Taking the lead

 

INDIA has emerged as one of the fastest evolving defence manufacturers in the world in the past few years with concerted efforts at various levels. Though public sector still dominates defence production in the country, private sector has been coming forward with due policy backing. A certain level has been achieved in this regard. It is against this backdrop that Defence Minister Mr. Rajnath Singh has appealed to the private sector to take the lead in defence sector participation. Since the opening of the defence sector for private sector participation in 2001, the world has undergone a lot of change. India also underwent several changes to overcome the issues with the previous versions of the Defence Procurement Policy, concerns over technology partnership with private sector, procedural complexities, funding, research and development etc. The effort got an organised boost since the launch of ‘Make In India’ initiative in the past decade. Government’s emphasis upon indigenous production of defence equipment and reducing reliance on imported defence equipment, has added a great value.

 

Today, India can boast of the private sector participation in defence sector running into thousands of crores of rupees. There are different areas India has been consistently raising the bar of excellence in. These include design, development, manufacturing, and export. A lot is being invested into research and development so that newer designs, use of lighter materials, all-weather operability, troops care, and future-readiness do not remain only as goals on paper. The Government also has been supportive of such initiatives as could be seen from the increasing engagement with the private sector. This is much required too. For, the Government spending on these aspects has certain limitations as it has to take care of various other sectors too. Besides, private sector participation does not involve only one or two companies. Rather, it welcomes the new players, which increases the competition.

 

This, in turn, fuels innovation with enhanced speed and scale. India has been exporting certain defence equipment to other countries. Some of the private sector enterprises have evolved so fast that they have gotten orders for supplies from different countries. Buoyed by this, private sector companies have been drawing up plans to diversify their portfolios from just the Indian Army to the Indian Air Force to the Indian Navy. Now, many are exploring newer areas of aerospace. One can gauge the immense response from the fact that several startups also are entering the defence and aerospace sectors in India. Some firms are into troops clothing for high-altitude areas, some developing food for high-altitude positions, some are into loitering munitions, some working on softwares, some on weapons.

 

Some have started thinking about the possibility of India, like Israel, having her own missile destroying ‘Iron Dome’ kind of system. Years of investing money, effort, and energy into creating atmosphere conducive for innovation, development of technology by Defence Research and Development Organisation and willingness to partner with private sector to achieve scalability, confidence of investors in backing the projects has helped a lot. Hence, this is the perfect time for private sector to take the lead and transform India into a globally competitive defence industrial complex player.