India, March 20 -- The defence ministry will on Thursday, seek approval from the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) headed by defence minister Rajnath Singh to drastically compress time lines for the procurement of defence equipment in an effort to ensure that the country's ability to defend itself doesn't fall victim to bureaucratic procedures.

The ministry wants the average time taken for defence acquisition to be cut from the present 96 weeks (roughly two years) to only 24 weeks (less than six months).

According to at least three top officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, the defence ministry wants the cumbersome capital acquisition procedure, governed by a voluminous Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) manual, running into 65...