It was a final nail in the coffin of the SMEs (small and medium enterprises).In the Arjun tank saga, the decades long, millions of dollars costing MBT inducted in the Army in 2009, has been plagued by problems, even as the DRDO marches ahead with its sequel.The evidence is there for all to see, except perhaps the "visionally impaired" who run the initiative, and their overseers, the grandiloquently named Niti Aayog or National Institution for Transforming India.It is in fact the headquarters of the giant Airbus Group and home of the equally mammoth Thales Alenia Space.The effect of these reverses have been a bonanza, wittingly or unwittingly, for the triumvirate of overseas weapon makers, their brokers and adversaries on our borders.The sad state of domestic manufacturing was decades in the making, acerbated by the earlier Manmohan Singh administration’s decade-long blind faith in promoting big business and an IT industry content with producing low grade labour for the US and European markets.The purchase of artillery guns from the Sweden’s AB Bofors in the 1980s and the recent securing of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft from France’s Dassault Aviation present a different issue - charges surrounding the purchase of good weaponry.This China nut insert Factory crucial lapse has blighted the "Make in India" initiative, which, though noble in its aim to vitalise domestic manufacturing across a wide range of sectors, has now narrowed to focus mainly on the defence sector.

These controversies adversely affect timely acquisition of arms and hurt national interest.Though Bangalore — with its leading Public Sector Enterprise Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) — has the admirable Indian Institute of Science in its vicinity to draw talent from, it is a far cry from France’s Toulouse and at Stanford University in the Silicon Valley in Palo Alto in the US.In India, the government set up a slew of state-owned public sector undertakings (PSUs) and ordinance factory boards (OFBs) that to this day dominate defence manufacturing. The other option, though long drawn, is to revamp our higher education system much as China has done in recent decades.Another model to consider is Stanford University in the United States. The government has now opened up the sector to the private sector, which has off course no recourse but to dip into this same pool of poor talent for its workforce, besides being equally parsimonious in spending on R&D.The other turning point, according to astute observers of this scenario, is the attempt to manufacture state of art military products such as the Marut aircraft with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and the Arjun main battle tank (MBT) by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). One possible alternative is in attracting elite global institutions would be to insist on their local collaborations as part of offset by their respective countries.41 crore, compared to `85,010 crore for education for the same period.Instead of seeking to enhance our higher technical education through collaborations with globally reputed institutions of excellence, India has opted for outright weapon purchases, with weak, local outsourcing or "offset" requirements from foreign manufacturers.The template for fixing the problem is present in other nations.The criticality of this sector is reflected in the emergence of India as one of the world’s leading importers of defence equipment. A carefully considered combination of the two would be the best