Mastering rocket science, failing basics

[sudhir007]

I think easily getting items from abroad is major drawback. If we did not acces the technology from west or russia may be force to make and sucess story

 

[Echo_419]

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for Make In India — Mastering rocket science, failing basics - The Hindu

India has mastered atomic, space and missile development, but continues to import basic defence equipment. ‘Make in India’ needs a course correction within the larger realm of technology development.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call last year to ‘Make in India’ has fired up the imagination of the nation and the world alike. Speaking at Aero India 2015 in Bengaluru in February, Mr. Modi stressed that defence manufacturing was at the “heart of the ‘Make in India’ programme” and that we are “developing India’s defence industry with a sense of mission.” This has brought cheer to the Indian private industry, which has been long deprived of a level playing field, and the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) which have never been in the race due to long timelines and unending delays.

‘Make in India’ was brought into focus again when Mr. Modi announced in Paris that 36 Rafale fighter jets from France would be purchased — a decision sidestepping the original Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) deal for 126 fighter aircraft. But however good the initiative sounds, a closer look raises some fundamental questions on what it means in defence and what value it can accrue to the nation in terms of technological capabilities.

There seems to be a general perception that ‘Make in India’ is the magic solution for developing India’s fledgling domestic military-industrial complex. There is no doubt that ‘Make in India’, if implemented well, has the potential to bring in a manufacturing revolution, which India missed during the early phase of economic transition when it leapfrogged from an agrarian to a service economy. It has the potential to create hundreds of thousands of jobs for all those who graduate from our educational institutions every year. But having said that, the ‘Make in India’ campaign has its limitations in what it can and cannot do to build capabilities in the country.

The initiative is only one half of the framework needed to realise the goal of technological sovereignty and self-reliance in defence production. It will achieve its purpose once the share of manufacturing in GDP goes up, which in itself is no mean task. Beyond that, for technological sovereignty in defence, it has to be complemented by a ‘Made in India’ effort or a drive for indigenisation.

Why indigenisation?

There is a lot of talk about ‘Make in India’ bringing in greater Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and technology transfer in defence, thus giving access to critical technologies. But the fact remains that whatever price is paid or strategic partnerships are forged, no one will part with their core technologies. India has been assembling Russian fighter aircraft and tanks for decades, got in technology for guns and submarines, but it is still nowhere near building them on its own. In fact, if those efforts had fructified, India would not be importing, but exporting medium multi-role combat aircraft. Critical technologies must be developed indigenously, whatever the cost. This is the case in point with some upcoming big ticket deals like submarines and aircraft carrier technologies.

India has been attempting indigenisation since Independence in different fields with varying degrees of success. While atomic, space and strategic missile development saw tremendous progress, positioning India as a global player to reckon with, other fields such as defence are still in their infancy. It is bewildering that a country which can build inter-continental ballistic missiles and launch interplanetary missions cannot manufacture assault rifles, bullet proof jackets and snow boots. In fact India’s development efforts are riddled with several such paradoxes. While it has literally mastered rocket science,overcoming technology denial regimes, it falls flat on the basics. In fact, therein partly lies the answer. Technology denial had inadvertently benefited this country, the long learning curve notwithstanding.

‘Made in’ versus ‘Make in’

The biggest anomaly with indigenisation in India is that we take great pride in the percentage of indigenisation. A smaller percentage of indigenisation is met by imports, which usually happen to be the most critical components — the engine, avionics, radar, sensors, and so on. We do not need 60-70 per cent indigenisation. Ideally it should be the other way around. Let the government labs develop the critical 30-40 per cent and outsource the remaining components to competent manufacturers in the industry, which will ensure better quality and availability at a competitive price. The ripple effect will create a supply chain ecosystem in the country. This presents an opportunity for the industry to take the lead and make India a global hub for components on the lines of the automobile industry in which India has emerged as the hub for small cars.

In addition, there is a discrepancy even in those percentages. For instance, in the case of the Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, while the Aeronautical Development Agency had put the indigenous content at 70 per cent, a recent Comptroller and Auditor General report said it “actually worked out to about 35 per cent” as of January this year, as critical systems such as the engine, the multi-mode radar, the display systems and the flight control systems were imported. Further, based on the principle of incrementalism, moving from zero to, say, 60-70 per cent is relatively easier; the challenge lies in pushing beyond that in phases.

