India’s weapons modernisation process “on track”: Antony
29 May 2008
Berlin: India's defence minister, AK Antony, has said that the era of procurement alone in the defence sector was over and that Transfer of Technology (ToT), co-designing and co-production would be the keys to relations with foreign companies and countries. He said that the country has asked major weapon exporting countries to relax their technology control laws if they wish to participate in the country's defence modernisation programme.
The programme is expected to touch $50 billion (Rs2 lakh crore) over the next five years by some estimates.
Antony told the media that he had sent a clear message in his meeting with the German leadership, which was to stop looking at India as a market for dumping defence equipment. ''I told them India is a responsible country. They should further relax their export control laws as far as India is concerned. They said they would look at the issue positively,'' Antony said.
He also said that since the country had demonstrated historically that it was a non-proliferator, it was now time that the West responded positively as far as transfer of defence technology was concerned. ''We cannot shift totally to the concept of full indigenisation, otherwise our modernisation will be affected. But we will do business only with countries willing to transfer technology,'' Antony said.
He also said that revision of the defence procurement procedure would take place before September this year and that all procurements would be conducted on the basis of quality, competitiveness and price.
According to Antony, the Indian armed forces needed to modernise their equipment with the best available weapon systems, and as quick as possible. The process in this regard, he said, was ''on track.''
Apart form being as fast as possible, the process also had to be fair and transparent, he said.
In his message released here on India' participation as the official partner country at the air show, Antony said this ''marks another milestone in our cooperation with leading countries and global firms in the aviation and aerospace sector.''
''New policies to transform the Indian defence sector by actively encouraging all players - whether private, Indian or foreign - to play a larger role in defence production through mutually beneficial partnerships, private investment and technology transfers have been put in place.''
The defence minister said that cooperation between Indian and German firms in aviation would be mutually beneficial, and that an institutional framework in this regard was provided in the 2006 bilateral Defence Cooperation Agreement. ''Companies that proactively seek out industrial partners in India will enjoy advantages in our expanding market.''
