Indigenise smart: Heavy investment in R&D is needed to take Indian defence production to next level

News: To promote indigenisation, defence ministry has given the initial approval to projects worth Rs 76,390 crore.

All the proposed capital acquisition will be under the ‘Buy and Make Indian’ mechanism.

What are the projects approved?

Construction of eight next-generation corvettes for the navy,

Procurement of wheeled armoured fighting vehicles, and

The manufacture of Dornier aircraft and Sukhoi-30 MKI aero-engines by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited

Why India is moving towards indigenisation?

First, with 50% of India’s overall military assets Russian made, War in Ukraine has brought India’s over-dependence on Russia in light.

Second, performance of Russian military platforms in the war has been poor.

What are the factors to be considered in indigenisation?

First, competitive bidding process must be tightly controlled. The bidding process could throw up controversies that defeat long-term objectives.

Second, India has achieved 90% indigenisation in the ‘float’ (hull and superstructure) component of warship-building. However, the ‘move’ (propulsion) and ‘fight’ (weapons) components are still at 60% and 50% indigenisation.

Third, most of our indigenisation success has been in auxiliary and spares. For example; after failure of Kaveri project, we are yet to develop a fully indigenous aero-engine for military aircraft.

Fourth, we need to significantly up our investment in R&D. Also, a cutting-edge military-industrial ecosystem with universities, private sector and defence PSUs, should be developed.

Source: This post is created based on the article “Indigenise smart: Heavy investment in R&D is needed to take Indian defence production to next level” published in The Times of India on 8^th June 2022.