While preparations are in full swing for Aero India, I came across another gem of a piece by Ajai Shukla a noted defence analyst in India and a person who I respect for his views. Ajai, who does not mince too many words writes in today’s Business Standard newspaper, in his Broadsword column about the growing scam in the defence off-sets business.
On one side is Indian industry and the Indian navy which would like further indigenisation of equipment production in India via the defence off-sets route, on the other are the foreign vendors and the Indian air force who want to water down the offsets which force foreign vendors to produce and procure a certain portion of their orders from the Indian armed forces from India. This leads to creation of domestic capabilities and capacities, a desirable element for the long term strategic defence of India.
Ajai has written previous articles worth reading, on the recently announced defence production policy and for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to abandon its timid, hands-off approach towards offsets.