By Vivek Raghuvanshi
NEW DELHI — While India's Narendra Modi government claims to have cleared new defense programs worth $30 billion aimed at boosting domestic industry, it could still take more than 10 years to reach the contract stage because of lengthy procurement cycles and slow decision-making.
Analysts and military officials welcome the "Make in India" concept but private defense companies are apprehensive it reflects only a paper policy and that there is no clear roadmap to boost indigenous weapons production and reduce dependence on imports.
The thrust of the "Make in India" policy is to reduce weapon imports from the current 70 percent of acquisition to about 50 percent in the next 10 years as India plans to spend $150 billion on equipment in the next 15 years.
"The implementation and a flat growth in [defense] acquisition funding continues to be an issue. The real challenge is whether the Make in India concept is just about adding to the state-owned enterprises' assembly lines with private sector production facilities or is it about creating indigenous defense products in the country," says Rahul Choudhary, CEO of private sector Tata Power SED.
It can take up to 10 years for a defense program to achieve final approval.
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