DEFENCE EQUIPMENT STRATEGY OF INDIA
There has always been a debate between guns and butter and in the view of it an enormously corpulent man said, “Guns will make us powerful; butter will just make us fat.” Going by his logic, India is headed towards corpulence: the military complains it has too little money for guns but does it has enough for butter is debatable. As a percentage of the total economy, or gross domestic product (GDP), India spends less on its military than many nations. Our military spend, around 1.8% of GDP, which is pretty lower than that of many other nations like China, Pakistan, the US and Russia.
India should be more meticulous about obtaining the maximum bang for every penny spent rather than raising the defence outlay everytime. And with this in mind, India needs to re-examine its defence equipment strategy. There is no reason why we are the world’s largest importer of weapons, when our official slogan is ‘Make in India’. Most domestic projects, ranging from fighter aircraft to tanks and submarines, have failed and after the failure to make even an efficient handgun at home, is now a challenge in terms of budgetary allocations. Now its high time, India has to make more of its military hardware, get the private sector involved, and start making in India, rather than cribbing about money.
In India, of the three defence forces, the navy is the best organised force, both in terms of planning for and carrying out indigenous production of their kit. There is no reason why the army and the air force cannot achieve the navy’s level of efficiency in this regard. The point is to utilise the offsets that keep accumulating on past procurement in a systematic fashion and create an efficient local defence industry. This will give a boost to advanced manufacturing in the country, with low cost of material and a better output.
