"Make in India" is the new initiative by the Government of India to indigenously develop the products in India rather than import and rely on foreign vendors. India relies on foreign products and services to drive it's massive economic growth.
WHAT IS "MAKE IN INDIA"
India after independence had closed it's economy to foreign investors and opted for public undertakings to build it's industrial base. A take from the socialistic era, the early planners wanted the Indian economy be driven by the public sector, but the private sector was allowed to continue, but was severely hampered by the so called "license raj" which saw a lot of bureaucratic impediments and red tapism.
Massive industries were set up in the public sector in areas ranging from steal to locomotives, sugar and aeroplanes. They formed the base for building a strong industrial infrastructure which saw the break from buying everything from tooth brush to nails from abroad that was prevailing during the British raj. But soon the glaring short comings of such an initiative came to light. These public sector undertaking became white elephants by themselves, saddled by corruption, politicisation and bureaucracy. These industries became unwieldy and a drain on the exchequer. The very intention for India to develop a massive domestic industrial infrastructure did not materialise. These public sector undertaking failed to absorb foreign technology and also failed to indigenise the products. Case in pointy is the "Hindustan Aeronautics". It has been manufacturing planes from 1960's onwards but has failed to absorb the technologies and has remained largely as the licensed manufacturer of combat planes. Same was the case with ordinance factories.
But at the same time, the private sector even if handicapped by the constraints of the licence raj built themselves up and has gone from strength to strength. Things came to a head in the 1990's. With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, India found itself in an economic mess. There were only two options, either change or perish. India entered the brave new world of liberalisation, unleashing economic reforms that saw the Indian industries becoming world power houses, the house of the TATAS, L&T, Birlas, Reliance all expanding worldwide and sapping up companies worldwide. India started seeing massive growth rate and has now become the fourth largest economy in the world.
But still, the domestic initiative of technological development remained dormant. We were making goods but they were mostly adopting foreign technology. In the last few years, the government has been trying to change that with the initiative to expand the domestic industries. We will deal with defence and strategic affairs, we will deal with the development of weapon system in this article in correlation with the "Make in India" initiative.
WHAT WE NEED TO LEARN FROM CHINA
With the advent of China as an economic power house, the world for ever is changed. We Indians can always learn from the Chinese. The Chinese has been careful to develop their domestic infrastructure while competing with world players. Thus now we can see China developing a whole gamut of weapon systems ranging from AESA equipped ships to 5'th generation combat aircraft. From one of the largest importer of weapon systems, China now has become one of the largest exporter in the world.
But the path taken by China cannot be copied by India. The Chinese has been successful in reverse engineering foreign technology, with or without license and successfully absorbing them to develop their own products. The most prevailing example is their J-15 ship borne aircraft. A derivative of the Sukhoi SU-33, the Chinese got an example of the aircraft and reverse engineered the aircraft and thus J-15 was born. The same holds true for all their products. But the technology whether stolen or bought has ended up transforming itself to a new weapon system or systems and has laid the foundation for a strong domestic technological infrastructure that will pave the way for future indigenous development of products. Thus we will see the development of the sixth generation of combat planes by China which shall be developed from the experience gained by them presently.
But there is a limit to how much we can follow the Chinese example. For one, making a product without the permission or license of the original manufacturer will end us in trouble. India will end up being a party to a lengthy international legal proceedings that can at best be avoided.
THE WAY FORWARD FOR INDIA
For India, the way forward is to indigenously develop key technologies that shall pave way for our own products that is world class. The main drawback for India has been the failure to absorb technologies and utilise them for developing our own products. India chose the path of developing our own technology. There has been many success but also many failures. India has now developed a whole range of products including Main Battle tanks, combat Planes, ships and many other products. But the development has been at best tardy. The development cycle has been slow. Many products has taken decades to move from designing stage to execution, LCA Tejas took almost 30 years to complete. In the sameway, MBT Arjun has taken as many years. But the end product has been a beautiful success. But that cannot excuse such delays. Technology changes so fast that absorption has to happen in fast manner.
The Indian has shown the way. From a buyers navy, IN has graduated to a level wherein all new ships will be developed indigenously. Their design bureau has been successful in designing and building world class ships including Aircraft Carriers, Destroyers, Frigates, Corvettes, Replenishing Oilers etc. Their greatest success has been the close synergy that navy develops with the shipyards that ensures that the project is not delayed and the quality is to the navy's exacting standards. That is the way forward.
But developing a combat aircraft is a whole lot more complicated. After the development of HAL HS-24 Marut, India somehow or other opted for importing aircrafts. Thus the infrastructure developed for aircraft development were lost. When the LCA project was initiated, the goal was development of the entire ecosystem to support the development of a world class combat aircraft. It has taken time, but India has been successful in developing a world class aircraft. The ecosystem has been developed to enable development of next generation of combat aircrafts that will be indigenous. The next big project will be the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) that will see flight test and induction post 2020. A fifth generation aircraft, the project will see quantum jump in our capability.
India needs to shed the bureaucratic impediments and other bottle necks if it needs to develop and make products indigenously that is world class. The public sector undertaking like the HAL and Ordinance factories will need to reformed and new technologies will need to be absorbed. Private sector needs to be unleashed to achieve their true potential. There should be an even playing field for the public and the private sector. India will also need to reform the DRDO and reorient the organisation to develop cutting edge technologies and hand other the same after the development to the industries for manufacturing. India will also need to learn the art of mass production from the Chinese. Remember, China can induct many destroyers every year while India with one manufacturing vendor struggles to complete one ship at a time. But this needs to change. Early indications are positive and if the government keeps this momentum, India will see itself emerging as the industrial hub of the world.
We are on the move and we will become a global power house soon.
( From this week, to celebrate the government's "Make in India" initiative, every week starting from next week, we will be featuring weapon systems that is made in India that will be the game changer and paveway for the development of whole generation new weapons platforms in the future)
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