correct !!
Not at all !!
It is true that OFs have let down Armed Forces in many occasions but it is also true that the pace of modernization of OFs were not upto the date ... so there will be quality issues of the products ...
My point is let us modernize the OFs to the western standards such that they are capable of producing quality equipment required by armed forces...
OFs need modern tooling for quality products ...
Sir, I will not be wrong to say when the OFs started making those shoes, uniforms, Shaktiman trucks some 50 years or more ... back then no private organization came forward to invest ...
I fully understand your point of view.
But a guaranteed govt job giver factory with very less accountability and not ready to face competition is neither in GoI interest, nor consumer interests. It is also not in employee interests as there is no incentive and no progression in capabilities, training and skills. When the promotion is based on casts, how can there be incentives for any one to do well.
Why can not the factories earn profits, build a Capital base and invest that in modernisation. Bharat Forge or L&T or TATA does not get capital from GoI to modernise and upgrade. It is business / economic activity. How can GoI keep pumping their / taxpayer's money which has no returns.
The issue is that whatever product Forces receive from Ordinance Factories is also not cheap and at competitive prices, There is no reduction in Defense budget due to them. Secondly, all items they make can be purchased from markets at lower prices and better quality. There is no criticality. We are no more a backward highly underdeveloped colonial economy.
These factories should be transferred to Industry ministry or Social Welfare ministry. DRDO has started their own production lines to make critical systems. AEA is separate, Space is separated so what is sacred about Ordinance factories, Any one can make explosives - in fact they are doing that and any one can make those rusted fuzes. OFB is now working as an agent to buy things from outside and then give it to forces. Why?
In fact the name of game in MoD is do middlemen that makes good bucks - MoD, OFB, DRDO, HAL, BEML all and everyone wish to be "middlemen" only .... no one makes - maximum is that they assemble .. lot of bucks in that too...