Parth Raman
Chandigarh Univeristy
India, that is Bharat, is generally counted as the world’s second-largest military force after China and followed by the U.S., Russia and North Korea. According to various military strength ranking index, the United States of America followed by Russia, China, India has ranked among top military strengths. But do you know that India is the largest importer of the defence product among all the countries? Actually, does it mean India doesn’t have any production industries for defence?
Absolutely wrong, we have Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL), Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL), Bharat Earth Movers Ltd. for defence production. So, we have production industries which work promptly on the assembling of the defence product. Either it is Sukhoi Su-30MKI which is basically manufactured in Russia but meanwhile assembled in India and with assembling, we are perfectly manufacturing subsidiary products and equipment for military forces which are uniforms, boots and other.
Last month, the Modi Government imposed a ban on the import of the 101 defence item. Which are Wheeled Armoured Fighting Vehicle (AFV), Light Machine Gun, 125 mm Fin Stabilised Armour Piercing Discarding Sabot (FSAPDS) New Generation Ammunition, Assault Rifle 7.62 x 39mm, 30 mm Ammunition for Infantry Fighting Systems, Mine Fragmentation, Mine Anti-tank, Mine Anti-Personnel Blast, etc. The figure of 101 plays a role of glorification in Hindu Mythology, and we wish for the same. According to the International Relations specialists, this can be a masterstroke of the BJP led NDA government. Same steps were also planned by Dr. Manmohan Singh but their coalition allies CPI and CPI(M) have rejected this policy for the safeguard of their political ideology. The step of imposing the ban on the defence items has not been implemented with the immediate effect because we have seen that a contract to purchase a weapon or equipment take some years. In the same accordance, the time started banning the product starting from 2021 to 2025.
So we are going to impose a restriction on the import of certain defence items which definitely leads to the scarcity of the weapons with the state of the art technology. Are our PSUs capable of fulfilling our defence needs?
It may be controversial to give an answer in yes or no, but by the analysis of the Public Sector Undertaking and taking the examples of variables which are Air India, BSNL, SAIL and many more; we can easily say that the regulated privatisation can uphold the condition of the defence products. If the market will be limited to the national investors and developers, then automatically the quality and market price will be vibrant.
We can quote that; the emuning of PSUs is always a good option, but when we have prohibited the import of 101 defence items then it is not an appropriate time to do so. In today’s situation everybody is claiming that this step is going to benefit the private sectors including Reliance Groups and Adani Group. Therefore the claim related to the growth of the private sector is completely valid but the above-mentioned groups have didn’t even started their manufacturing unit. The Astra Microwave, Mahindra and Mahindra, Bharat Forge, Kalyani Group is developing the DRDO Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS), Larsen & Toubro, Tata Group, SSS Defence, HTNP Industries, Alpha Design Technologies are some eminent and well-established groups which focus on the defence production like missiles, arms, an anti-aircraft gun and many uncountable. If these groups are manufacturing the weapons then, why are we not delegating them with more authority?
What is the need of a defence production?
Firstly, as we have seen that India has purchased Rafale Aircraft from France, Sukhoi from Russia, Tavor Rifle from Israel, Carbine Rifle from UAE, MIG 29 with Russia and a bunch of other weapons by respective countries. Not only the defence weapon but also the R-27 missile and most effective and ice-breaking S-400 radar. Fantabulous! Does it mean we have state of the art technology in defence products? No, these technologies are there with each of the developed countries because the generation of weapons and technology are pretty old. For example; the S-700 missile system is there with Russia, F-15 Eagle of USA, Tavor-21of Israel are the one the modern generation technology. We have seen that no country put up their list of defence weapons to the public. Meanwhile, according to various reports in today’s era USA followed by Russia, China and Israel are having one the finest quality of defence weapons.
Secondly, the most important need of defence production is related with both the term which is military empowerment as well as economic growth. Actually, the Modi led BJP government has tried to implement the Atmanirbhar Scheme in the defence sector as well. Taking an example of AK 203 rifles to Indian Doppler Radar, there are many initiatives that have been taken by the government. Adding on this if the private sector starts the production of the same that will definitely pop up the growth of the manufacturing and defence sector of the economy.
A positive incident took place in this month when a report was published by an eminent organisation established that; there is a 700% growth in the export of the defence product which has lifted the position of India the ranking of the export list from 23rd to 19th from the year 2015 to 2019 respectively.
