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Ukraine’s security predicament in the face of the Russian military onslaught brings into focus the vacuity of big power security assurances in the absence of legally binding security guarantees and treaty commitments.
The Srijan defence indigenisation portal is a limited but concrete example of the implications of India’s defence indigenisation efforts for key strategic partners like Israel.
Defence procurement in India needs to adopt a mix of procurement avenues in which the indigenous solutions, foreign equipment and futuristic R&D continue together in a balanced manner. Considering that piecemeal solutions are not effective in the long term, there is a need to adopt a ‘Systems Approach’ to come up with a holistic solution which is enduring and progressive.
In the current geopolitical situation, India needs to increase the indigenous defence production and build a strong military force armed with technologically advanced defence equipment to create a robust security framework that meets the requisites of modern warfare.
The GFR 2017 permit individual ministries to issue detailed instructions to address the needs and complexities of procurement carried out by them. The question is whether those principles and rules come in the way of the Ministry of Defence evolving a more efficient procurement procedure that meets the armed forces’ aspirations.
If existing procurement procedures are a hindrance in acquiring state-of-the-art defence materiel expeditiously, a case needs to be made out, based on demonstrable drawbacks of the existing system for a detailed blueprint of what system should replace it.
The Ministry of Defence has taken significant steps in recent times to boost domestic defence manufacturing and increase the role of the private sector to reduce dependence on imports and achieve self-reliance.
Defence of India is a multi-dimensional responsibility involving coordination with not only organisations within MoD, but also several external departments and agencies. Irrespective of whether the subject of defence of India is assigned to DoD or DMA, it is the defence minister who is responsible for the subjects allocated to the ministry.
There is a need to formulate a composite policy that focuses on indigenisation in high priority technology areas, shedding the notion that it must necessarily result in savings. A more modest and focussed mission-mode approach to indigenisation can produce better results.
India’s defence eco-system is indeed becoming more dynamic as it strives to achieve the tough defence exports targets.
The Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP 2020), which supersedes the Defence Procurement Procedure 2016 (DPP 2016), is a sincere effort by the Ministry of Defence to improve the capital procurement procedure.
The OCPP is a mix of revenue and capital procurement procedures, based on the Defence Procurement Manual 2006. It could have been an opportunity to lay down a more self-contained procedure.
Poor workmanship, deteriorating quality issues, and lack of professionalism have plagued the workings of the Ordnance Factories. There is an imperative need for modernising the workings of the OFs through corporatisation.
Raising the FDI limit by itself may not enthuse the foreign investors as per the expectations. To make the defence sector more attractive for foreign investment, a whole lot of other related issues will have to be addressed by the government.
It would be helpful if MoD issues a formal order addressing the concerns expressed by various stakeholders about certain aspects of the negative list, especially its impact on projects that involve foreign OEMs and the purpose of bifurcating the capital budget.
The negative list of embargoed defence items is one more step towards creating a strong domestic arms industry and making India self-reliant in defence production.
Banning the sale of imported items through the CSD could supplement the various domestic industry-friendly policy measures being taken by the government for a self-reliant India.
While the steps stipulated in draft DAP-2020 to enable smooth acquisition of systems indigenously designed by DRDO and other public sector entities are a right move, they need to be strengthened further to make procedures more robust and conducive for timely completion of projects.
The changes proposed in the offset guidelines require a fresh look, both on conceptual and empirical grounds, as the new regime is likely to yield diminishing returns.
India needs to have a public version of defence manpower database as part of its annual budgetary document. This would facilitate greater understanding and analysis of any possible manpower-related reforms in the future.
