Galvanising ‘Make in India’ in Defence: The Experts’ Committee Chips In

In spite of spending close to Rs 500,000 crore on capital acquisitions between 2002–03 and 2014–15, the Indian Armed Forces continue to suffer from a chronic shortage of equipment and ammunition, low levels of serviceability of equipment already in service, and a heavy dependence on imports. The procurement programmes keep getting stalled or take inordinately long to fructify. There are several reasons for this morass; the primary ones being disjointed defence planning, limited budgetary support for modernisation of the armed forces, procedural complexities, and bureaucratic indolence. Of these, the factor that receives the greatest attention is the procedural complexity besetting defence procurements. The Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) was first promulgated in 2002 and has been revised several times thereafter by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), in consultation with the users and the industry, but the problems, whether real or perceived, have persisted. More than a year into its five-year term, the present government set up a Committee of Experts (CoE) to address this problem holistically, against the backdrop of its ‘Make in India’ drive. This article presents a perspective on the report of the Committee and ends with a broad approach for phased implementation of the acceptable recommendations of the Committee.