Despite Advances in Strategic Arms, Country Fails 'Make in India' Test for Basic Equipment
India has been the world’s second-largest arms importer for five years between 2014-19. Rajnath Singh's latest initiative of banning imports for 101 items over the next four years is unlikely to change that.
Editorial Staff
Despite Advances in Strategic Arms, Country Fails 'Make in India' Test for Basic Equipment
The hugely expensive and frenzied import of munitions, missiles, assorted ordnance and high altitude gear, amongst myriad other equipment for the Indian military, to counter the threat posed by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in Ladakh, is hard to reconcile with the image of a world power that India likes to project for itself.
Aware of this reality, defence minister Rajnath Singh announced a new defence imports policy on Sunday in which the purchase of 101 weapons and military platforms from abroad would be phased by 2024. Just how successful this will be remains to be seen. But the self-reliance mantra has been chanted several times before, including by this government, with little to show by way of results.
Over decades, India has joined or associated itself with several esoteric ‘clubs’, mostly in the military, strategic and space arena, as part of its event management DNA in an endeavour to be acknowledged as a quantifiable power. But its handful of achievements, many o…
