Allow more FDI in defence sector: IAF Vice Chief

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.

On the present status of the country’s capabilities in the aerospace sector,the IAF Vice Chief said India was very happy producing small parts of aircraft and exporting them to Airbus in Europe but China has already started building whole aircraft for the same company.

Commenting on the defence exports of India,he said,”as far as defence goes,we don’t even match up with Pakistan.”

Talking about the transfer of technology (ToT) agreements in the defence deals,Barbora said they were not very beneficial as “what actually has come after so many deals (in ToT) with foreign company or whatever it is,I am sorry,it was tools and kits,which came in bags and containers and we assembled the aircraft here.”

Citing example of the success of the European aviation consortium Airbus,Barbora said Indian industry should also look at building partnerships on those lines and must join hands with other countries to grow.