His tenure that is coming to an end with the end of UPA II may have inspired jokes as caustic as ‘We can fight Pakistan with AK-47, but not with AK Antony’. But the Defence Ministry has already started canonising their minister with a glowing report card in an election year.
The ministry has launched a public relation blitzkrieg with its first report released in March first week that has highlighted some major achievements during ‘Mr Clean’ Antony’s seven-and-a-half-year long innings in South Block.
In a 26-page ‘white-paper’, the ministry has listed achievements in modernisation and infrastructure development of all three forces, bringing transparency in the system and modernisation of Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) and Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) among others.
However, top sources in the ministry said the big claims of promoting self-reliance in developing military hardware and software is far from ground reality as indigenous content in defence capital procurement has actually gone down from 40.65 per cent in 2011-12 to 39.58 per cent in 2012-13. Even in total defence capital procurement for armed forces, the indigenous equipment and weapons are only 40 per cent and that may go down further. Sixty per cent weapons of the armed forces are still powered by foreign hardware and software.
Although, the ministry has been focussing on indigenisation under its Defence Procurement Procedure to eradicate rampant corruption and kickbacks in foreign deals, the facts about Indian defence manufacturing units owned by the government are shocking.
Sources said in most of the government-owned companies, indigenous content is almost static for the last 2-3 years. “In case of Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), India’s top-of-the-line shipbuilder Mazagon Dock Ltd and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, they are going down. Serious concerns were raised in the review meeting chaired by the defence minister in January. The meeting was informed that a slight improvement was noticed in defence public sector undertakings with an increase from 60.87 per cent in 2011-12 to 63.61 per cent in 2012-13,” sources added.
The review meeting also raised concerns over slow progress in indigenisation of major projects, including Arjun Battle Tanks, T-90 Tanks and Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH). Most of these defence masterpieces are made of imported items. Sixty-four per cent of Arjun Tank, which was launched in March 1974, is still made of foreign equipment. Since 2011, the indigenous content in the Arjun Tank remained static with only 36 per cent Indian parts used by the manufacturer. Even after 33 years of its launch, Light Combat Aircraft are utilising only 60 per cent Indian parts and the rest are imported. Long Range Surface to Air Missile has only 25 per cent Indian parts and ALH-Utility has only 52.9 per cent Indian parts.
“Even the technology received under Transfer of Technology agreement from foreign vendors are not properly absorbed and upgraded indigenously by defence units and DRDO. The defence ministry has decided to formulate standard operating procedures for roping in research institutions like IITs in development work of DPSUs and OFB,” sources added.
The defence ministry white paper says, “Between 2009 and 2013, `3,990 crore has been spent to modernise nine DPSUs, while an additional `6,820 crore has been spent for research and development efforts by DPSUs alone. For modernisation of 39 ordnance factories, `2,953 crore was spent between 2007 and 2012.”
The ministry claimed it resulted in reduction of cost of production and increase in productivity. However, sources said total procurement from Indian vendors, including private companies, has gone down from 66.78 per cent in 2011-12 to 62.22 per cent in 2012-13. According to government’s own estimate, total procurement of Army, Navy and Air Force was over `58,000 crore, of which approximately `26,701 crore was spent on import from foreign vendors.