Evolution Of Defence Industry In India History Essay

Evolution Of Defence Industry In India History Essay12. The history of DIB in India dates adventure to 1775 when British administration accepted setting up of Board of fortification in stronghold William, Kolkata. This was the official beginning of the Army Ordnance in India. In 1787 a gun powder factory was established at Ishapore which started issue from 17911. However, the prototypal ordnance factory, Gun Shell factory was established at Cossipore in 1801 to manufacture guns and ammunition.2Since then the DIB in British ruled India grew to 7 Ordnance Factories (OFs) by the end of WWI and 18 OFs at the time of emancipation1, generally ply to repair overhaul and adding weapons and equipment produced in Britain. During this period India was never allowed to develop spirit competencies in industrial business. billet Independence up to 1960s13. Post independence the Indian leadership aimed at attaining self-direction in total domain of disproof drudgery. To achieve th is Industry Policy Resolution 1948 and The Industries (Development Regulation) Act, 19513 accentuate core industries (including defense reaction heavens) be taken care of by cardinal government. Hence, eight Defence Public Sector Units (DPSUs) were established under breastp fresh of Government, to undertake demurrer production. Defence Science Organisation(DSO), which was established to take up challenges of RD, got amalgamated with technical development establishment (TDE) in 1958. Hence, DRDO was created which then comprised of 10 laboratories4.Post 1962 contend14. Post 1962 war license production and mail purchase remained predominant work on of submit for armed forces. This solvented in a gap of nearly three decades in Indias effort toward innate production which was especially evident in the fields of RD. A fighter aircraft amidst Marut and the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), a basic trainer aircraft between HT-2 and HPT- 32, an intercede trainer between Kiran and ye t-to-be fully developed Advanced Jet flight simulator (AJT) are some of the examples that typify both engineering and production gaps5.Trends in 1980s and 1990s15. During this period Global defense mechanism expenditure stirred its peak in 1987 and then fell sharply in late 1980s and early 1990s. This period a wish well saw globalization with countries col up their economies, rise in low intensity difference of opinions, lawlessness, crimes and terrorism. This period was the scratch line point of study exoneration acquisitions from abroad coupled with major initiatives in indigenous defence production, including RD. The license production of Jaguars and MiG-27M was undertaken by HAL6. This period also saw commencement of indigenous development of LCA, ALH, MBT Arjun by DRDO and missiles under structured Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP) by Bharat Dynamics express mail (BDL). However, fructification of these projects was accompanied by inordinate delays and scie ntific gaps.16. With nothing forthcoming from indigenous RD, the mainstay of armed forces was met through substantial arms acquisition from abroad. With the miscellanea in environment after nuclear explosions by India and Pakistan and the Kargil conflict, the country had to convey a re-look to its defence strategy including its objective of achieving self-reliance in defence industry.Defence Industry in 21st Century17. The importance of accomplished military interaction to attain near self-reliance in defence production was realized and this period saw changes at institutional and organizational levels as recommended by GoM Committee Report on Reforming the National shelter System. The major shift in policy was allowing 100% clannish welkin participation and 26% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in defence-industrial sector7. Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) has been instrumental in influencing such(prenominal) a marked change in policy. While these far-reaching instit utional and policy-oriented changes have been underway for preferably some time, the remove for private participation has assumed significance in recent years.Trends in Global Defence Industry18. Cold War era saw an up trend in military demand followed by a reverse trend in post mothy war era. Reduction in defence budget allocation8in the post cold war period, as shown in Table 1 resulted in many smaller companies either merging with big ones or shifting towards civilian production. Mergers and acquisitions resulted in creation of few giant companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, British Aerospace, Northrop Grumman and EADS. As shown in Table, the military expenditure again witnessed upward trend since 1999 and this is likely to continue in future9. With procurement budgets increase new opportunities are expected for the defence industry. In the changing conflict scenario, there has been an upward trend in the LIC, insurgency, terrorism, OOAC etc as a result of which the global defence industry after a period of authoritative downsizing