and the Niti Aayog. Under the Make in India programme, India has slated world class facility and design capabilities.

Two PSUs Medani and Ordnance factory at Avadi, Chennai and private firms SNPP (Palwal), Starwire (Faridabad) in Haryana and MKU (Kanpur) in Uttar Pradesh are manufacturing bulletproof jackets as per the BIS norms, Gupta said. The domestic players have already supplied about 1.86 lakh jackets to defence forces and the tendering process for further supply is underway, he added.