Tuesday 30 / April / 2024
New Delhi: The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), an Indian public sector aerospace and defence company, has bagged the largest ever order for indigenous military hardware worth Rs. 65,000 crore placed by the Indian government.
The Indian Defence Ministry has issued the tender to HAL for 'Made-in-India' 97 LCA Mark M1 fighter jets, which will help to replace the old MiG fleet of the Indian Air Force (IAF).
The Indian government has made this major move as the country is developing a strong base of domestic defence industrial ecosystem to make India a strategic economy
While addressing an event in December last year, Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said the country's defence ministry is making all efforts to achieve the target of becoming self-reliant.
He said, "Our government is developing a strong base of domestic defence industrial ecosystem to make India a strategic economy."
The Defence Minister stressed that for the first time, the import of arms went down while exports rose.
"We issued five positive indigenisation lists, under which 509 defence equipment have been identified whose manufacturing will now be done indigenously," he said, adding that "In addition, we have also issued four positive indigenisation lists of Defence Public Sector Undertakings, in which 4,666 items have been identified and these will now be manufactured in our country."
While talking about the country's domestic defence manufacturing, Rajnath Singh said that the production had crossed the record figure of Rs 1,00,000 crore for the first time.
He stated that the total value of India's defence exports, which was Rs 1,521 crore in 2016-17, had increased almost 10 times to reach a record level of Rs 15,920 crore in 2022-23.
During the Republic Day Parade on Kartavya Path in New Delhi on January 26 this year, besides showcasing its cultural diversity, women power, and military strength, India made a tacit display of efforts to indigenise the country’s military hardware in line with the Aatmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) slogan, which now defines the country’s defence production and weapons acquisition programmes.
The missiles, radar systems, and weapons platforms in the parade represented India’s homegrown defence capabilities, while the Ministry of Defence (MoD) decided to include only indigenously produced systems in the R-Day parade.
This move by the Indian government reflects the confidence of a nation ready to shrug off the tag of being a net importer of weaponry, and realise its potential of becoming a global defence manufacturing hub.
With this, India is promoting indigenous manufacturing, while simultaneously cheerleading foreign original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to set up shop in the subcontinent.
The plan of acquiring Indigenously Designed, Developed, and Manufactured (IDDM) platforms is now very relevant in the MoD, and this is the new ‘normal’ for the armed forces in India.
Industry players have become key stakeholders in this with the private defence manufacturing sector undertaking projects denied to it till recently, according to reports.
Private participation in the country's defence sector in the three financial years, from 2018-2019 to 2021-2022, has been remarkable as private vendors cornered 72 deals from a total of 127 capital acquisition contracts signed with the erstwhile OFB, DRDO, and PSUs during this period.
The Strategic Partnership Model (SPM), which is a good example of this, helps Indian companies form joint ventures with foreign OEMs to make military hardware in India along with technology transfer.
(ENDS)
