MADE IN INDIA SECURITY EQUIPMENT: STRENGTHENING OUR RAKSHASHAKTI IN AMRIT KAAL

India has the third largest military in the world and consequently it is also one of the largest defence spenders in the world. As India is growing its global stature in almost all the major sectors of development, it cannot afford to be behind in building its own defence industrial complex. The path of becoming “Atmanirbhar (self-reliant), shown by Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, specifically in the defence sector is a ground laying act of establishing the foundation of a self-reliant defence industrial base in India.

India’s journey towards self-reliance in defence manufacturing, despite being sluggish and apprehensive of its fructification, has gained a significant momentum through a series of pro-active policy initiatives by the government. These far-sighted initiatives, would encompass a range of manufacturing related supply line activities, right from designing, development, scaling the production, resource optimisation, testing and review to induction. This enables it to foster a thriving defence manufacturing ecosystem that caters to the needs of our defence forces.

Self-Reliance: Its Significance

Indigenisation as a capability of developing and producing any defence equipment within the country to achieve self-reliance and reduce the burden of imports is a strategic and economic imperative for the country. A country like India with its immense potential and strategic location requires to be self-reliant, not just to boast of its fire power strength, but also to create an enabling atmosphere of safety amongst its citizenry and other socio-economic benefits that accompany it. Hence it is important to pursue the idea of indigenisation for:

Self-defence: The presence of hostile neighbours like China and Pakistan makes it improbable for India to boost its self-defence and preparedness. The instance of Kargil War where US, denied us the GPS location to identify our enemy, would be a right cause to be self-dependant.

Strategic advantage: Self-reliance will make India’s geopolitical stance strategically stronger as a net security provider. Also making our own systems and customising it according to our own conditions and threat perceptions, would give us a tactical edge over enemy, coupled with a surprise element.

Technological advancement: Advancement in the defence technology sector will automatically boost other industries, hence catapulting the economy further. Technological prowess and its ability to integrate into defence sector, is where the future of war lies. Examples like suicide drones, humanoid army, cyber warfare and information warfare would completely change the battlefield on the side who hons it.

Economic drain: India spends around 3% of GDP on defence and 60% of that is spent on imports. This leads to an immense economic drain on our forex reserves. If most of these equipment’s procured from our domestic manufacturers, it would save a lot of our reserves.

Employment: Defence manufacturing will need the support of numerous other industries which generate employment opportunities. High skilled human resource capabilities can be enhanced here, to support the high-tech equipment’s.

Policy Initiatives: Facilitating defence indigenisation

Before initiating a change, it is essential to create a conducive atmosphere, not just for the ease of doing business for the defence industries, but also to bring in fast, effective desired outcomes. The following are the proactive policy initiatives that have enabled the idea of Make in India in strengthening our Raksha shakti (Defence Power):

Technology Development Fund

Raksha Mantralay, has allotted a niche funding mechanism, specifically for the high-end State of the Art, defence capacity building in the Research and Development (R&D) vertical of the Defence Budget. Allocation of the funds from the technology development fund, would be made to defence manufacturing related organisations, like DRDO, HAL and also defence related MSME’s and Start Ups based on the specific needs of the organisations and also the demand from the operational perspective of the defence forces.

iDEX

Innovation for Defence Excellence (iDEX) is a defence event, which aims to achieve self-reliance, enable and promote innovation and technology development in Defence and Aerospace. It provides a platform for the manufacturers, especially the private players, Start Ups, MSMEs to showcase their product and services to the defence personnels and helps them engage with them directly.

Project Udbhav

The recently launched Project Udbhav is an initiative by the Indian Army to rediscover the profound Indic heritage in strategic thinking, warfare, diplomacy and statecraft and synthesis with contemporary military practices.

Hardware and Equipment Manufacturing: In Action 

Traditionally India has been one of the major defence importing countries in the world. Military hardware was one of the major items that were imported. This let us at the mercy of the major global players and their geo-political interests. To exclude ourselves from the clutches of the hegemons, indigenisation and self-manufacturing was not just our need, but also our necessity to be one of the major powers in the world. We have done exceptionally well, when we look at our progress card below.

	Army	Air Force	Navy
	Arjun Tank	HAL Tejas	IAC Vikrant
	Akash missile	NETRA radar	Project 15B
	Pinaka	ASTRA missile	Project 75
	NAG ATM	HAL Dhruv	Nuclear powered submarine
	Dhanush Howitzer	MCA	Surveillance based Weapons Delivery Systems
	Agni missiles	SAR Radar	Unmanned Underwater Vehicles

Apart from these indigenisation efforts, by the government there are many such initiatives where the armed forces can choose and buy equipment’s and systems according to their threat-based requirement and their operational needs.

A Futuristic Headway

India has a sizable defence budget, which can be concentrated on developing its defence technology, particularly in the areas of civil–military fusion and dual-use technologies to achieve civil–military integration in areas like aviation technologies. Further, funds must be allocated for research and development, and the private companies that have just entered the defence business require additional industrial support.

Setting realistic timelines for the import bans to achieve successful indigenisation, along with making provisions for more testing facilities, financial assistance to the startup industry and access to technology, may streamline India’s path towards self-reliance in the defence sector. Additionally, it is prudent for India to identify any technological gaps to engage in joint ventures and other forms of foreign cooperation that might lead to the sharing and creation of Intellectual Property (IP), which can hasten the process of indigenisation. It being a long journey we need to keep working on it with consistency and sustained efforts of excellence. Thus, making India truly a Atmanirbhar nation in the defence sector, portrays a very hopeful future.