and rationalization has entered into a phase of renewed attention.Table 1 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Military spending Database in GDP 1988 2009.Indias Defence Industry.19. Post Cold War era, changing trends in global defence industry had affected Indian DIB. economical liberalization has resulted in indigenous build-up of technological base in IT, communication, electronics, auto sectors etc. Since, all defence acquisitions till mid 90s were either immediately or under license production/ correspond, DPSUs/OFs could only gain expertness in production by assembling Completely knock bulge out (CKD) and/or Semi knock Down (SKD) Kits imported from the Original equipment shaper (OEM). The real TOT aimed at enhancing the indigenous development was missing in all these deals. However, the most far reaching change, in recent times, that has squeeze the Indias DIB is opening up of defence sec tor for private participation. The objectives are compound viz., reduction of defence imports from current levels of 70 percent, increase in defence exports, enhance the indigenous RD skill level and infrastructure to produce democracy of the art equipment within time frames specified. In Jan 2001, the GOI initiated a series of major initiatives that included FDI up to about 26 percent and full private participation in certain sectors in defence industry. However, licensing requirement was settle down an impediment towards luring private industries.Shift from Self Sufficiency to Self-Reliance20. Since independence Indias Industry Policy Resolution of 1948 and 1951 was aimed at achieving self sufficiency in defence production. Towards this the government invested heavily in scientific and technological institutions such as IITs, CSIR, ICAR, DAE, DoS, ICMR, DRDO etc. However, the countrys defence was neglected, as was evident in 1962 war. With a weak DIB, the policies to maximize p roduction in order to attain self-sufficiency in defence sector although were considered farsighted, did not match expectations, thus starring(p) to shift of focus from self-sufficiency model to self reliance model.21. assumption in its true sense does not preclude accessing external sources for technology and systems, or external help in any stage of the production cycle. Hence, self-reliance meant apart from Indias own production base for support a degree of dependence on reliable foreign sources for access to technologies, supply of components and complete systems was desirable. These were materialized by meeting urgent and immediate demands through imports form abroad while simultaneously striving for indigenous capabilities in defence production. Although Indias main focus on imports was from western countries like UK, France, Sweden these countries were reluctant in supplying defence equipment to India post 1962 war. Indias quest for self reliance got a major boost when Ru ssia agreed for licence production by diverse DPSUs as well as OFs in India. However, in the bargain TOT aimed at enhancing indigenous production and RD activities lost focus. The outcome of this is obvious, as witnessed in the LCA program, MBT Arjun and aero engine Kaveri. In spite of having produced aircraft, tanks and aero engines under Licence Production, the organizations involved in the production could hardly assimilate and nurture the technology needed to supplement our own indigenous efforts. Probably the focus of these organizations was more towards production earlier than indigenization.Analysis22. Thus, the approach that India adopted in defence procurement and defence industrial development can be divided into three stages. The first of all stage was from independence till 1962 when all defence needs were met from overseas procurement. The second stage was from 1962 till mid-1980s when efforts were made to build domestic production through licence production. The th ird stage from mid-1980s until the present day not only saw procurement from Russia and France, but also initiation of a number of indigenous RD projects.23. Prior to independence, the focus of DIB was primarily aimed at supplementing the equipment produced in Britain. Various committees such as the Chatfield committee in 1938, Roger Mission, the Eastern company 1940 and the Grady Mission 1942 were formed to look into issues relating to Indias defence production10. The Grady Mission could not find a single person or department with whom they could address issues pertaining to defence production in India. Hence, the mis-management of the defence production in India dates back from colonial era and the heritage continues even today with the defence RD and production sector still being neglected by the bureaucracy and the governmental giants.24. Globally, Military technology has grown from the era of vacuum tube and electromechanical systems of early 19th century to miniaturized ele ctronics and software driven sophisticated systems. coin bank the cold war era, Military Doctrine drove technology. However, in the fast-changing technological world, technology is driving military doctrines.NOTES AND REFERENCES