India now developing own defence production tech: Ex-defence secretary

Former defence secretary Ajay Kumar on Tuesday said India is now developing its own defence production technologies independent of foreign OEMs.

He said earlier domestic companies mostly relied on licensed technology transfer from foreign OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturer) for producing certain goods.

"Foreign OEMs put a lot of restrictions on the production process, limiting the units manufactured and sold," he said.

Maintaining that the best technology never came to India, Kumar said at most the second-best could be obtained at a higher cost.

"However, we are now developing our own defence production technologies which can be altered and modified at our will," he said, while speaking at a session on 'Defence Innovation Ecosystem and Opportunities' organised by Bharat Chamber of Commerce here.

Kumar said the world is transforming from a kinetic, contact-based warfare to a non-kinetic, non-contact-based warfare.

The former defence secretary said emerging technologies need to be aptly implemented for finding potent business solutions at a minimal cost and in a time-bound manner.

He said companies having large civilian product portfolio can venture into defence production domain with ease since the defence sector's requirements are multifaceted.