Reports of low quality of ammunition came under focus when Indian army complained to ministry of defence about it. Complaint is that ammunitions are malfunctioning in field trials and practice exercises quite often causing injury to soldiers. Now, training and maintenance of each soldier is indeed expensive. A good part of Indian defence budget, which is said to be as high as Rs. 60 billion, goes towards training and maintenance of soldiers. Therefore, India ill affords any disability, even temporary ones of soldiers. In saying this, let the ultra-patriotic reasons be set aside though they are certainly there. 

According to reports, ammunition of Howitzer, of which some hundred and sixty five have been acquired from U.S.A, malfunctioned causing injury to soldiers. Matter was investigated by U.S experts, who opined that the accident happened because of quality inadequacies of ammunition supplied by Indian ordinance factory. 

More than sixty ordinance factories, which are all state owned, are major suppliers of a very large variety of ammunition and equipments to defence forces. All of these factories are under control of ministry of defence production.

Significantly, these are symbols of “MAKE IN INDIA” and ability of India to indigenise. The ordinance factories are proper large scale units. They produce goods and services worth millions and billions of rupees literally. Surely, they have in place quality control and assurance mechanisms. Possibly, there is a need to further strengthen them. Recruit more talented men and women in production process and quality control and assurance system, which run parallel to the production process. This is a normal industrial practice. 

There is another aspect of the problem. This is related to emerging dominance of private sector in most economic activities the world over including India. Traditionally, defence industry has been largely in state owned domain supplemented equally hugely by imports from abroad. It is assumed that most of the consumables like ammunition for defence services constitute industrial activities of high volume and value. 

Defence production sector has been opened to private sector. FDI too have been allowed upto 28 or 29 percent. India has adopted now a policy of exporting defence products. India has begun exports to countries like Mauritius, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, UAE and possibly few more. By dint of India’s advantage being a low cost economy and availability of highly skilled technical manpower, India is indeed a potential defence product supplier to under developed and developing countries. 

In today’s highly competitive market economy, probability of many interested parties in India and abroad trying to thwart India in this field would better be ruled out. Such forces would try to tarnish Indian image as a reliable supplier of strategic defence products.

India has to be on guards both for pursuing its ambitious make in India program, remain an ever growing market of defence products as also an exporter of defence products. Things are easier said than done. Quality has much to do with attitude of people engaged in production and quality control and assurance processes ultimately.