Defence Procurement: Negative Lists with Positive Implications
The defence indigenisation lists are expected to promote domestic arms manufacturing and reduce the burden of arms imports.
- Mukesh Kumar
- September 30, 2022
India spends a significant amount of resources on its national defence. Efficiency in utilisation of resources is not only an economic imperative but vital for defence preparedness. In view of this, the Defence Economics and Industry Centre was created in 2006 to promote research on various economic aspects of India’s defence. Since its inception, the Centre has undertaken a number of policy relevant studies besides constantly engaging vital stakeholders (Ministry of Defence, Armed Forces and Industry) on a range of issues. The major focus areas of the Centre are:
No posts of Books and Monograph.
No posts of Jounral.
The defence indigenisation lists are expected to promote domestic arms manufacturing and reduce the burden of arms imports.
Given that the Department of Expenditure will henceforth be the nodal department for issuing procurement related instructions in future, the Ministry of Defence must institute a system to promptly incorporate them in the MoD procurement manuals.
The success of the co-development-cum-production push in Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020 would depend on the commercial viability of the co-developed product, apart from overcoming a host of conceptual and procedural challenges.
Micro and macro-level budgetary reforms are required to ensure optimum utilisation of the allocated resources for executing financially viable plans.
US and EU sanctions against key Russian arms producing firms, design bureaus and export organisations have had significant implications for Russian arms importing nations.
Ukraine’s security predicament in the face of the Russian military onslaught brings into focus the vacuity of big power security assurances in the absence of legally binding security guarantees and treaty commitments.
The Srijan defence indigenisation portal is a limited but concrete example of the implications of India’s defence indigenisation efforts for key strategic partners like Israel.
Defence procurement in India needs to adopt a mix of procurement avenues in which the indigenous solutions, foreign equipment and futuristic R&D continue together in a balanced manner. Considering that piecemeal solutions are not effective in the long term, there is a need to adopt a ‘Systems Approach’ to come up with a holistic solution which is enduring and progressive.
In the current geopolitical situation, India needs to increase the indigenous defence production and build a strong military force armed with technologically advanced defence equipment to create a robust security framework that meets the requisites of modern warfare.
The GFR 2017 permit individual ministries to issue detailed instructions to address the needs and complexities of procurement carried out by them. The question is whether those principles and rules come in the way of the Ministry of Defence evolving a more efficient procurement procedure that meets the armed forces’ aspirations.