For instance, the Navy, owing to some foresight, had set up a Naval Design Bureau and made impressive strides in ship design and construction comparable to the best in the world. But the challenge is the weapons and sensors on board, which are largely imported. To address this, a balance needs to be struck between the two India’s — ‘Make in’ and ‘Made in’ or indigenisation. They do not supplement each other.

The offset policy which has so far failed to yield any meaningful returns needs to be tweaked. This can be an enabler in developing the required skills in shaping the ecosystem, as Mr. Modi said during Aero India — “I want our offsets policy not as a means to export low-end products, but to acquire state-of-the art technology and skills in core areas of priority.” Placing a moratorium on import of certain class of products/technologies presents a sensible option.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had echoed a similar view a few months ago when he said 10-15 critical technologies would be identified and frozen for indigenous development. It’s time to enshrine that in a policy and the upcoming ‘Make in India’ for defence policy is the appropriate framework with a separate component to address the issue of ‘Made in India’.

India’s ambitions of being a great power fall flat as long as it is dependent on imports for military hardware. It is time to realign the ‘Make in India’ initiative to derive true value out of it. ‘Make in India’ needs a course correction to position it within the larger realm of technology development. Only then can India insulate itself from external pressures and exercise strategic autonomy in decision-making.



I thought this is a sensible article and has raised some very valid points....

A brilliant article

Robin Lawley fat and ugly

 

[Indika]

Long term strategic thinking and perseverance is required. We do not invest invest in basic sciences but only applied engineering ,end result cant create any thing new from scratch. Instant gratification and fancy for phoren maal is better attitude has taken its toll. Worse thing is we are even bad in reverse engineering the goods we import.

Researching advance technology is like a human being which starts from baby to adulthood. Its an endeavor that needs to be encouraged. Once the industries with latest technology get settled down then it will grow on its own.

Of course we other things like legendary corruption, pathetic culture (academic,ppl,casteism,favoritism),bureaucracy .....etc.etc. All these reasons make it a near impossible mission. Most of the time when ppl/organizations achieve something in india , we applaud them not because what they did was technically superior or it was world beater.
But bcos it was achieved against (inspite of ) all the non technical odds and hardship.

By the way dont we ourselves call ppl idiots or bakras when they are different from the pack? Society forces them to conform to what they perceive to be right and society in india is a lazy corrupt indifferent jackass.

As Edison put it succinctly "Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration" .

 

[IND151]

India need to swallow its pride and start with labor intensive industries... There are no short cuts.

We are proud of being Indian and our achievements, I dont think anything is wrong in it. As far as manufaturing is concerned, we are planning for this.

Mind you once we did have low milk production rates and now we are Number 1 Milk Producing Nation in world. It is result of our hardwork and brilliance. Same is true for Green Revolution.

We will replicate the success in above fields in other fields.

 

[OrionHunter]

It is bewildering that a country which can build inter-continental ballistic missiles and launch interplanetary missions cannot manufacture assault rifles, bullet proof jackets and snow boots. In fact India’s development efforts are riddled with several such paradoxes.

Heck! We can't even produce quality Ganesh idols! China-made idols of Indian gods and goddesses have better finishing and even cost less than Indian ones!

The 'chalta hai' attitude has permeated the entire system. And we accept it. That's the tragedy!

 

[jamahir]

Well I agree to some extent with you regarding Making in India is just TOT....But still why should Indian scientists waste their time reinventing the wheel if we can get the same using TOT...But this is where Indian establishment and Indian Scientists become sluggish...Once they receive using TOT they just sit on it and never develop from there....They need to change their attitude and work their *** off to invent new techs....Let's wait and see where this Make in India goes...

designing something requires asking basic questions and going against those established norms that may be unnecessary complications... designing may result in not only adapting something for local needs but also creating universal solutions.

take for example the indian info. tech industry centered in bangalore, poona, gurgaon, hyderabad and madras... tcs has at least 50,000 employees ( after removing 35,000 by last december, infosys has 60,000+, wipro too has a large number, so does cognizant... many smaller companies totally contribute to a huge number... indian colleges have output about two million compute science graduates just in the 13/14 years, in addition to those before, going up the early seventies when computing probably became a part of college courses.

out of this huge number of computing field "scientists", employees, recent graduates and current students... a huge number... there has been not a single operating system or microprocessor designed for indian needs or from india to the world.

where is the problem then?? surely, there must be something in the "education system" or professional life or "the industry" that is hindering output.

