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Defence Tactics

By Manohar Parrikar on February 09, 2017

Make in India’ is one of the areas where media generally does not make controversy. I always think aloud. I am the sort of person who likes to throw ideas into the public and listen to them. Nowadays it seems quite dangerous. But Make in India is an initiative where I can freely share ideas.

FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in Defence does not come overnight. ‘Make in India’ is an important aspect. A number of steps have been taken by the government in the defence sector, like removing a number of items from the exports list from the aviation sector. For the defence license, all those which are manufactured under this (aviation) category, which were actually defence exports are now not categorised as defence exports.

In defence, we spent about `3,43,000 crores and prepared ourselves for eventual events. The amount allocated to defence is to prepare for events that a country will always wish that it never happens. When preparing for such eventualities a nation should never depend on a third party for our basic requirements, that is arms, ammunitions and all gadgetry; it is here that indigenous production assumes importance. One should remember that India had to prepare for eight months before going into war in 1971, because the country probably did not have the capability to produce many of the required consumables.

Such a situation could have been avoided if India was self-reliant in its defence production. If you are really spending so much money then why not make effort to ensure that more or less you can be self sufficient. 100 per cent may not be possible as there are complex platforms such as Boeing, there will be an ecosystem of supply. Sometimes it is economically not viable – number of quantity of items – it is better to get them from abroad. But your reliability depends on Make in India and local availability. It will ensure development, employment and more skills. Make in India will give indigenous products much-needed local support. This will, in turn, bring more to research and development in the field and bring in the most important factor of reliability.

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