Defence Offsets

The Guidelines of 2012 have been under review for some time. While a drastic shift in the policy is unlikely, some changes in the policy, clarity about some of the existing provisions and simplification of the procedure seem necessary to make the policy work better.

• Amit Cowshish
• July 17, 2014
• IDSA Comments

A country’s response to external threats and internal security challenges is based on its defence preparedness, advance planning for contingencies and the political will. The new government will have to make key decisions on different aspects of defence reforms. This Policy Brief puts forward some suggestions.

• Military Affairs Centre , Defence Economics & Industry Centre
• May 22, 2014
• Policy Brief

Several issues have been raised in the last one year, one such issue concerns the need for amending the policy to enable the MoD to demand offsets in specific area(s) rather than being driven by the vendors.

• Amit Cowshish
• August 05, 2013
• Issue Brief

The Office Memorandum has created a debate among various stakeholders, particularly the Indian IT and software-related companies which see a loss of business to the tune of $10 billion.

• Laxman Kumar Behera
• July 24, 2013
• IDSA Comments

How effective are offsets as a means to boost a domestic defence industry? This article takes a novel approach to answering this question; examining global data on levels of defence sales over three decades as a measure of successful defence industrialisation (i.e., using the market as an indicator of success). The quantitative data points to a mixed picture as despite the ubiquity of defence offsets, they are no guarantees of success in defence industrialisation.

• Joanna Spear
• July 2013
• Strategic Analysis

The temporary abeyance of ‘services’ as a valid means of discharging the offset obligation could prove to be exasperating for the foreign vendors and the prospective IOPs.

• Amit Cowshish
• June 19, 2013
• IDSA Comments

It is time that India’s offset regulations and defence procurement procedures are weeded for provisions formalising differential treatment against Indian bidders.

• Sandeep Verma
• January 15, 2013
• IDSA Comments

MoD has to assume the leadership role and provide some kind of a single-window service to the defence industry to steer the offsets in a direction that helps achieve the objective of modernisation through self-reliance.

• Amit Cowshish
• November 30, 2012
• IDSA Comments

Some of the provisions in the DOG do not seem to be well thought out, provide greater leeway to the foreign companies, and have a potentially negative potential on eligible manufacturing sector, particularly defence manufacturing.

• Laxman Kumar Behera
• September 03, 2012
• Policy Brief

In the wake of the selection of the Rafale the offset clause currently in force must be used to revamp India’s domestic aerospace industry, making it more technologically current and capable of taking on advanced design and development tasks in future.

• Vivek Kapur
• February 17, 2012
• IDSA Comments