FE: Sandwich Syndrome ails Indian defence

HAL appears to be sandwiched between politics of designers, end-users, decision-makers, media, and reality distortion attempts by large arms merchants.

It is widely perceived that state-owned Indian defence public sector units (DPSUs) have been deficient in meeting ever-growing demands of the armed and security forces. Indian military-scientific-industrial-complex (MSIC), built and nurtured over long period of time—even pre-dating Independence—has thus far been presented as a story of failure, leading the state to devote substantial resources for military imports. In fact, this has happened to such an extent that India is dubbed as one of the top five importers of arms and, as a corollary, “a weapons merchants’ paradise”. This is not only problematic, but also worrisome for the state and its MSIC stakeholders.

For Complete Article, See, Sandwich Syndrome ails Indian defence: HAL struggles between politics of IAF, DRDO and will of the government, Financial Express, September 04, 2018