Authors : T M Srinath
DOI : 10.18231/j.jmra.2020.003
Volume : 7
Issue : 1
Year : 2020
Page No : 6-10
It is a well-documented fact that Technology is a wealth creator of the nation. Civilisations have been built on technology and have vanished when they lagged in technology. Transfer of Technology (ToT) provides the ability to a nation to meet its particular need in a cheaper, faster and easier method than developing the product from the scratch. The process of obtaining ToT from a foreign OEM starts with the Fully Formed (FF) equipment, followed by Semi Knocked Down (SKD) kits and then Completely Knocked Down kits (CKD) and finally Licensed Manufacture (LM). There are many impediments in ToT, like protection of Intellectual Property Rights, affordability of nation to buy niche technology, Gap in technological ability between transferor and transferee and policy implementations. Though Defence Procurement Policy (DPP) stipulates, asking for technical information of all upgrades in the entire life cycle of the product to be provided at no additional cost is not easily acceptable to an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). The Armed Forces need the latest technology, better than the adversary, to fight a war, as soon as possible. Whereas, design and developing a technology requires large time frames. Government of India and MoD is trying to encourage ToT by giving fillip to Joint Ventures and industry friendly Offset rules. Various government initiatives and factors like better ranking in ease of doing business, faster growth of Indian economy, inflow of FDI in defence manufacture, skilling the human resources, cultural shift in production standards, policy stability, protection of IPR, and a national policy of ToT, probably under the newly formed Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) may herald a new chapter in Indian Defence Equipment manufacture.
Keywords: Transfer of technology (ToT), DPSU, MSME, DPP, DPrP, Joint Ventures