Govt urged to unify defence buying

Private players are urging the government to set up an integrated procurement agency on Chinese lines for Indian defence orders.

India will spend billions of dollars over the next decade on defence purchases from foreign manufacturers. "This should have given us enormous clout. On the contrary we are dictated to. We do not have an integrated approach in defence procurement," said S Ravinarayanan, an expert on defence procurement who has served on the board of Airbus.

The China Aviation Supplies Holding Company, a national procurement agency, has all requirements routed through it. The company could persuade Airbus to manufacture A320 aircraft in China, Ravinarayanan said. In india, "the requirements are discrete, the buyers are disintegrated, and stakeholders too many," he said.

The army, air force and the navy have taken different routes to buy missiles. They also buy helicopters separately. There are more than six tenders for procurement of helicopters, in different stages of process, over the last eight years.

"We need to train resources in different technologies and establish infrastructure and logistics to maintain the equipment," pointed out Col K V Kuber, a founding member of the Defence Offset Facilitation Agency.

Experts said if defence requirements were consolidated and used to bargain with one or two manufacturers India could gain in terms of cost, transfer of technology and indigenisation.