Monday’s defence acquisition council (DAC) meet chaired by defence minister AK Antony in which a 15-year long term integrated perspective plan was put in place and the 12th five-year defence plan discussed, is not anything worthwhile, say defence experts. According to various people with expertise in defence, the meeting was just a routine event that happens at the end or the beginning of every year.

In the meeting, changes in offset guidelines that make it mandatory for foreign manufacturers to source 30 per cent of the value of a defence contract worth over Rs 300 crore from the domestic Indian market were also made. A decision was taken to make transfer of technology possible without a licence fee.

Governance Now spoke to experts and the general consensus was that the government had made a good but incomplete move which needed to be backed up with some firm action.

According to Pravin Sawhney, editor of the Force magazine, “The government has included technology transfer in the offset policy which is a good move to build our defence capabilities, but it is an incomplete and half baked move because foreign companies have been asking for 49 per cent stake while we allow them to keep stakes in any joint venture only up to 26 per cent.”

Referring to the 15-year long term integrated perspective plan and the 12th defence plan, Sahwney said that introducing both at the same time was a clearly a very good move but again half baked as foreign companies would not easily part with high-end technology if they had only 26 per cent stake. “If any real progress is to be made, FDI has to be raised”, said Sawhney, adding that “these were mere statements of intent.”

But some experts showed a lukewarm response to the development. Retired Air Chief Marshal Fali S Major said, “The long-term integrated perspective plan and the five-year defence plan are reviewed at the beginning or the end of any year so I would not give it much importance. This happens all the time and is part of a routine procedure.” Adding that he did not feel it had to do anything with the letter that General Singh sent to the prime minister, ACM Major said, “I don’t think that this is a knee-jerk reaction in any way.”

Former head of the institute for defence studies and analyses and former advisor to the defence minister, K Santhanam says “There is a constant debate over the role of the private sector in the defence industry.” Adding that every report made recommendations, Santhanam said that “even The Kargil committee report had recommendations." According to him, the finance ministry was the key and any recommendation would have to pass under its eyes.

“We will end up in the same place,” he says. “The government wants private companies to handle full systems responsibility but they can’t go about it as the private players don’t know how to go about it. Unless we solve these major issues, we will keep bumbling on,” he adds.