During the first 100 days of the NDA rule the defence ministry which only has a 'part-time' minister in Arun Jaitely seems to have shown some decisiveness and is trying to clear the backlog of work which was pending due to the 'overcautious' approach of his predecessor, AK Antony.
By increasing increasing FDI limit from 26 per cent to 49 per cent and significantly pruning the list of defence items whose production requires manufacturing licenses, the government is eying to reduce armed force's dependence on import for military hardware. India is the largest importer of arms and ammunition in the world.
Jaitley commissioned two Indian Coastguard ships ICGS Achook and ICGS Agrim at the Mumbai naval dockyard in first week of June, within ten days of the government taking over.
A week later, Jaitley along with the prime minister Narendra Modi dedicated INS Vikramadiya–44,000 ton aircraft carrier to the nation at Karawar naval base in Karnataka on June 14.
Then Modi went to Mumbai naval base to commission INS Kolkata-guided-missile destroyers. INS Kamrota, India's first indigenously built stealth anti-submarine warfare (ASW) Corvette at Vishakapatnam to keep watch on Chinese presence in the Indian ocean was commissioned. All these were procured or manufactured under the UPA rule.
Two Defence Acquisition Council meetings took important long -pending decisions. Last Friday, the ministry scrapped a scam- tainted tender worth over Rs 6000 crore to procure 197 light utility helicopters to replace the vintage fleet of Cheetah and Chetak choppers used to move troops and equipment to high altitude locations like Siachen. The ministry decided that Indian industry would be given the opportunity to produce these helicopters and the move is expected to generate business worth over Rs. 40,000 crore for the domestic industry in the defence sector.
The Council also cleared proposals worth over Rs 17,500 crore including the mid-life upgrade of the aging fleet of submarines for Rs4,800 crore and procurement of 118 Arjun Mk II tanks for Rs 6,600 crore. The apex body for procurement also cleared proposal for offsets deviations in the Rs 15,0000 crore deal for buying 15 Chinook and 22 Apache attack helicopters from the US.
The 30-year-long jinx about not acquiring artillery guns by placing orders of 40 catapult, 130 mm artillery guns for the army.
The ministry further cleared a Rs 1700 crore proposal for anti-submarine warfare suite for Navy's warships built under Project 7 A and Project-15B warships indigenously.
In his first DAC meeting in July, Jaitley had also okayed defence procurement proposals worth over Rs 21,000 crore and also gave his approval to a project for the production of 56 transport aircraft for IAF, which is open only to Indian private sector companies.
The meeting also cleared the procurement of five fast patrol vessels (FPV) and offshore patrol vessels (OPV) each for the Coast Guard at the cost of Rs 2,360 crore. A proposal to procure search and rescue (SAR) equipment for the three services at a cost of Rs 900 crore, too, received the green light.
Meanwhile the building of strategic roads facing China will now be completed as all hurdles including environmental clearances have been granted.
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