Defence expo sees few crucial orders

GOA: At India’s largest ever defence expo, announcements on possible collaborations between Indian companies and global players are aplenty, but meaningful tie-ups are few, with the industry waiting for government orders to kick off business.

More than a dozen announcements on collaborations have been made at the show, from a teaming agreement between Sweden’s Saab and Ashok Leyland for truck simulators to a memorandum of understanding between MKU and Russian company JSC Shvabe to manufacture electro optical devices. But a lack of new orders has seen few partnerships actually taking off.

After deliberations for over a year, the defence ministry has now almost finalised a new procurement policy. But until it is put into operation and orders are processed, businesses will not take off, industry experts and company executives said.

There is also a concern that with a key chapter of annexures that actually detail the process still not framed, the process to start acquisitions may get delayed by a few more months.

“It seems that every foreign player is teaming up with every major Indian company, in many cases for the same project,” said an Indian industry leader who did not wish to be identified.

“But these MoUs will be meaningless till an actual order is given.” Over the past year, there has been no major defence tender for procurement that would involve competitive bidding, partly due to the fact that the policy was being framed.