Expanding Base

The government fine-tunes its procurement policy and pushes for private sector-driven indigenisation of defence production.

- Arun Jaitley

Can a nation aspiring to be a super power continue to depend on import of defence equipment and ignore development of its indigenous defence production or defence industrial base? Definitely not; indigenous defence production or defence industrial base is the essential component of long-term strategic planning of a country.

The heavy reliance on imports is not only disturbing from the perspective of strategic policy and the role India has to play in the security of the region, but is also a matter of concern from the economic point of view in terms of the potential for growth and employment generation. Though all the aspects of power constitute a super power, the military power is a key to a nation's rise to great or super power status.

Evolving policies

Going back into history, the Indian defence industry has a history of more than 200 years. During the British period, ordnance factories were set up to manufacture guns and ammunition. The first ordnance factory was set up in Cossipore (currently Kashipur, a neighbourhood in north Kolkata) in 1801. A total of 18 factories were set up before independence.

At present, India's defence industrial base comprises 41 ordnance factories geographically spread across the country, nine defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs), more than 200 private sector licence-holder companies and a few thousand medium, small and micro enterprises (MSMEs) feeding to the large manufacturers and DPSUs. More than 50 defence laboratories of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) are also a part of the entire eco-system of defence manufacturing in the country.