Thread by @sneheshphilip

Make in India or ‘aatmanirbarta‘ cannot merely be a lip service. The government, along with the armed forces and the private industry, besides the state-run manufacturers and the DRDO, will have to walk the talk. My column #Brahmastra
theprint.in/opinion/brahma…

The hollowness of indigenous defence manufacturing can be gauged from the fact that when tensions have risen with China at LAC, forces have 2 depend on foreign suppliers in US, Russia, France, Israel, among other countries, 2 shore up their fire power and operational capability

China has gone from being a major defence importer 2 becoming a military manufacturing hub. Such has been pace of Chinese ‘aatmanirbarta‘ that it has armed itself with indigenous cutting-edge systems, tech, & is now arming others, including India’s perennial headache – Pakistan.

There is also a thinking within the establishment that Make in India means every system is completely built in India. And hence a lot of projects take too long because the focus is to build something which India has no experience with.

It is foolish to assume that Make in India means that everything would be made in India. Even a fighter plane like Rafale or Gripen have equipment and systems, which are made outside the country of its origin.

I am not saying India should not attempt to make them, but that effort should be separated from the main project which should be looked at from a practical point of view. As and when things materialise, the indigenous sub-system should be added.