At the time of Independence in 1947, all ships of the Indian Navy were of British origin. Almost all the machinery, equipment, spares and even common user stores were imported from Britain. Meanwhile, after the Second World War, the workload of the Indian Ordnance Factories had reduced drastically and they had substantial idle capacity.

In 1953, a small cell was created under the then Captain Superintendent Naval Dockyard (Bombay) to identify the items which could be produced in the Ordnance Factories or by Indian industry.

In 1955, to boost the indigenisation effort, an independent Directorate of Stores Production (DSP) was created, with cells at Bombay and Calcutta. The DSP functioned under NHQ.

In 1959, the administrative control of the DSP was passed to the Controller General of Defence Production (CGDP).

After China's attack in 1962, a Department of Defence Production & Supplies was created in the Ministry of Defence. The CGDP's functions were divided between the Director General of Inspection (DGI), the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Ordnance Factories. The DSP was placed under the DGI.

In 1964, the DSP was redesignated as Directorate of Development & Inspection, Marine Stores (DDI(MS)). In addition to indigenisation, its role was expanded to include:-

(a) Authority Holding Sealed Particulars (AHSP) activities,

(b) Vetting of Annual Review Demands (ARDs) and

(c) Inspection of indigenised stores.

Prior to this, the inspection of indigenous stores was being done by the Surveyor of Stores under the Commodore Superintendent, Naval Dockyard, Bombay.

The indigenisation of equipment and stores received a major impetus when, along with the decision to build Leander class frigates in Mazagon Docks, the decision was also taken to progressively indigenise all equipment to be fitted in the frigates. This rapidly increased the indigenisation workload and led to the creation of a separate Directorate for the indigenisation and inspection of equipment for warship production. In 1968, the DDI(MS) was bifurcated into:

(a) Directorate of Production and Inspection, Navy (DPI(N)) - for existing ships

(b) Directorate of Warship Production(DWP) - for new construction ships.

It soon became evident that these two Directorates were handling similar items, resulting in duplication of effort. In 1975, it was decided to reorganise the DWP and DPI(N) into the Engineering and Electrical disciplines. During the first phase of this reorganisation, only Western origin equipment was taken up and the role of the two directorates was redefined as follows:

DWP - To deal with Marine Engineering and Hull equipment, including associated electrical machinery

DPI(N) - To deal with Electrical/Electronic/Weapon equipment, their spares and Naval Stores:

(a) The indigenisation of Russian origin equipment was bifurcated on the above lines.

(b) The inspection establishments were similarly repositioned under DWP and DPI(N).

(c) It was intended to place DWP and DPI(N) under one head, the Addl DGI (Navy) and rationalise the field units.

This could not however be implemented.

    In 1987, the DGI was redesignated as the Director General Quality Assurance (DGQA). The DPI(N) and DWP were redesignated as Directorate of Quality Assurance (Naval) DQA(N), and Directorate of Quality Assurance (Warship Production) DQA(WP), respectively, under the Ministry of Defence.