Indian Self Reliance - 2/2

As long as the end-product rolls out of an Indian factory it becomes an achievement in self-reliance, never mind if most of the innards are imported. The total lack of any transparency and the draconian Official Secrets Act are the props by which they have cloaked India's lack of progress. Tall claims, most of them unable to stand detailed scrutiny, are beginning to replace actual achievement. Thus a claim was made recently that the Air Force would save nearly Rs 300 billion foreign exchange when the LCA is inducted, quietly forgetting the fact that nearly two-thirds of that will have to be paid to import systems and equipment.

Why are they at a standstill in India's goal towards self-reliance? To start with, they began with the wrong approach. Instead of beginning from bottom upwards they started from top down. No defence industry can be self-reliant unless the country has the necessary infrastructure and local availability of the basic building blocks such as components, sub assemblies, microchips and sophisticated gyros. Without these home-grown products self-reliance can only mean putting together imported knock-down kits and full-scale systems withscrew driver technology. That unfortunately has been the fate of the Indian automobile industry. Even after 50 years of production India does not design its cars or produce engines. India's defence industry is reduced to a similar fate.

Unfortunately, development of sub systems and components do not have the same glam in India as producing an Arjun tank, an LCA or an Agni missile. they have tended to concentrate on "prestige product" rather than get down to the dull but necessary task of producing the building block of defence production.

Secondly, self-reliance is an expensive luxury. A look around the world will bring home the point. Many countries have long given up the ghost of self-reliance. Pragmatism has replaced pride. Thus Israel, after spending nearly $2 billion on the development of the Lavi fighter, gave up the proposition as too expensive. Countries of Europe have realised that no single country or company can bear the massive cost involved in developing new systems. Multinational development has replaced self-reliance. Two separate groups are developing the next European frigate, one by Britain, France and Italy and the other by Holland, Spain and Germany. Similarly there is Eurocopter, Eurotorpedo and Eurofighter. A poor country like India does not have the enormous resources required to be self-reliant.

Finally, even if they wish to indulge in the expensive hobby of self-reliance it must be subsidised by exports. For a country

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