Publication - MP-IDSA

Partisanship can hurt India’s Internal Security Management

It is perhaps a truism that issues concerning India’s internal security like terrorism, Naxalism and insurgencies in the North East require a dynamic multi-pronged approach spread across states to manage and resolve them. Such a management and resolution package would possibly require crafting a national strategy capable of bypassing local political divisions and enabling India’s multiple political parties to work towards a consensus on issues concerning the nation.

Namrata Goswami |
January 20, 2009 |
IDSA Comments

David Miliband’s visit to India

An article by the British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, in The Guardian (January 15) in which he suggested, “resolution of the dispute over Kashmir would help deny extremists in the region one of their main calls to arms, and allow Pakistani authorities to focus more effectively on tackling the threat on their western borders” evoked swift responses in the media, political and foreign policy establishments in Delhi. The Ministry of External Affairs was quick in its response that, ”Mr. Miliband is entitled to his views, which are clearly his own and are evolving”.

Keynote Address at Defence Offsets Seminar

Offsets are today a common feature of international arms trade. It is estimated that offsets and related forms of counter-trade constitute 5 to 30 per cent of global trade. More than a hundred countries use the mode of offsets in their arms contracts. Business and trade analysts put the exact volume of defence offsets at the global level at over $5 billion each year. The United States, the biggest arms exporter in recent times, is obviously one of the largest providers of offsets.

Implementation of Offset Policy in Defence Contracts: Indian Army Perspective

The Offset Policy has been articulated in the DPP 2008. The Offset Clause would be applicable for all procurement proposals where indicative cost is above Rs. 300 crores and schemes are categorized as ‘Buy Global’ involving outright purchase from foreign/Indian vendors and ‘Buy and Make with Transfer of Technology’ i.e. purchase from foreign vendor followed by licensed production.

Industry Perspectives on Defence Offsets

Defence offsets are expected to generate business in India of about $10 billion over the next five years. Some would be in the form of tangible product and service exports while some in the form of investments made in India, and perhaps technology transfers, and yet some would be reduced through multipliers, banking, etc. We can assume that genuine export business could be $1 to $1.5 billion a year. Large as these may appear, in a trillion dollar economy, the direct impact is less than 0.2 per cent.

Background Paper

Definition, Forms and Types of Offsets Offsets

Gearing up for the Defence Exports: Challenges, Opportunities and Pitfalls

India has made rapid strides in defence technology in recent past and reached a stage of self-reliance. The objective was to have thrust in indigenous production and exploring possibilities of exports to other developing nations that may look forward to supplies from India.

In spite of the potential the country had in defence production, in the form of resource capability, know-how and technical expertise, but due to lack of clear policy had prevented its full exploitation. One can assume that our defence industrial policy broadly consists of the following-

Essential Elements of India’s Defence Offset Policy – A Critique

Offsets have been variously defined. In essence, offsets in defence, as in civil trade, are compensations that a buyer seeks from the seller for the purchase of goods and/or services. The demand for offsets in defence has exhibited an upward trajectory since the 1950s.1 It gained further momentum in the 1980s and has been growing ever since.

Offset Absorption Roadmap for the Indian Air Force

Offsets in some form or the other have been practiced in many countries over a long period of time. Even in India, licensed production contracts and technology transfer contracts with the erstwhile USSR were a type of offsets. However, Defence Procurement Procedure-2006 (DPP-2006) had streamlined the process to a great extent. DPP-2008 has refined the policy further.

Offset Investment Inflow Priorities for Ordnance Factories

Offset agreements are formal arrangements of trade where some sort of leverage is exploited by a buyer to obtain compensatory benefits in the case of high value off-shore purchases by forcing the seller to undertake well-designated activities for enhancing competitiveness, up-gradation of technology for domestic industries, additions to exports, up-gradation in the infrastructure in appropriate domestic sectors, etc. Though these are business deals with built-in reciprocity clauses, it is not a matter of establishing desired equivalence of inflow and outflow resources.