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| A Long To-Do List for Manohar Parri |
| A Long To-Do List for Manohar Parrikar, Defence Minister
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| INDIA
, 10-November-2014
6:10:43 AM |
| India's new Defence Minister Manohar Gopalkrishna Prabhu Parrikar, today walks into an office with a long to-do list waiting on the table.
The 58-year-old metallurgy graduate from IIT, Bombay, has to fix a woefully outdated weapons system and will have to weed out corruption that regularly plagues defence contracts in the country.
India's servicemen face shortages of everything from ammunition to fighter jets and submarines as the country seeks to close the gap with assertive neighbour China, which is arming itself quickly.
The Indian Air Force needs at least 39 squadrons of fighter planes but has only 32, and its chief said recently that the country can't afford any more hold ups of a $22 billion fighter jet deal with French company Dassault Aviation for the supply of 126 Rafale fighters.
The Indian Army needs artillery guns. Desperately. India has not bought artillery guns since 1987. Also, two newly raised Mountain Strike Corps - designed to thwart Chinese advances into India through the Himalayas - need light artillery guns that can be easily moved around in the mountains. Just modernising the artillery will cost an estimated Rs. 30,000 crore.
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The Navy requires submarines immediately. It also needs at least a 100 Naval Multi-Role Helicopters and additional Naval Utility Helicopters. Total cost, Rs. 70,000 to 80,000 crore.
Last year, India could afford to spend only about Rs. 86000 crore as capital expenditure. Mr Parrikar, therefore, has to not just prioritise demands, but also convince the Union Cabinet to loosen its purse strings.
The biggest challenge that he faces is fulfilling Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "make in India" dream.
In the last few months, the Defence Ministry has turned down almost all proposals to buy equipment from foreign ma
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