Kalam panel to look into defence deals

A committee to look into purchase of defence equipment is to be set up under Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, scientific advisor to the defence minister.

This was announced by Defence Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav at a meeting of the parliamentary consultative committee of his ministry in New Delhi on Monday.

He said the defence ministry issued instructions in February this year that the purchases from abroad should be made only from the manufacturers.

However, often this was not possible and he had since been informed that this has posed various problems.

The committee would look into the matter, he added.

The meeting, which was attended among others by Minister of State for Defence N V N Somu, Defence Secretary Ajit Kumar and Defence Production and Supplies Secretary T S Vijay Raghavan, also reviewed the functioning of the ordnance factories.

Vijay Raghavan informed the members that steps had been taken to modernise and diversify the 39 ordnance factories, 16 of which were set up before Independence.

As a measure to optimise production capacity, efforts were being made to increase the share of non-defence products from the existing level of 12 per cent, he said.

Production of 5.56 mm rifles was being increased to meet the army's requirements.

Efforts are also being made to increase the participation of the private sector, he added.

Participating in the discussion, the members appreciated the high level of quality control in the ordnance factories with 36 of the 39 factories securing ISO-9000 series certification.

They were impressed with the wide range of products made by the ordnance factories but emphasised the need for refocusing in order to concentrate on priority areas.

Thrust to export, optimum utilisation of capacity and streamlining of supplies were some of the other points raised by the members.

UNI