"Debating the Costs and Gains of Defence Self-Reliance"
Atmanirbhar Bharat
government campaign for defence self-reliance launched in 2020
Make in India
2014 initiative to boost domestic manufacturing across sectors
Since independence, India's military has relied heavily on imported weaponry, first from Soviet and Russian sources and later from a diversified set of suppliers after the 1991 economic reforms. The government's push for domestic manufacturing began with Make in India in 2014 and was sharpened in 2020 into a defence-specific push under Atmanirbhar Bharat, alongside a 'Vocal for Local' messaging campaign. The institutional architecture supporting this includes DRDO as the lead research body, defence public sector undertakings, and since 2017 the Strategic Partnership Model, which opened select platform categories to private Indian companies. Acquisition itself is now governed by the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP), 2020, which restructured procurement categories to give preference to indigenous design and content over imports. This reflects decades of policy movement toward reducing import dependence, though the pace and cost-effectiveness of that shift remain contested.
Defence acquisition options can be arranged in a cost hierarchy. Leasing a platform for the period it is needed is the cheapest and fastest route. Buying it outright from a foreign supplier is somewhat costlier. Costlier still is buying manufacturing technology and setting up a domestic production line through transfer of technology. The most expensive route is full indigenous design, development, testing, and manufacture, which is what true atmanirbharta demands. This is because a single buyer country rarely achieves the economies of scale that a global original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, enjoys, and the fixed costs of research and certification must be recovered from a smaller production run.
This is why even the world's most advanced defence economies do not pursue blanket self-sufficiency. Instead they retain sovereign control over a few critical technologies and source other subsystems from firms that already hold technological leadership in that niche. …
Consider the following statements regarding India's defence acquisition cost hierarchy:
1.Leasing a defence platform is generally costlier than manufacturing it indigenously.
2.Buying a platform off-the-shelf is generally cheaper than acquiring it through full indigenous design, development, and manufacture.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
In what chronological order were the following government initiatives for domestic manufacturing launched?
1.Atmanirbhar Bharat
2.Make in India
3.Strategic Partnership Model
With reference to India's indigenous defence platforms, consider the following statements:
1.Platforms such as the Tejas fighter and several Indian Navy warships still source a significant share of components from abroad.
2.India has developed and now controls its own quadruplex fly-by-wire flight control system for the Tejas.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Which of the following best describes how deep participation in a foreign OEM's global supply chain can affect a buyer country's vulnerability to arms embargoes?
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