India's dependence on developed countries for military-related critical accessories can be minimized only if the country switch roles from being a purchaser to seller of defence equipment.
COIMBATORE: India's dependence on developed countries for uninterrupted supply of military-related critical accessories can be minimized only if the country switch roles from being a purchaser to seller of defence equipment, ' a senior scientist in the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said here on Wednesday.
Having set up a high-tech research-developent-production ecosystem,it was high time that 'we as a nation switch roles from being a purchaser to seller of defence equipment,' which would substantially contribute towards boosting the GDP, Dr W Selvamurthy said.
'Our dependence on the developed countries for uninterrupted supply of critical accessories, spares and life cycle support can only then be minimized,' he said.
Delivering the 8th Evangeline Memorial Endowment Lecture at Karunya University, on the outskirts, Selvamurthy said that there can be situations especially during conflicts between nations when these supplies of spares and accessories from the manufacturing nations were denied or throttled, thereby making all our military equipment non-operational.
Hence, a sustained effort on indigenization of Defence Science and technology would ultimately provide us the technological know-how and know-why and thus in turn result in continuous evolution of product upgrades,he said.
However, it must be pointed out that the Strategic National Capability created by indigenous R and D has resulted in India's special status in the World, Selvamurthy said.
Stating that the Strategic systems developed by DRDO cannot be imported or developed jointly with any country in the present era of embargoes and technology denial, Selvamurthy said that the development of strategic systems cannot be thus left to the market forces.
To sustain the pace with economic growth, India's commitment to self-reliance was inescapable, he said, adding indigenous capabilities in cutting edge technologies also gave India the much needed leverage.
Global powers almost solely depend on their own homegrown technologies and arms import constituted a minor portion--0.5 per cent--of the total imports, he said.
India though low down on the Human Developent Index, has the unenviable position of being one of the World's largest weapons purchasers importing defence equipment worth more than Rs.40,000 crore annualy, which was eight per cent of India's
total imports and 50 per cent of total defence expenditure.
'The imported technologies were not really designed for us. Moreover no country will ever offer the latest technologies to us.Given our vast borders, stringent climatic conditions, large capital acquisitions and immense costs it is imperative that we look towards home-grown technologies,' he said.
The recent success of DRDO in launch of Interceptor Missile and Agni-III has taken India to elite club of a few developed nations with similar capacity, he said.
With positive indicators such as stable 8-9 per cent annual growth, rising foreign exchange reserve, a booming capital market and rapidly expanding FDI inflows, India is emerging as the third fastest growing major economic power in the world, Selvamurthy said.
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