Armed forces happy their minister Arun Jaitley is also finance minister

NEW DELHI: A floundering defence-industrial base (DIB), a military grappling with gaping holes in its operational capabilities, a worsening civil military divide, and no concrete longterm strategic planning. After eight years of AK Antony's "holding operation", the country needed a heavy weight defence minister to undertake systemic reforms across the board.
It did get a powerful Raksha Mantri in Arun Jaitley, but only on a parttime basis. For Jaitley , finance rather than defence is the first priority. But the armed forces for now are quite pleased to have a minister who also controls the strings of the finance ministry , often seen as the major stumbling block in military modernisation projects.

Two defence acquisitions council (DAC) meet ings, chaired by Jaitley, have cleared proposals worth Rs 40,000 crore in quick succession. Moreover, in a marked departure from the Antony era, it has been made clear there will be no indiscriminate blacklisting of armament companies since it proves counterproductive to national security and operational requirements.

Towards this, the MoD first did not blacklist Rolls-Royce and then imposed only "a partial ban" on Finmeccanica.

Both Modi and Jaitley have also repeatedly stressed their intent to work towards building a robust DIB, the absence of which forces India to still import over 65% of its military requirements. First, the FDI cap in the defence production sector was raised to 49% from the earlier 26%, a move Antony had stoutly resisted during his long tenure.

Then, Jaitley gave the formal nod for the Indian private sector to tie-up with a foreign collaborator to build 56 transport aircraft to replace IAF's ageing Avro fleet at a cost of around Rs 13,000 crore.

Last week, the DAC also scrapped the longpending import of 197 light utility helicopters, holding they would be made in India to boost the domestic industry. "The vision seems to be there but it will be the implementation that will matter. Mere lip-service will not do," said a top official.

Several crucial issues like bridging the civil-military divide by reforming higher defence management and truly integrating Service HQs with the MoD, or creating new tri-Service commands for space, cyber and special operations, are yet to figure on the government's radar screen.

Similarly , there seems to be no movement towards the overhaul of the five defence PSUs, four shipyards, 39 ordnance factories, DRDO and its 50 labs, all of them still stuck in the crony monopolistic era for decades.