The
present Government of India has launched the Make in India campaign. A number
of firms which were waiting in the sidelines are either planning to or are
jumping into the fray for making weapons, sensors and other systems for the
Indian Armed Forces. It is no secret that India is the largest importer of arms
in the world. As per reports, the country imports approximately 65% of its
weapons requirements. Opening of the defence sector for private players and
increase in the FDI limit for arms companies has been hailed at all levels. It
is being promoted as a game changer which would make the country self reliant
and would boost the indigenous military-industrial complex.
Most
of the private firms entering the market are in collaboration with foreign
firms. Hence, there is import of technology from the backdoor. The country is
still not developing the weapons, systems and technologies. Foreign companies
still have control over the technology being offered. They will limit the
technology being made available. Also, with passage of time, the royalties
required to be paid on the transferred technologies would make the proposition
of making in India for Indian Armed Forces expensive . Hence dependence on
imported technology would continue.
What
is required is that the military-industrial complex in the country develops
cutting edge technologies on its own. Collaboration with foreign companies or
design bureaus should be acceptable till such time as the product is
co-developed. The relationship should not be that of a licensor and licensee.
Partnership can be attained either through inter-governmental agreements or
through allowing strategic alliances between companies.
It
is no secret that R&D in cutting edge, state of the art technologies for
weapon systems & sensors, and other military systems like aero-engines,
marine gas turbines etc are a very expensive proposition. The private sector
may not be in a position to pump in so much of money into R&D by selling
the systems only to the Indian Armed Forces. The military-industrial complex
should be self sustaining. What is required is to allow these companies to not
only sell the systems in India but also in the global market. Allowing sale of
arms by Indian firms in the global market would not only allow these companies
to increase their spend on R&D but would also make them more competitive
and force them to develop better systems which would then be available to the
Indian Armed Forces. Also, those companies which fail to win Indian contracts
would also be in a position to recover some of their costs by selling these
systems to third countries.
Such
a scenario would reduce the load from the Government of India to fund each and
every weapon development programme.
To
achieve this, Government of India may have to overcome its inherent reluctance
of selling weapons in the global market. This may require a comprehensive
overhaul of the long standing policy of the government. But it has to be
understood that for building a robust military-industrial complex, only making
in India won't help, there is a need to sell to the world also.
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