Smoke and mirrors. Always be ready to discount articles that contain bare faced lies and slander. for instance the article talks about "Indigenous tanks, for instance, didn't work well" is a well documented lie
The rapid ascent of China up the technology ladder shows how well a policy of forcing offsets can work in favor of the host country. The offsets Indian has asked is nothing compared to what the Chinese have already got from their partners, and are still getting. (e.g. jet engine tech from GE)
Offsets make sense. Without offsets, there is no chance that India will ever get the defense know how. the capital barriers alone are too high for it to be worthwhile for Indian companies to ever invest in the R&D to gain it if there are very limited prospects of returns. FDI caps also make sense. The returns, know how and still remain with the host company with wholly owned companies.
India's defense needs are immense. Having this money go out either through wholly owned subsidiaries or imports will be a huge drain on the economy. Also, we cannot have a truly independent foreign policy if we are dependent on foreign countries for our arms. In the short run this is unavoidable, but in the long run we need to be self reliant in defense.
It is true that our defense industries have underperformed, but this is due to unrealistic requirements, bad planning and a mentality of trying to everything on the cheap, instead of carefully laying out a strategy to build for the future. For example every journalist, bureaucrat and politician expects every major Indian defense program, (which start from scratch, with small industrial base to rely one) to cost less than foreign ones (which have already gone through learning curves, and which rely on fully developed industrial bases). And fund these projects accordingly. And then they are surprised when the projects fail.
Every power, from the European ones to USA, to China, to Israel, to Russia and even pacifist Japan, jealously guards its defense industries, often at huge costs, for this reason. If we want to be a bigger power than tiny Israel, we should do the same.
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Smoke and mirrors. Always be ready to discount articles that contain bare faced lies and slander. for instance the article talks about "Indigenous tanks, for instance, didn't work well" is a well documented lie
The rapid ascent of China up the technology ladder shows how well a policy of forcing offsets can work in favor of the host country.
The offsets Indian has asked is nothing compared to what the Chinese have already got from their partners, and are still getting. (e.g. jet engine tech from GE)
Offsets make sense. Without offsets, there is no chance that India will ever get the defense know how. the capital barriers alone are too high for it to be worthwhile for Indian companies to ever invest in the R&D to gain it if there are very limited prospects of returns.
FDI caps also make sense. The returns, know how and still remain with the host company with wholly owned companies.
India's defense needs are immense. Having this money go out either through wholly owned subsidiaries or imports will be a huge drain on the economy. Also, we cannot have a truly independent foreign policy if we are dependent on foreign countries for our arms. In the short run this is unavoidable, but in the long run we need to be self reliant in defense.
It is true that our defense industries have underperformed, but this is due to unrealistic requirements, bad planning and a mentality of trying to everything on the cheap, instead of carefully laying out a strategy to build for the future. For example every journalist, bureaucrat and politician expects every major Indian defense program, (which start from scratch, with small industrial base to rely one) to cost less than foreign ones (which have already gone through learning curves, and which rely on fully developed industrial bases). And fund these projects accordingly. And then they are surprised when the projects fail.
Every power, from the European ones to USA, to China, to Israel, to Russia and even pacifist Japan, jealously guards its defense industries, often at huge costs, for this reason. If we want to be a bigger power than tiny Israel, we should do the same.
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