The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre will try to link the transfer of technology to defence procurement deals.
"This is going to be the thrust area of our policy," Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee told Business Standard.
"Modernisation" is at the top of Mukherjee's priority list. Mukherjee is also in favour of private participation in research and development (R&D) for defence equipment.
"A panel, headed by Vijay Kelkar, is looking into the issue of private participation in the research and development of defence equipment. We are open to the idea of private participation in this area," the minister pointed out.
"Traditionally, there have been delays in procuring defence equipment, leading to cost overruns. As technology changes fast, specifications (for procurement) too change. Since there cannot be any compromise on quality, the delays are unavoidable. But now we will try to shorten the process. We will also link technology transfer to procurement deals," Mukherjee said.
This essentially means that once the procurement is over, at the second stage equipment can be developed in India because of technology transfer. To make procurement deals transparent, the defence minister wants to put up the details of all deals for procuring non-lethal weapons on the ministry's Web site.
"Let there be a level playing field for all vendors (of defence equipment). We want to be completely transparent in our deals," he said.
The minister added, "Let the public judge the procedures as there is nothing to hide. However, this will not be possible for hi-tech government to government contracts."
"There we have to be discreet and cannot divulge the details to the public," he said. The new government may review the policy on defence procurements in due course.
"The 1992 policy was reviewed by the NDA government in 2002. It is due for review in two years. We may do this as we are for a procurement policy that is transparent, with clear-cut rules laid down," Mukherjee said.
He refused to say whether the expenditure on defence would be raised in the forthcoming Budget but said the "important thing" is the use of funds.
"The Budget allocation (for defence) may by and large remain the same, factoring in the inflation rate. But the point to make is that we must use the maximum budgeted amount. Otherwise, the Budget figures do not make sense," he said. In the past two years, the budgetary allocation for defence has not increased.
