Thursday marked the last day of the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) in existence. The Ordnance Factory Board, which has been supplying arms, ammunition and clothing to armed forces in India, stands dissolves from October 1.
The OFB controls 41 factories employing over 70,000 employees. It has an annual turnover of about Rs 19,000 crore. All of this will be split into seven Defence Public Sector Units (DPSUs), fully owned by the government.
The country bids goodbye to this 220-year-old establishment, here’s a look at what happens to its over 70,000 employees and the future of India’s defence industry.
Today workers’ unions, including the All India Defence Employees’ Federation and the Bhartiya Pratiraksha Mazdoor Sangh, representing over 75,000 defence civilian employees of the erstwhile 41 ordnance factories are observing a ‘Black Day’ today.
The protest is against the Narendra Modi government’s recent decision to dissolve the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and transfer the management, control, operations, and maintenance of the 41 production units that come under it to seven wholly government-owned companies.
The seven defence public sector units (DPSUs) as announced by the Defence Ministry are Munitions India Ltd, Armoured Vehicles Nigam Ltd, Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Ltd, Troop Comforts Ltd, Yantra India Ltd, India Optel Ltd, and Gliders India Ltd.
The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) has extended its “solidarity and support to the fighting workers of the ordnance factories”.
A statement from Amarjeet Kaur, general secretary of the AITUC, stated that the organisation would “continue to remain shoulder to shoulder in this battle against corporatisation and privatisation of the state-owned defence production units”.
The OFB controls 41 factories employing over 70,000 employees. It has an annual turnover of about Rs 19,000 crore. All of this will be split into seven Defence Public Sector Units (DPSUs), fully owned by the government.
The seven successor DPSUs are:
- Munitions India
- Armoured Vehicles Nigam
- Advanced Weapons and Equipment India
- Troop Comforts
- Yantra India
- India Optel
- Gliders India
All seven DPSUs will function as corporate entities with 100 per cent ownership lying with the government.
The government hopes that the decision to replace the Ordnance Factory Board with seven DPSUs would reform the defence production sector in India. The government aims at public-private partnerships to bring a similar change in the defence sector as the Green Revolution in agriculture and the White Revolution in dairy.
“We have opened up opportunities for mega defence programmes, including fighter aircraft, helicopters, tanks and submarines through a strategic partnership model that will help our private companies become global giants in the years to come,” Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said earlier this week when he announced the end date for the OFB.
