As the dust around the Rafale fighter aircraft settled down after a furious whirlwind, it's time for some swadeshi action. The longing for self-reliance of our armed forces has been long overdue and needs attention. The term 'Swadeshi' finds its roots in the Independence movement popularised by Lal, Bal, Pal and Ghosh which literally means 'of one's own country'. As the term as a wider avenue I'm constraining the subject in respect of the armed forces alone. The spirit of swadeshi needs a renaissance to contemplate a modern nation and its armed forces. The slogan might have failed in the post-independence years due to licence permit raj resulting in import substitution to meet the critical needs of that time. But in respect to current developments the time is due to unleash the energy it contains in itself - 'of one's own country'.

During partition, Independent India received 70 per cent of British Indian Army, 80 percent of its Royal Indian Air Force and 60 percent of its Royal Indian Navy. In the first budget of Independent India, Ministry of Defence was allocated with 92.74 crores to facilitate our immediate requirements. Most of our assets were of foreign origin and hence our late PM Nehru laid his faith on public enterprises for self- reliance. A number of institutions, laboratories, enterprises were raised to realise this goal. In the process 52 DRDO laboratories, 41 Ordnance factories were set up. Today, India is the second largest importer of Arms after Saudi Arabia importing 9.5% of the global share which should have been completely the other way around. So, Indigenisation has always been our "Achilles heel".

There have been many success stories in our struggle for indigenisation. Some have been in the pipeline for decades and many have been shelved due to cost and time overrun. Quality standards is another cause of concern and even completed projects did have less or no procurement in the forces. Our biggest failure is that we couldn't come up with a quality assault rifle and we are still struggling to make a working engine of 90kN. Even our romanticized transfer of technology (ToT) too hasn't done wonders in stimulating our localization. Apart from genuine cases, the government too hasn't shown keen interest in procuring indigenous products. Geopolitics has played a vital role in import substitution in our act to balance global powers.

Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (IGMDP) under Dr. APJ. Abdul Kalam is one silver lining in our efforts of indigenisation though Nag Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM) is still fighting for its right place in the services. LCA Tejas had its first test flight in 2001 and got its Final operational clearance (FOC) only in 2018. The rate of production of LCA Tejas is a tortoise walk and was only 8 P/A till 2017 and now improved to 16 P/A. Wheeled Armoured Platform (WhAP) 8×8 has long been in the doldrums of our system. The construction of INS Vikrant Aircraft Carrier is two years past its original scheduled deadline. In Spite of all this blurred dream of swadeshi, my optimism is at all-time high.

Recent developments in the Indian defence sector is the reason for this all-time high optimism. These are the first landing and takeoff of the Naval Light Combat Aircraft (NLCA) in the deck of INS Vikramaditya, the setting of a high level committee under former DRDO chief Dr. V.K. Saraswat for the planning of a 110kN Low Bypass TurboFan Engine (LBTF), planning and progression of Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), the positive announcement of Tejas Medium Weight Fighter (MWF), unofficial rendering of Twin Engine Deck Based Fighter Aircraft (TEDBF) and the Omni Role Combat Aircraft (ORCA). The successful test of Manik engine which is to be used for Ghatak Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV) and further outsourcing of it under Government Owned Corporate Operated (GOCO) model, the large upsurge in Artillery such as homemade Dhanush howitzer, Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS), Sharang gun and much more. The under construction Project 15B- Visakhapatnam class destroyers, Project 17A - Nilgiri class frigates, Project VC11184 Ocean Surveillance Ship, Aridhaman class (S3, S4, S4*) nuclear ballistic missile submarines were all completely designed by Indian hands. Development of Hypersonic Technology Demonstration Vehicle (HSTDV), Solid Fuel Ducted Ramjet (SFDR) propulsion system, Brahmos NG, Brahmos- A, Astra Mk2, Akash Mk2 are something that will change our stature in world order. With the centre clearing Arjun Mk-1A for production, the already inducted combat Advanced Light Helicopter Mk IV (ALH) Rudra about to see an increase in numbers, soon to be inducted Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) and Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) are all moving in the right spirit of 'Swadeshi'. Many critical and advanced sub systems, data links, communication networks and so on are under development within the country itself.

The present government is finally showing some intent in this Idea of 'Swadeshi'. Important Initiatives such as Defence Procurement Policy (DPP) 2016 with Strategic Partnership model as its core and the defence corridors in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh will largely improve our localisation content. Other initiatives like the Innovation for Defence Excellence (iDex) and Make II are bringing in startups into the arena to do domain specific innovation.

To learn from the UNSC P5 countries, India needs to put in a lot of stuff to improve indigenisation. P5 countries such as USA, UK, Russia, China and France are net exporters and are not net importers. They use this to their advantage and to the disadvantage of others. If India had a highly advanced technological company like Huawei, there is no need for this hue and cry that we are seeing now. Their technical superiority gives them power to flex their muscles in the world order.  The US voicing their concerns and threatening to sanction us under Countering American Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) for purchasing S-400 Triumf is a clear cut case of muscle flexing. India is behaving just like its average middle class citizen with high aspirations but limited economic prowess.

The amount we spend on our R&D is pathetic which is less than 0.7% of our GDP, whereas the US spends 2.8%, China spends 3.2%, UK spends 1.7%, France spends 2.2% and Russia spends 1.1% of its GDP. We need to narrow down this gap and spend much on R&D to innovate. At the heart of this lies patent filing which can make us a global player.

Just as the popular notion that we missed the global bus on communications and high end technology, it remains the same for defence indigenisation. It's time we fix the system to become truly independent of foreign muscle flexing. Hope, things turn out well for the nation in its path to self-reliance in the age of globalisation. As Mahatma Gandhi described, 'Swadeshi is the soul of swaraj'.

Jai Hind.

By Sathish

Mute Spectator is the primary series of the blog where we express our views on current affairs.