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The corporatisation of artillery factories — which have become synonymous with poor timbre products, delayed timelines and miss of technological advancements — will see these 41 factories subsumed as seven 100 per cent government-owned corporate entities, registered under the Companies Act 2013 .
The munition factories are the oldest and the largest organization in the state ’ s defense industry with a history that dates back to 1787, when a gunpowder factory was established at Ishapore by the british. The Ishapore factory had started production in 1791.
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Headquartered at Kolkata, the OFB is a conglomerate of 41 factories, nine training institutes, three regional commercialize centres and five regional controllers of condom. At present, these factories are divided under five clusters or operating groups and they produce a roll of arms, ammunition, armoured and infantry fight vehicles, clothing items and others such as parachutes for the services .
The OFB, which has a sum work force of around 81,500 personnel, comes under the administrative master of the Department of Defence Production in the defense ministry. The government has immediately approved the corporatisation of OFB, which will give the organization autonomy and take it out of the direct operate of the Department of Defence Production .
The three recognised federations of artillery factory workers, with affiliations to the RSS, Left and the Congress, have, however, opposed the motivate and threatened to launch an agitation .
The politics though has made up its mind to finish off the corporatisation by the conclusion of this year .
To implement its decisions regarding the move, the government has decided to delegate the authority of the Cabinet to an Empowered Group of Ministers ( EGoM ), constituted under Defence Minister Rajnath Singh .
early members of the EGoM are Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Labour and Employment Minister Santosh Gangwar .
global consult firm KPMG has been selected for the corporatisation be active .
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The plan ahead
Cabinet Committee on Security had in July last year approved to convert OFB into one or more than one 100 per penny government-owned corporate entities, registered under the Companies Act 2013 .
In less than a year, the Union Cabinet has approved it. Government sources have said that the restructure is aimed at transforming the artillery Factories into fat and profitable assets, deepening specialization in the intersection range, enhancing competitiveness besides improving quality and cost-efficiency .
Under the plan, the 41 factories would be subsumed into seven 100 per penny government-owned corporate entities with professional management .
These will be like early government-owned Defence Public Sector Undertakings like the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and Bharat Dynamics Limited ( BDL ) among others .
Under the seven entities, there will be an Ammunition and Explosives Group, which would be chiefly engaged in product of ammunition of assorted bore and explosives with huge potential to grow exponentially, not lone by way of Make in India but besides by manufacturing for the world .
The Vehicles Group would chiefly engage in production of defense mobility and fight vehicles such as tanks, trawl, armoured personnel carriers and mine-protected vehicles. It is expected to increase its partake in the domestic market through better capacity use and besides explore new export markets .
The Weapons and Equipment Group would be chiefly engaged in production of little arms, average and big quality guns and early weapon systems. It is besides expected to increase its share in the domestic market through meeting domestic necessitate deoxyadenosine monophosphate well as product diversification .
In addition, the Troop Comfort Items Group, Ancillary Group, Opto-Electronics Group and Parachute Group constitute the entire structure .
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Why corporatisation is needed
During the past two decades, several high-level committees — such as the TKA Nair Committee in 2000, Vijay Kelkar Committee of 2006, Vice Admiral Raman Puri Committee in 2016 and the Lt Gen D B Shekatkar Committee in 2016 — called for munition factories to be converted from a government department into a corporate entity .
As mentioned earlier, the OFB had become synonymous with poor quality products, delayed timelines and lack of technical advancements .
The production cost is besides besides high because the production value per employee is very low .
Because of this, despite the OFB products being priced without charging any profit over the cost of production ( as it is barred from making net income from the supplies to the armed forces ), the military complains that the monetary value is equitable excessively high .
apart from the arm forces, which have been complaining for years, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India ( CAG ) has in multiple reports criticised the department for its way of function .
A CAG composition in 2018 said that a big number of production orders given to the OFB remained outstanding as of March that year. The oldest of these production orders were from 2009-2010 .
The latest model of OFB failing to deliver to the armed forces in a fix timeline is that of the Dhanush guns .
Since April 2019, when the induction of the Dhanush accelerator started, only 12 of the indigenously built long-range artillery guns have been delivered as of now. This is far below the 18 guns required to make a full regiment .
This development comes at a time when the armed forces are involved in a conflict with China in Ladakh and have been seeking more weapon gun to “ get the best operational voids in the medium artillery in HAA ( High Altitude Area ) along the northern borders ” .
late last year, an internal army judgment had said defective ammunition and arming supplied by the OFB caused army casualties and bled the treasury. The report said that there were 403 accidents over the survive six years, which had resulted in the deaths of 27 soldiers and a loss of Rs 960 crore .
The 27 fatalities cited in the Army assessment included the 19 that occurred in the 2016 accidental mine explosion at a storehouse in Pulgaon, Maharashtra .
The OFB hit back with a statement saying only 19 per cent of the accidents involving defensive structure ammunition between January 2015 and December 2019 could be attributed to the display panel .
Accusing the Army and the media of selective coverage, the OFB said its own records showed that between 2011 and 2018, there were more than 125 accidents involving ammunition procured from other sources, both domestic and extraneous .
It even went on to point out that the Pulgaon accident involved anti-tank mines that had been developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation ( DRDO ) and were manufactured strictly according to their design. “ Design deficiencies were subsequently noticed and desirable changes are being evaluated, ” it had said .
The public spat last year showed the state of affairs between the arm forces and the OFB .
Government says workers will be protected
The OFB Unions have been protesting the corporatisation for years fearing that it would finally lead to job losses .
The government has told the Unions that it is committed to safeguard the interests of the employees. It has been decided that all the employees of OFB ( Group A, B & C ) belonging to the production units would be transferred to the corporate entities on deem delegating initially for a menstruation of two years without altering their service conditions as central government employees .
The pension liabilities of the retirees and existing employees will continue to be borne by the government .
( Edited by Arun Prashanth )
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