INDIA NEEDS TO FIX THE FACTORY FLOOR WHEN PURSUING DEFENCE SELF-RELIANCE

A 'Made in India' label holds strategic value only if it translates into confidence at the front line.

- ASHISH SINGH

India's ambition to reduce its reliance on foreign weaponry has entered its most assertive phase in decades.

The government points to unmistakable shifts: rising defence exports, new private-sector entrants, the restructuring of legacy ordnance factories, and procurement rules that place domestic industry at the centre. Official figures show defence production rising from around Rs 79,000 crore in 2019-20 to a record Rs 1.5 lakh crore in 2024-25, while exports have crossed Rs 21,000 crore and continue to climb.

Alongside this expansion, the share of the capital procurement budget earmarked for the domestic industry has been pushed to unprecedented levels. From 40% earmarked for local purchases in 2020-21, the Ministry of Defence has now allocated about three-quarters of its modernisation budget to Indian suppliers in successive years, a proportion senior officials describe as the highest on record.

Yet beneath this visible progress lies a quieter, more stubborn problem—one that appears repeatedly in audit reports, parliamentary reviews, and service-level feedback. India is producing more equipment, but not always at the level of reliability the armed forces require. The country’s flagship drive for self-reliance risks being compromised not by a shortage of investment or political intent, but by what happens—or fails to happen—on the factory floor.

QUIET WARNINGS FROM INDIA'S AUDITORS

For decades, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has catalogued shortcomings in the quality of defence production. These findings are rarely headline material on their own, but read together, they expose a systemic pattern: defective ammunition batches, inconsistent machining tolerances, delayed defect investigations, missing trial documentation, and large volumes of stores rejected or withdrawn from service.