1. Home
2. Defence

Indigenisation in defence

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 3/2/2021 12:45:10 PM

New Delhi, Mar 01 Under the dynamic leadership of our Prime Minister, Narendra Modi ji, a great impetus has been laid upon Atmanirbharta in various stratas and areas in our country. Complying to the same, even in the defence sector, great thrust has been given to Atmanirbharta, which recently has been the corner stone of the Indian Defence Production policy. The key for Atmanirbharta in defence is the indigenisation. Further evidence of the present Government’s commitment towards major push to indigenisation, comes from the recent order of around forty eight thousand crore rupees to state run aerospace Hindustan Aeronautic Limited (HAL) for production of 83 Light Combat Air crafts (LCA) Mk-1A also called Tejas fighters for Indian Air force. This is perfectly in line with prime minister’s vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat .This is one of the biggest Make in India contract placed on any Defence private sector undertakings so far. Significantly the contract was handed over to HAL on the day of inauguration ceremony of Asia’s largest Aerospace exhibition on 5th February 2021. The purpose of one of the biggest Aero India exhibition was to showcase to the international community, the India’s capability, capacity, and potential in defence manufacturing. In this exhibition nearly 538 exhibitors had participated. Besides, for promotion of indigenisation among armed forces many measures have been under taken. Therefore the various pertinent questions which arise are:- What is indigenisation? What is the background behind this? Why we need it? What steps Government has undertaken to boost indigenisation in defence sector. So by indigenization we mean the capability of developing and producing any defence equipment within the country for dual purpose that is for self reliance and for reducing fiscal deficit. As everyone is aware that India’s defence budget is the fifth largest in the world. At the same time India is one of the largest importer of arms (next to Saudi Arabia). Therefore to reduce over dependence on foreign nations the then government at the centre changed the Indian approach from licence production to production based indigenous design and subsequently followed by co development co production with foreign partners including the then USSR (now Russia), Israel and France etc. So it pumped resources to encourage Research and Development (R&D). Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), which started its humble beginning as Inspection agency in the year 1959, subsequently had expanded its defence R&D base through out the country by establishing large number of R&D laboratories. In the early eighties, DRDO rose to the occasion and initiated one of the game changer, commonly known as the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP) with a mission to develop varieties of missiles viz Prithvi, Nag, Akash, Trishul and Agni series A1,A2,A3,A4 and A5 series and many others as per future requirements of the nation. Parallelly, Government also set up a committee under the chairman ship of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam the then Director General & Secretary DRDO for chalking out 10 years plan for enhancement of self reliance from 25 to 70 percent. In spite of the fact that DROD achieved self reliance in missile technology to the tune of 96 %, but the other areas remained gray zone. Till date the target of achieving self reliance up to 70 to 80 percent remained a distant dream. The reasons may be the divergent views of different stake holders concerning indigenisation visa vis import. The indigenization is also essential from point of view of obtaining strategic capability, security imperative and also for employment generation. Because self sufficient and self reliant defence industry will place India among the top global powers. Modi Government after coming to power in 2014 realized the gravity of this precarious situation existing in the country. So, it started with the concept of make in India to promote indigenous manufacturing in defence sector. Further to augment indigenisation and to encourage private players’ participation the present government at the centre undertook a myriad of measures. First, the defence procurement procedure 2013(DPP2013) was amended. New clause indigenous design and manufactured was added as the most preferred way of of defence acquisition. Second, to encourage the private players participation and to expand the defence industry base.