NEW DELHI: The Indian Army and the Department of Defence Production are discussing ways to keep the equipment being inducted into the Army free of Chinese electronic parts. A methodology is being worked out, sources said.
Additional Director General of Army Design Bureau, Major General CS Mann, on Wednesday said that talks were on both in the service and at the department of defence production. Without committing any timeline, he said that “appropriate methodology of ascertaining this particular aspect will come into effect soon.”
“It is a live issue and the government has also taken some actions recently. There are methods to identify Chinese equipment and we don’t permit them to be part of Army equipment,” said Mann.
He was speaking at the curtain raiser of two upcoming events of the Army — ‘Him-Drone-A-Thon 2’ and ‘Himtech-2024’. These are events designed to harness military technologies for operations in high altitude areas.
The events will be held in Leh under the Northern Command to give the feel of the high altitude and its peculiarities.
Mann said that the potential threat paused by the Chinese electronic parts is on data privacy. “And anything that can be done with data remotely is where the vulnerability lies,” he said. Recently the Army put on hold a contract with a drone company using Chinese components.
Mann’s view was shared by Ashish Kansal, co-chair of FICCI drones committee, who said the supply chains are dependent on Chinese components. “Industry is making conscious efforts to make sure no electronic component from China is part of any systems. However, China is part of the global supply chain today,” he said.