Hyderabad, January 08: The private sector has not had the courage to invest in defence-related research and development and hence the area has become the responsibility of public sector undertakings, Chhattisgarh governor Shekhar Dutt has said and called for greater participation of private players in the country’s defence sector which will help them later reap the benefits of catering to the global defence industry.
He was speaking at the inaugural session of a two-day annual seminar, Swavlamban- 2011, on ‘Building Capability through Self-Reliance in Defence Production’ being jointly organised by the College of Defence Management and the Indian School of Business here today.
Dutt, who had earlier served as defence secretary and secretary of defence production, pointed out that it had been a constant endeavour of the ministry of defence for higher levels of transparency and accountability in defence acquisition and also involve the private sector. “We need to make conscious efforts for a paradigm shift from the buyer-seller relationship to that of a healthy partnership between the industry, the armed forces, the DPSUs (defence public sector undertakings) and the DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) as a consortium. “Since the end product is vital to all of us, we need to share responsibilities also equally,” he said.
Expressing apprehensions that the increasing defence budgets may have a negative impact on the economy since military exports were subsidised heavily by the government and their economic benefits were not clear, Dutt said large-scale exports had the danger of the weapons reaching the potential enemies.
Throwing light on the international scenario of defence production, he said “There is clear inter-state defence production but it does not mean globalisation. Military industrial complexes, even if corporatised, remain wedded to their home countries though are having international joint ventures and other links. Major defence companies are also becoming systems integrators with a network of suppliers rather than producers.
They are also becoming more like non-defence companies and are increasingly influenced by financial capital.” Dutt noted that the rapid changes in technology were making it impossible for countries to maintain the capability to produce a comprehensive range of weapons independently.
—Agencies