CONCLUSION

provisions of the DPP 2016 in terms of strategic partnerships would become critical to the participation of capable and efficient private entities. In this con- - ties being denied to new defence companies on grounds of defence sector and most recently the government approved 12 industrial licences for defence subsidiaries of group company others. Hopefully the forthcoming chapter on strategic partnerships in the DPP 2016 will redress this grievance that new but capable companies have. some in-house manufacturing capability that could be nurtured. In 2014, a team from Pilatus, the Swiss company that supplied Depot at Sulur and opined that the PC-7 could be produced for indigenous contribution to ‘Make in India’ albeit the beginning may be a modest licensed-production project. the injury of an ignominious aerial trouncing, it is not accompanied by the insult of being accused of not doing enough to keep its operational readiness at the levels ordained by stra- accomplishing the combat capability it hankers after is the failure of the establishment to perceive the consequences of

- tory factors like budgetary constraints, frailties of acquisition processes, a scrawny combat aircraft manufacturing industry, lack of endeavour to seek and acquire leading edge aerospace technologies and a long march ahead to self-sufficiency in aircraft production are the symptoms rather than the causes of this failure. Perhaps the time has come for the Prime Minister to intervene and explore the possibility of aerospace industry being given the same status as the national nuclear and can direct it without delays and without bureaucratic morass. This step may bring about the laudable aims of self reliance and ‘Make in India’ enshrined in DPP 2016 as far as aerospace

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