Vivek Raghuvanshi
NEW DELHI — India made few industrial partnership announcements for upcoming defense projects at Defexpo last week, raising concerns that the "Make in India" initiative has stalled.
Policymakers in India's Ministry of Defence (MoD) don't see how the Make in India program will move forward, which could cause a slowdown in the creation of new defense manufacturing hubs in the country, according to a source with the MoD.
The thrust of the Make in India policy is to reduce weapon imports from 70 percent of acquisitions to about 50 percent in the next 10 years as India plans to spend $150 billion on equipment in the next 15 years.
"India needs to award big-ticket defense contracts on [a] fast-track basis in order to bring in investments and technology," the source said.
However, another MoD official said the new procurement guidelines of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government "have introduced a new framework to create a robust military-industrial complex in India."
Read the full story at DefenseNews