The 'chalta hai' attitude has permeated the entire system. And we accept it. That's the tragedy!

correct... even look at the technological output from two small countries, north korea and israel... and compare them to india's output.

 

[The_Sidewinder]

India need to swallow its pride and start with labor intensive industries... There are no short cuts.

Robin Lawley fat & ugly 2.

 

[jamahir]

Robin Lawley fat & ugly 2.

how is robin lawley ugly??

 

[gslv mk3]

The only thing I find interesting is the premise. Rocket engines require hours if not minutes for its duration, while a jet engine requires thousands of hours with more features.
In terms of missiles, same problem as the rocket, and thus not really an indicator of anything.
Atomic energy is also tricky, as of this moment India doesn't export any nuclear power plants(could be wrong), so not on the front of this field.

Hardly true....
Space technology is much more than that.Even the engine part you talk about require years of R & D and millions of dollars funding - talk about the complexity of developing a staged cycle combustion LOX/LH2 engine.Even the design solid fueled rockets require thorough understanding of chemistry & grain design,among several others.
India have developed several designs of nuclear reactors - PHWRs,light water reactors,fast breeders and thorium reactors.It is at par with any other nation in fast breeders & ahead of any other in thorium based ones.
The point here is that a lot of money and manpower have gone into these two particular fields (space,nuclear &missile technology) for several decades,and that's probabily only reason of their success
If a fraction of those resources were utilized for research on aero engines,combat vehicles and the like,far higher indigenization would have been possible.

 

[The_Sidewinder]

how is robin lawley ugly??

Will Answer you in the whatever thread.
by the way, beauty lies in the eyes of beholder

 

[jamahir]

Well you summed up everything here....But by reading what you have said here I come a conclusion that you are saying that Indians lack creativity for new innovations which I don't agree with...

no, i didn't say all indians lack creativity in technology... people here are burdened by a culture that demands them be in jobs or colleges... but how can one pursue a project if their survival or respect depends on them stepping on the never-ending treadmill of high-school/college/job...

a few months ago, a young chap in india entered google's technology competition... his idea was a cheaper version of a small machine that allows the weak-voiced people ( via disease or otherwise ) to strongly vocalize the words in their throat.

this was such a useful idea... the young man didn't make it through to the competition final but it is sad that he had to enter a foreign company's competition when a nationalized bank or a government department or a venture capitalist should have been a easy source of money for this boy to bring his project to a good prototype stage.

These private companies that you speak off work for foreign countries and they do what their masters what them to do....So do not compare them with others...

got your point.

Yes compared to what India has achieved in IT field in the last decade but still could not develop its own OS or microprocessor... at this point I really blame our politicians and bureaucrats who really lack futuristic views and goals....Good example of this is DRDO who create a 3rd generation aircraft where we need a 5th generation aircraft this shows their level of expertise and knowledge and futuristic views. ...

the politicians did not allow for a environment where someone's idea could find easy funding, either government money or venture capital ( usa style )... only in the last two years ( since 2013, i think ) has the central government been speaking of having a start-up environment... even so, some government department ( probably the ministry of company affairs ) has only spoken of simplifying the company registration procedure and nothing about risking money on ideas... ideas need money ( or at least resources ) to bring a idea from paper/pen stage to prototype stage.

one may say that there are venture capital ( vc ) companies in india... then one must know that these companies put their money mostly into already present companies and especially those that making income... these vc companies want most of their money back within three months or six months or what they think as good returns within a year, so this money must be generated by the funded company every month.

now, a project that will take a year to come to the second stage ( prototype stage ) and then will probably have modifications and adjustments or a bit more research, will not generate money until after a year... india-based vc companies will not fund such a project.

how are such projects supposed to have money from??

this greedy need to make instant money has led to projects like the voice machine not to have comfortable funding.

in such a case where private money is not coming, it should have been the political system that should have arranged for a sophisticated arrangement for funding projects... alas, that did not happen... as you said, the politicians and bureaucrats were not future-sighted, far-sighted.