In mid-June, Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh announced the Indian cabinet had decided to abolish the Ordnance Factory Board, the national body that oversees the production of defense equipment ranging from ammunition to armored vehicles. The existing 41 factories, dispersed across India, will now be folded into seven units. Each new and consolidated entity will focus on a particular element of military production. The Vehicles group, for example, will be responsible for the development of tanks, infantry combat vehicles, and mine-protected vehicles. The Ammunition and Explosives group will produce ammunition and explosives, both for domestic needs as well as for export.
This reform, once it is implemented, will be dramatic. It would effectively terminate an organization with an over 300-year history, hearkening back to the days of the East India Company, which preceded formal British colonial rule in India. Under its aegis, a gunpowder factory was created in the present-day state of West Bengal as early as 1787. To this day, a government-run factory that manufactures rifles for both the armed services and civilians exists at that spot. Under the British, 18 more factories were built under the Ordnance Factory Board, and a host of others were built after India’s independence in 1947.
