Amit Cowshish replies: The initiative to engage with the academia in the field of defence R&D must come from the private and public sector defence industry, acting in tandem with the armed forces and the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO). This also requires an overarching organisation to coordinate the efforts. On the face of it, there are three specific areas for potential collaboration.

Abhay K. Singh replies: At the outset, it is pertinent to highlight that the acquisition of P-75(I) submarines is not being planned through import. The P-75(I) submarines will be indigenously constructed through the strategic partnership model (SPM) of procurement, which aims to revitalise the defence industrial ecosystem and progressively build indigenous capabilities in the private sector to design, develop and manufacture complex weapon systems for the future needs of armed forces.

Amit Cowshish replies: The draft Defence Production and Export Promotion Policy (DPEPP) 2020 aims at achieving a turnover of Rs 1,75,000 crore (US$ 25 billion) by 2025, but no mechanism seems to be in place to aggregate the annual turnover–broadly defined as the value of sale–of the entire Indian defence industry, including the private sector entities.

Amit Cowshish replies: The business practices, professionalism, and potential of the private sector in India for undertaking the design, development and production of sophisticated defence equipment are second to none in the world. If, despite this, India has not become a defence manufacturing hub, it is largely because of the economic and geopolitical milieu of the country, which is vastly different from the one in which the private defence companies bloomed in the US after the Second World War.