In an aggressive strategy to survive in the face of private competition, government-owned ordnance factories are putting in place a series of measures to develop their own products.
NEW DELHI: In an aggressive strategy to survive in the face of private competition, government-owned ordnance factories are putting in place a series of measures to develop their own products.
Among them are a dozen laboratories for research and development, training engineers in foreign universities, as well as a string of global alliances.
“We don’t want to reinvent the wheel, but we want to develop our own products so that we can survive in the new liberalised era,” says a senior Ordinance Factory Board (OFB) official. Director general (ordnance factories) and chairman of the OFB, Sudipta Ghosh, says all these aggressive strategies would help them reach a turnover of Rs10,000 crore in “another three to four years”.
There are 40 government-run factories under the OFB, which primarily produce explosives and guns for the Indian armed and paramilitary forces.
As part of its efforts to stand up to private competition, OFB is entering into collaborations with major foreign firms, especially those from the US, Israel, Europe and Russia for jointly making products. At the Defexpo here, almost two-dozen products at the OFB stall have foreign collaborators.
The OFB proposed to set up 12 dedicated research labs. Twenty engineers from OFB have been sent for specialised higher studies in subjects such as armament technology to foreign universities.
The OFBs enjoyed a monopolistic market from 1802, when the British Empire started the first one in Cossipore in West Bengal. But in 2001, the defence sector was opened up to 100% private sector participation. Today it also allows 26% foreign direct investment.
“Competition brought about by liberalisation of the market is a challenge,” admits Ghosh. He says they are trying to match the competition through several initiatives —all their factories and laboratories are ISO 9002 certified. Starting May 2007, the ordnance factories also provide warranties to customers.
In the past five years the OFB has also been given unlimited powers to engage in R&D. “Our dependence on DRDO is coming down,” admits Ghosh.
All these together would help OFB develop new products, and attain an annual turnover of Rs10,000 crore in about three to four years. This fiscal OFB hopes to have a turnover of Rs6,942 crore.
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