Events
& Issues
New Delhi, 26 July 2017
Military Collaboration
INDIA, A MANUFACTURING BASE?
By Dhurjati Mukherjee
The Union Government’s
resolve to develop and produce sophisticated military platforms and weapon
systems under the ‘Make In India’ programme is indeed laudable and a step in
the right direction. Recently, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, addressing the
‘Technoprom 2017’ wanted Russia, being India’s largest and oldest partner in
defence hardware and equipment, to set up joint collaborative projects in this
sector in the country.
Jaitley was confident
that the Russian companies could be natural partners of Indian companies in
this endeavour to create a large industrial base, specially in the defence
sector. India, being one of the largest importers of defence equipment, would
not only have the advantage of having a manufacturing base in the country but
also save much-needed thousands of crores in foreign exchange.
One may mention here
that as regards Russia is concerned, military technical cooperation has
graduated from a simple-buyer relationship to one involving joint R&D and
production of advanced systems. Technology transfer has also taken place in
certain cases and India has as a first step started manufacturing small arms.
Similar cooperation with Israel is also expected to take shape, following Prime
Minister Modi’s recent visit to country, described by many as ‘historical’.
However, it appears
that in the case of the US, which Modi too visited recently and held talks with
President Donald Trump, the case is somewhat different. The new dispensation
appears not very receptive to the idea of countries having manufacturing bases
with American technology, thereby taking away jobs from the country. Moreover, there
is a big question mark whether technology would be transferred to India.
At the same time,
there is clear indication in the Modi-Trump talks, that the US wants “free and
fair trade”, which means India would need to open its economy further for
American companies to enter the market here. How much of this would be
possible remains to be examined by experts as the interests of this country
have to be carefully weighed.
As regards defence
ties are concerned, America was ready to sell sophisticated equipment to this
country. Designating India as a ‘major defence partner’ on par with its closest
allies, it remains to be seen how much transfer of technology would actually take
place. Meanwhile, it is ready to sell F-16 and F/A-18 fighters to India and
there have been reports of starting a jet production line after the Tejas light
combat aircraft under the ‘Make in India’ framework. But there is no clarity as
yet on how this proposed project would square up with Trump’s hard line policy
on not allowing jobs to be shifted out of the US. Moreover, this was not even
discussed during the visit of Modi to Washington.
The joint statement
after the Modi-Trump summit noted Washington’s offer to sell 22 Predator Sea
Guardian surveillance drones worth over $2 billion to India even as the Pentagon
notified the US Congress about the sale of another C-17 Globemaster-III
strategic airlifter for $366 million.
This would be welcome
as New Delhi is undoubtedly concerned about its neighbours. Both China and
Pakistan have posed threats to the country and international manoevering has
resulted in New Delhi and Islamabad buying weapons worth millions of dollars,
thereby neglecting the much-needed development of social and physical
infrastructure in their respective countries. Unfortunately, while Western
powers, which manufacture and sell these military equipments, gain financially,
the developing nations are starved of funds to enable them to achieve faster
growth of the lowest segments of the population.
Though Trump and many
other world leaders have finally realised that State sponsored terrorism has
been perpetrated by rogue nation Pakistan, the situation is still continuing
and the solution does not lie in arming India against that State. China, on the
other hand, taking advantage of the situation, is all too eager to sell its
military hardware to Pakistan, triggering an arms race in the region.
The result of all
this is lack of real development in both the countries. It is not known how
much aid will flow to India or Pakistan to buy arms, but there are no
incentives to come out of this arms race. Most nations are interested to
manufacture and sell weapons as these have high profit quotient. Moreover, while
the world leaders lecture on poverty alleviation, there are a handful of incentives
to boost up developmental activities and efforts at uplifting the population
above the poverty line.
As regards India is
concerned, buying sophisticated arms has become a necessity to fight terrorist
activities as also frequent incursions by both China and Pakistan. Both Russia
and the US, taking advantage of the situation, are trying to have close defence
relation with New Delhi. Thus, the possibility of South Asian solidarity
including Pakistan appears to be a distinct possibility in the near future,
while China has also taken an anti-Indian posture in recent times.
It remains to be seen
whether new defence tie-ups for manufacturing weapons could at least be started
in India. All efforts have to be initiated to expand the country’s defence
manufacturing which would be greatly beneficial in terms of boosting exports
and generating employment opportunities. Countries such as France and Israel
and also our long term defence partner Russia would help in this regard in
transferring sophisticated technology for starting such projects.
The challenge before
the country is to become self-sufficient in the defence sector, except for
sophisticated weaponry. It may be mentioned here that naval ships are already
being manufactured by Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers and, as such,
there should not be any problem in starting manufacturing bases in other areas too.
Tie-ups with Third World countries such as Brazil or other countries could be
explored to mutual advantage.
Political funding in
defence purchases is well known and there may be vested interests who would not
like India to start its own production centres. This problem needs to be
resolved through strong political will, putting the country’s interest far
above anything else. ---INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature
Alliance)
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