India has tossed down two more proposals for buying transport aircraft and submarines deciding to indigenise them. It’s part of a push by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to foster a domestic arms industry.

1. Defence JVs without indigenous
design pointless

2. For over a decade now, India has shopped all around the
world looking for deals for more than US$1 billion worth of
helicopters to replace around 200 of its military’s ageing
light-utility aircraft.
But in August, Modi’s nationalist government surprised many
when it abruptly scrapped the request for global bids to buy
the helicopters in favour of manufacturing them in India
instead.
In recent months, India has tossed down two more proposals
for buying transport aircraft and submarines deciding to
indigenise them. It’s part of a push by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi’s government to foster a domestic arms
industry.
An Akash missile, made by India, is test fired in Orissa.
Photo: EPA

3. India is one of the world’s largest buyer of weapons,
accounting for 14 per cent of global imports, three times as
many as China.
Over the next seven years, India is likely to spend more than
US$130 billion importing arms, officials say, to upgrade its
understocked, Soviet-era arsenal. Modi wants to upend
India’s arms-importer tag and turn the country into not only
a defence manufacturer but also a major weapons exporter,
much like China has become. “Becoming a defence exporter
is a noble aspiration but it will take a lot of doing,” said Arun
Prakash, a retired navy chief. Admiral. But does that not
mean “We aren’t hard working and not capable of it?” Every
MSME owner works hard all day and night.
It’s only the PSUs and the Govt. bureaucrats that take things
easy and if all the powers of sanction and decision making is
in their hands, nobody can work hard and no results can be
produced.
The decision to build replacements in India for the Cheetah
and Chetak helicopters using JVs in the Private sector, is
indeed a good decision. But it must be ensured that the
Indian Pvt. Player does not do the same mistakes as HAL in
blindly manufacturing just the shell and importing all the
contents of the shell. There must be a sincere and genuine
effort to indigenise most, if not all, the equipment. And the
indigenisation must begin from day 1 of the JV formation.

4. As far as exports are concerned, I think our primary focus for
the next 5 years should be to become self-reliant and meet
our own requirements. Exports with then automatically
follow.
26 or 49% – Foreign cos. will always want all the controls and
will never let us get any modern technology. In my view,
‘hard work and indigenous DESIGN’ is the only way to go.