Still clearing the earlier mess: Manohar Parrikar

NEW DELHI: Hitting out at his predecessors, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today said he is still "still clearing the earlier mess" and has initiated a series of steps in areas like defence procurement, which will start yielding results from next year.

The Defence Procurement Manual ( DPM) would soon be changed to address the concerns raised by private players, but added that even they should rope in Medium and Small scale industries while carrying out their work, he said.

Speaking about the Light Combat Aircraft ( LCA) Tejas, Parrikar said before the aircraft was finally introduced in the Indian Air Force, everyone was working in "silos" and he had to hold a series of meetings to break that.

He said, now the DRDO has been mandated to rope in private sector industry for development.

Parrikar also questioned about the acquisition of aircraft done in the past without technology transfers and alleged there were "many errors, mistakes and casualness". He said, efforts taken to resolve these issues will start showing up by next year.

"Slowly these issues are getting sorted out. Next year 2017, exercise has been carried out, will start yielding results," he said.

Parrikar was speaking at an ASSOCHAM seminar on 'Defence Production: Self Reliance and Beyond'.

The Defence Minister said although the 'Make in India' is an important aspect, FDI in defence does not come overnight.

He said, a number of steps have been taken by the government in the defence sector, like removing a number of items from the exports list from the aviation sector.

"For the defence license, all those which are manufactured under this (aviation) category, which were actually defence exports are now not categorised as defence exports," Parrikar said.

He stated that India had to prepare for eight months before going into war in 1971, because the country probably did not have capability to produce many of the required consumables.

Parrikar said defence is a sector where "one prepares for an event, which no one want to happen."