Defence of India is a multi-dimensional responsibility involving coordination with not only organisations within MoD, but also several external departments and agencies. Irrespective of whether the subject of defence of India is assigned to DoD or DMA, it is the defence minister who is responsible for the subjects allocated to the ministry.

There is a need to formulate a composite policy that focuses on indigenisation in high priority technology areas, shedding the notion that it must necessarily result in savings. A more modest and focussed mission-mode approach to indigenisation can produce better results.

The OCPP is a mix of revenue and capital procurement procedures, based on the Defence Procurement Manual 2006. It could have been an opportunity to lay down a more self-contained procedure.

Raising the FDI limit by itself may not enthuse the foreign investors as per the expectations. To make the defence sector more attractive for foreign investment, a whole lot of other related issues will have to be addressed by the government.

It would be helpful if MoD issues a formal order addressing the concerns expressed by various stakeholders about certain aspects of the negative list, especially its impact on projects that involve foreign OEMs and the purpose of bifurcating the capital budget.

The changes proposed in the offset guidelines require a fresh look, both on conceptual and empirical grounds, as the new regime is likely to yield diminishing returns.

Finetuning negotiation protocols and limiting the scope of negotiations could result in rapid conclusion of negotiations and contract finalisation.

Although the new measures announced to fast-track the defence sector are significant, they do not add up to a comprehensive and overarching reforms package.