Suggesting that politicking was hampering defence requirements, IAF Vice Chief Air Marshal P K Barbora said on Thursday that private industry's participation be increased in the defence sector and India should be "bold enough" to allow more FDI in the area.

"We have to take steps...we need to be bold enough to invite Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), more so into defence use," he told a CII seminar on energising aviation sector in India.

At present, foreign companies are allowed to invest only 26 per cent in Indian companies. Some of the global defence giants such as BAE Systems had proposed to start a joint venture with Mahindra Defence Systems with 49 per cent stakes but it did not get government's approval.

Commenting on the politics over military purchases, Barbora said whatever defence requirements are cleared by the government, they are opposed by the opposition parties and the same happens when roles change and opposition sits in government.

"That impinges very badly on our defence requirements," he said.

Stressing on the need for giving more freedom to private industry, Barbora said, "Private industry has to be evolved and given a market of their choosing and not our choosing, of course with certain guidelines."

He said bringing in private players was very important for the aviation sector as India was not even contributing one per cent to the world market in the aerospace industry.

Asking the private companies to learn reverse engineering processes the way China did to develop most of its defence technologies, he said, "Forget about ethics. China has done all the reverse engineering. Has anyone ever had the courage to ask China why are you doing it. No one cares a hoot. If you can't do it yourself, you should know how to reverse engineering. We have not been able to move forward for some reason or the other," Barbora added.

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