THE MEGA ORDNANCE MAKEOVER

INDIA’S HIGHEST DECISION-MAKING committee on security affairs, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), fired a starter pistol on June 16. The CCS okayed what could be the most extensive and complex shake-up ever of the country’s defence industrial production base—the restructuring of 41 ordnance factories into seven fully government-owned corporations by next year.

The move aims to jumpstart productivity in these factories that have a combined net worth of around Rs 80,000 crore, employ 70,000 people and together constitute the largest government department in the world. The factories manufacture battle tanks, infantry combat vehicles, rocket launchers and artillery gun systems primarily for the Indian Army. But with no innovation and a dwindling product portfolio over the years, they have failed to reduce India’s crippling dependence on imports or add heft to diplomacy by supplying indigenous weapons for export.

The seven proposed defence public sector