Private players must complement defence public sector undertakings (PSUs) instead of competing with them, Minister of State for Defence M M Pallam Raju said two days into his second term in the ministry.
Stating that the defence market was now a “buyer’s market”, Raju said India now has the option to look elsewhere if there were delays in delivery of defence equipment.
Defence Minister A K Antony had struck a similar note recently during the induction of the AWACS radar into the Indian Air Force. In the presence of ambassadors of Israel and Russia (who partnered India in the production of the AWACS), Antony had complained about the innumerable delays.
Unlike the previous UPA government, which had two MoS for defence (Raju and Rao Inderjit Singh), Raju is the only MoS this time and has additional charge of the crucial area of defence production and research, apart from the Border Roads Organisation, NCC, Sainik schools, defence estates, among others.
Raju told Business Standard that there is immense scope for improvement in defence production and the MoD is “keen to show results” in this area as part of its 100-day agenda.
When asked about the role of the private sector, he said while the private sector is capable of introducing better technologies, it would play “more of a complementary role” to the defence PSUs rather than a “competitive role”.
Be it procurement of armament for soldiers or providing them with protective gear and clothing, the focus would be on modernisation and transparency, especially of defence PSUs.
Another priority area would be to utilise “existing capabilities,” both in the defence PSUs and private sector, for defence production in the given timeframe. Taking the example of the delays in the production and induction of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) and the Main Battle Tank (MBT), Raju said such instances of “shortcomings of converting design into product” were unlikely in the future and second- and third-generations of these weapon systems start rolling out without glitches.