Capacity Development

Abstract

The Vision of 'Make in India' is to achieve self-reliance through building indigenous capabilities for manufacturing and maintenance of defence equipment in a cost effective manner. Industries are partners of the Armed Forces, stakeholders in meeting India's security threats. The industry, being a vital stakeholder as well as a key enabler in this national security paradigm needs to play a greater role in capacity building for meeting the challenges to our security. Hence, there is a need for indigenously developed and reliably produced weapons, ammunition and equipment 'Cost effective, innovative solutions'. Whereas there is a need for regular evaluation of the effectiveness of policies and procedures at the level of the Ministry of Defence and the government, there is so much more that can be done at the level of the Services. The Army, being the largest service and fielding the largest array of equipment, needs to improve its own processes by carrying out an internal analysis and taking effective steps to speed up the procurement processes.   The growing domestic market offers opportunities both to foreign and Indian players with a shift from BuyerSeller relationship to one of partnership to jointly develop a product. The impact of the new initiatives, prioritization of acquisition categories and the production policy will enable Indian industries to acquire technology, foster joint venture and collaboration with foreign OEMs and manufacture the product in India. Such an initiatives can indeed create economic value, by adoption of a proper approach and selecting partners with right capabilities.