Bharat Forge Ultra Light Howitzer Ready By July, etc.

[GuardianRED]

It's supposed to. There will be testing facilities under private sector coming up. The M777 deal with Mahindra, and the K9 Thunder deal with L&T includes testing it's gun.

K9 deal is signed?

 

[Indika]

btw, another example of how India makes things harder on itself.

30 years of stupidity.

Communist scum...? You think?

partly, communist theory is that if private players are in defence they will encourage arms race and lead to war. But the scums will support china in case of war.

against private industry participation

the same reason why a govt clerk has more power over you. Openness will erode their power.

Its something of a rock and a hard place for BJP (the reform minded portion of them at least)...they are forced to massage this sector over time rather than do the slash, burn and replace strategy.

Well it could be a problem in areas of critical technology like missile but low technology stuff shud be spun off. There is no point in having OFB or DRDO designing a low tech assault rifle or artillery gun. They can put their resources to better use.
Only thing is we should guard against sabotage in private industry by using strict quality control measures and constant surveillance .