Article · 15 min read

Public Procurement Framework for Make in India, Revised to Strengthen Domestic Manufacturing

Nishith Desai Associates · Nishith Desai Associates (Regulatory Hotline) Free Intermediate India

This is the clearest lawyer-grade walkthrough of the PPP-MII order as it actually bites: it defines Class-I (>=50% local content), Class-II (20 to 50%), and non-local suppliers, and spells out the certification ladder that trips founders up, self-certification upfront with statutory-auditor certification due later and penalties up to 10% if your real local content falls short. It also flags the 2024 change that license fees, royalties, and technical charges paid outside India are stripped out of your local-content number, which is exactly what sinks IP-licensing software vendors.

• Class-I supplier (>=50% local content) gets first preference; Class-II (20 to 50%) only qualifies when no Class-I exists, so your local-content number can gate eligibility before price is read
• Self-certify local content at bid time, but statutory-auditor certification is due later and understating carries penalties up to 10%, so treat the declaration as a real audit exposure
• Royalties, license fees, and technical charges paid outside India are deducted from local content, which quietly disqualifies many overseas-IP software models