Even as Defence Minister Rajnath Singh claimed that “progressive reforms in the defence industry in the past eight years” have created a “conducive environment for growth… and ease of doing business” at the Defence Expo 2022 in Gandhinagar on Thursday, an American government representative said that “both India and America are probably gold medallists in bureaucratic delays”.
The US government representative also cited India and US’ capitalist markets as an advantage to the two countries’ partnership.
Singh was delivering the keynote address at a session on “New Frontiers in US India Defence Cooperation: Next Generation Technology, Innovation and Make II”, organised by the US India Business Council (USIBC) and Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM).
A panel discussion followed Singh’s address in which industry representatives such as from SIDM, a Bengaluru-based start-up, representatives from industry majors such as Lockheed Martin and Boeing, and US government representative Captain Michael Farmer, chief at Office of Defense Cooperation at New Delhi , participated where a common complaint was of bureaucratic delays by governments of both countries.
Sameer Joshi, CEO at New Space Research and Technologies, a Bengaluru-based start-up that designs and develops persistent drones for earth observation and communications, said, “There is enough capability existing (in India)… We have talked to US majors in the past two years to come under the umbrella of an industry-to-industry partnership but the problem largely is, who is the person who takes a call, the decision?
India is bureaucratic enough… it takes time by all sides to work out these relationships.” Concurring with Joshi, Capt Farmer added, “We still have a hard time getting past our (India and US’) bureaucracies and I speak from experience that both India and America are probably gold medallists in bureaucratic delays… the real task for the two governments going forward is to clear the policy roadblocks that exists, as much as possible…” Joshi added that American companies must show that they are willing to partner with Indian companies. “If we want to do something in the next-generation field in warfare, it is imperative that not only should the process be sorted out but there should be a will on the American companies to partner with Indian companies… Onus is also on Indian companies… We have to raise standards in India which are competitive enough for us to work with global majors…,” he said.
Pointing out lack of focused foresightedness on the development of particular technology, Joshi added, “There is enough potential in India but what is not there is the direction.
There is a technology but where do you map it to?
Who is the end-user and does the end-user have a certain concept of operation.
Future technologies cannot be developed only (based) on engineering…We have to envision how a technology is going to be used 5-10 years down the line… Biggest contribution from the government is that they connect you directly to the end-user,” said Joshi.
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