Lessons In The Defence Indigenisation Maze

The recent statement by a minister of the Central Government that ‘Make in India’ of defence projects was literally a non-starter, comes as no surprise to people engaged in such business. ‘Self-Reliance’ and ‘Indigenisation’ are now better associated with seminars and conferences across the country than with actual military hardware. For some of us associated with this sector for the last six decades, this has remained a well known harsh reality, highlights G RAJ NARAYAN, MD, Radel Group

- G Raj Narayan

Lesson 1 - While the present PM’s slogan of ‘Make in India’ is a refreshing slogan echoed effortlessly by the rest of the establishment, nobody seems to have the faintest idea of what this implies. Some believe that this is an open invitation to foreign companies to set shop in India and churn out products that can be labelled ‘Made in India’, as the Su-30s have been for the last three decades. Some others believe that this will necessitate technology transfer to Indian companies so that they can build on them in the future. There are also many like this author, who believe that no OEM would ever transfer technology of any sort other than partial manufacturing drawings and process sheets. History over the last 50 years has proven the last belief to be correct. Whether it was the Gnat or Jaguar or MiG-21 or Su-30, we have had to be at the mercy of the foreign OEMs right through the lifecycles for spares and maintenance support at huge costs. This is proof that we Indians never learn lessons in life.

Lesson 2 – Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) set up over the last six decades certainly served the purpose of establishing a manufacturing base that involved huge capital investments that was beyond the means of the private sector of those days. But, over the years, these have relegated to being sleeping giants delivering only a fraction of what they are capable of. Worse, they are keeping their exposure to military technologies over decades shrouded like Egyptian mummies. This has prevented the assimilation of domain technologies, however outdated they may be, by the private sector. The result: ‘Dog in the Manger’.