Aditya Kakkar

Carefully balancing the potential of India’s domestic private industry with the necessity of ordnance factories (OFs) and DPSUs in meeting country’s ammunition needs, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman at a recent conference underscored the importance of both private and public sector to achieve self-reliance in defence production with the rider that the latter needed to be ‘revitalised’.

Organised jointly by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and CENJOWS (Centre for Joint Warfare Studies) from March 12-13, ‘Ammo India 2018’, once again brought home the painful truth that Indian armed forces’ ammunition woes continue despite frequent flagging-off of the issue at multiple foras, including the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence.

Conscious of this fact, Sitharaman said, “The management of these organisations (OFs and DPSUs) need to be ahead of the curve and show dynamism,” as they possess immense and valuable assets that could offer manufacturers huge production opportunities. She added that the defence ministry was encouraged by the quantum of outsourced component in defence manufacturing which had risen to 29 per cent in fiscal 2016-17.

This, she said, displayed that Tier 1 Indian companies were up to their task and also serve as an assurance to SMEs that their products would be sourced by big companies. It was encouraging that SMEs had started to bring in start-ups to produce for the armed forces and her ministry was coordinating between the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) and the home ministry. This should give comfort to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that different arms of the government were engaged in a well-oiled effort