By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd) Former Director General of Information Systems, Indian Army

Rafale

INS Kolkata

Scorpene SSK

There has been plenty hype about ‘make in India’ but as far as the defence sector is concerned the Defence Minister let the cat out of the bag that the policies and procedures for defence procurement need changes – which has been known for decades. Should this not have been priority? It is being said that new policy will be out in 2-3 months, which will likely have cosmetic changes like previous years because it is being evolved as always ‘in-house’. Take a look at the other side of the coin about ‘Make in India’. Why are companies, that are already sharing their activities with DPSUs contributing to more that 50 of the overall indigenous output or even more through smooth and successful results being penalized due to lack of decision to go ahead, with a number of contracts that are waiting decision to be taken somewhere along the bureaucratic channels? Take the case of Offset Banking. A million Euros have been requested by companies for purchasing High Technology material from India that would benefit both but then why are they still waiting endlessly for someone to clear the banking. Tenders kept by the previous government in cold storage are still waiting more than one year, some examples of which are the Scorpene class submarines where decisions are pending. Admittedly, the Navy is not adverse to weapon systems being added post launch, as has happened in case of INS Kolkatta. But do we plan to induct the Scorpene class submarines for sub surface operations without weaponry in an environment of Chinese nuclear submarines milling around and Pakistan planning to put tactical nuclear weapons on her diesel submarines? Then is the MMRCA without a decision and hanging fire in the CNC stage. The tender for the Light Utility Helicopter has been scrapped despite severe shortages in the Army and Air Force. Yes, there is plenty in the news about indigenous development of aircraft and helicopters but these are long-term projects. And let us not fool ourselves by putting in the media that two indigenous AWACS will be developed in 5-7 years. Let us first induct the Tejas before such glib talk. Incidentally, we were to have our own GPS with seven satellites up by 2012 but have managed to launch the fourth satellite only in 2015. We may trumpet come invest their technologies in India, but are we looking at why to finalize a tender it takes 7-8 years and what advantage do JVs give an investor in terms of timing and potental contract as L1? The fact is that the whole show is not about “India First” but “Bureaucracy First”. Private Sector says anybody can say anything against you and you are dead, until you are not able to demonstrate to the contrary (remember the infamous IMDT Act of Assam?), but in the mean time your reputation is destroyed and also business, and in addition the one who created such mess is promoted to other responsibility. Business oriented companies cannot wait that long to recover investments made in India. Imagine the frustration of foreign companies that are completely blind in all the steps where bureaucracy is involved. You can stay years without information about your offers. You write letters but you are ignored. Bureaucracy prevails, hype of authorizing agent notwithstanding! The bottom-line is that the overall diffused opinion is negative because despite the declared intentions to rectify the lack of previous management, like timing in the acquisition process, extension to private companies for tenders etc, nothing much has happened. While deep changes are required to attract foreign investors, the state of equipping of the Indian Military remains dismal. Defence of India needs substance not gas.