Last month's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report released in Parliament noted that as of December 2025, nearly 45% (about $4.5 bn of $9.9 bn) of defence offset obligations remain unfulfilled. It flagged poor execution and weak monitoring, and called for a review of the offset policy itself.
Earlier, CAG reports had flagged the same issues. PAC also faulted MoD for failing to secure significant tech transfers through offsets. While many concerns are justified, this one isn't. More importantly, with the draft Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2026 replacing offsets with minimum indigenous content (IC) requirements, the issue is no longer whether offsets worked, but whether India's private sector defence industry, which exported with the help of offsets, can export without it.
