Mind Over Matter | Technology is King

Maj. Gen. Mrinal Suman (retd)

Indisputably, India’s defence industry is in a pitiable state. Even after seven decades of Independence, India continues to remain wholly dependent on imports for high-tech defence systems. Worse, it has acquired the dubious distinction of being one of the top two importers of conventional weapons in the world.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address at Aero India on 18 February 2015 declared that his government was focusing on developing India’s defence industry with a sense of mission and it was at the heart of the ‘Make in India’ programme. Mission ‘Make in India’ was formally launched on 25 September 2014, aiming to persuade Indian and foreign companies to invest in indigenous manufacturing.

To start with, two major measures were announced for the defence sector. One, many components of defence products list were excluded from industrial licensing requirements and dual use items having military as well as civilian applications were deregulated.

Two, FDI cap under the automatic route was raised from the earlier 26 per cent to 49 per cent composite (includes all kinds of foreign investments). In addition, the government declared its willingness to allow even 100 per cent FDI for modern and state-of-the-art technology on case to case basis. Even the upper limit for portfolio investment and investment by Foreign Venture Capital Investors was also raised to 49 per cent under the automatic route. Unfortunately, the above steps have failed to enthuse foreign investors.

Centrality of Technology

Technology is the engine that drives the growth of a country’s industrial prowess. Self-sufficiency in defence production can never be achieved unless cutting-edge technology is mastered. Reinventing the wheel is no solution. The only viable route is to import key technologies and thereafter use them as jumping boards for developing higher technologies indigenously. Many of the present-day technology majors were seeking technologies from others a few decades ago. India has to follow the same path.

According to the World Intellectual Property Organisation, technology pertaining to industrial production is ‘systematic knowledge for product manufacture and service provision’. There are two vital components of the definition. One, it is knowledge that is systematic in its evolution, delineation and description. For, it is only then that it can be intelligently implemented and purposefully exploited. Two, it should facilitate product manufacture and service provision. For that, it must cover the complete gamut to include engineering and manufacturing details for fabrication, assembly, test and maintenance.

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The term ‘technology’ does not convey know-how in absolute terms. It denotes a package of multiple sub-technologies that go into the making of a product or a defence system. As most defence manufacturers are systems integrators, sub-technologies belong to different producers. Unfortunately, this aspect does not get the attention it deserves and mistakenly, technology is always treated as a single entity. This results in skewed decision making and wasteful import of sub-technologies that are already available within the country.

To hasten the pace of technology development, India must obtain select technologies from abroad. Import of technologies must be need-based and not availability-based. It is absolutely imperative that the complete process of selection, transfer and absorption of technology is carried out diligently and closely monitored. It should be for the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to identify required technologies. Ideally, priority should be accorded to the technologies on which DRDO has been working for long but without satisfactory pace of progress. It will be easy for DRDO to draw full advantage through smooth absorption. Critical knowledge gaps can thus be filled with imported incremental technology, thereby accelerating development of the defence systems. Further, well-absorbed technology must act as a platform for indigenous development of higher level technologies. If every subsequent technology has to be imported, it does not contribute to the technological skills of the country.

For India, ‘Buy and Make’ route has been the preferred route for most of the large quantity contracts. However, technology transfer under ‘Buy and Make’ is a myth that is being perpetuated with total disregard to the ground realities. What the foreign vendors provide are rudimentary drawings to assemble equipment. Indigenous production is limited to the assemblage of imported sub-assemblies and components to deliver fully built units to the services. In the process, India gains nothing as regards technological know-how.

Take the case of T-series tanks