Army flags ‘negligible’ contribution by Punjab in defence industry

Amidst a push for indigenisation and self-reliance, the Army on Thursday flagged the negligible contribution of Punjab in the country’s defence industry and urged the state government to facilitate an eco-system to encourage industries to venture into the defence domain.

Pointing out that out of the thousands of industries listed in the Army’s database, only 18 are in Punjab, the Additional Director-General, Army Design Bureau, Maj Gen CS Mann, said that the state’s share was barely 0.01 per cent in the military industry.

“A compendium of problem definition statements released by the Army contained in total about 152 problem statements. And we have received 1,327 responses to this from across the country out of which only seven came from Punjab. This includes four government institutes and one student,” he said in a virtual address at ‘Defence Dialouge: How Can North India Contribute to the Growing Military Industrial Complex in India’, organised by the Gyan Setu Think Tank in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry in Chandigarh on Thursday.

He said that in the past two years, about 116 contracts worth about Rs 1,08,000 crore have been signed by the Indian Army, out of which there is only one contract from Punjab. The ongoing research and development projects being handled by the Army Design Bureau are worth Rs 2,10,000 crore, in which Punjab has just one project valued at less than Rs 1 crore.

Stressing upon the need to move out from traditional domains and comfort zones, Maj Gen Mann said that the defence industry will procure what is required by them and not just what the industry has to offer the armed forces. “So, therefore, there may be a need to modify whatever is being done by the industry, customise it for the defence applications,” he said.

On the changing nature of warfare and the required platforms, he said that today the armed forces were looking at advanced materials along with autonomous and AI-enabled systems with multiple sensors and the ability to fuse their data for decision making and precision targeting.

Maj Gen Mann said that the industry in Punjab needs to venture out into these technology domains of these emerging technologies, which can very well be done by established industries by diversifying their existing domains.

There is also a lot of scope for startups that can also play an important role and the government has adequate funding schemes for them to venture into the defence domain. Academic institutes in Punjab need to focus on these technologies, which are dual-use technologies.

He also suggested that the Punjab Government can provide grants and financial assistance to startups, special incentives to the industry like loans, some patents, subsidised land and subsidised electricity rates.

Col RS Bhatia (retd), president of the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers said that Indian industry has the competence and capability to design and develop indigenous weapon systems and the government should provide accelerators and the requisite infrastructure for its expansion. He pointed out that the average growth of the military-industrial complex in India is 18 percent, which is expected to continue.

Former Deputy Chief of the Army Staff, Lt Gen JP Singh (retd) stressed on greater focus and budgetary allocation for research and development and said that government policies must favour indigenisaion and procedures should be fast tracked.