Reforms in defence procurement: Opportunities for north

Lt

Gen K J Singh

(retd)

With the standoff at

Doklam

entering sixth week and possibility of a flare up leading to localised conflict, although very remote, the most worrying issue is hollowness in our inventories in terms of equipment, critical spares and ammunition. While we may overcome the crisis by pooling in resources and emergency purchases like we did during the Kargil conflict, but the need for focussed capability building and making up our hollowness has got flagged once again.

There have been major reforms in

defence

procurement both in capital and revenue stream. The most important changes in Defence Procurement Policy (DPP-16) include strategic partnership initiative to actualise ‘Make in India’ policy. It is indeed worrying that while China has made rapid strides in reducing its dependence on imports and is a net exporter, we continue to languish in this field and in fact, have the dubious distinction of being one of the largest importer of armaments. This and a host of other changes need to be analysed and deliberated to identify opportunities for northern region.

Simultaneously, there has been a flurry of activity in revenue stream, which is governed by

Defence Procurement Manual

(DPM-2009). We have witnessed a series of events interfacing Army with CII and industry starting at regional-level meetings culminating in AMICON-2017. The sheer size of market for spares is estimated at Rs 10,000 crore, where target is to reduce import content from current 60% to 30%.

The current state of over reliance on ordnance factories, which number 41 and make plethora of not too reliable equipment at a tardy pace, has prompted the vice chief to remark that Pakistan has stolen a march over us in defence production. This has also been flagged by a foreign journalist in her recent book also. There is a growing nexus between China and Pakistan in joint production and Pakistan is taking on repairs and servicing of Chinese origin equipment in our neighbourhood, thereby giving them a permanent footprint. Coupled with this is the fact that though belonging to same stock, Punjabi ministry and MSMEs seem to have not been able to leverage their traditional skills and ‘Jugaad’.

With this aim, Gyan Setu, a strategic think tank, after its successful soft launch, is anchoring a roundtable discussion on, ‘Reforms in Defence Procurement-Opportunities for Northern Region’ in partnership with CII and TOI. The discussion is scheduled on Thursday (July 27) at 3pm at the CII regional office in Sector 31, Chandigarh. Discussion will be moderated by Lt Gen K J Singh (retd) and Rajesh Kapoor of CII. The panelists include notable experts, Lt Gen JP Singh (retd) and Lt Gen A K Ahuja (retd), both of whom have been anchoring capability building for Armed Forces and have a wealth of experience to share.