Nudging Indigenization: Competition in India's AIP Submarine Program
While DRDO awaits Cabinet Committee on Security approval for its proposal, this 'double-barreled approach' could prove a boon for the IN. The IN would have two options from which to select the best fit. This presents the IN with an alternative if one of the projects faces delays, which remains a constant feature in India's naval procurement.
More importantly, competition between the two Ministry of Defense administered entities for P-76 could work as a driver of innovation, eventually resulting in the growth of India's submarine industrial base, while aligning with Delhi's objective on self-reliance in defense.
This case reflects the significance of competition between defense contractors. For example, in the U.S., major American defense corporations such as Newport News Shipbuilding Co. and General Dynamics have been known to contend for similar U.S. Navy submarine contracts, a dynamic that eventually led to the construction of technically advanced and cost-effective platforms, including the Los Angeles- and Virginia-class submarines. Naturally, the U.S. Congress and successive presidential administrations have long viewed the existence of economic competition within the defense industry as an important policy priority. India's Ministry of Defense and the IN could benefit from competition-induced innovation and cost-related silver linings.
Another factor that reflects MDL's involvement in P-76 and comes at an opportune moment is attributed to the Defense Ministry's approval of the joint bid of MDL and Germany's ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) to construct six SSKs under Project-75 India (P-75I).
With commercial negotiations left before the contract is formalized, P-75I and P-76 are likely to progress almost in parallel. If the P-76 materializes as planned, and commercial talks for P-75I do not witness significant differences over cost, it could benefit MDL's indigenous design and development for P-76 by transfer of technology through P-75I.
The Ministry of Defense's strategic logic at the inception of the submarine development program in 1999 was that India would conceive an indigenous SSK design by integrating both the design philosophies of P-75 and its technologically advanced successor P-75I. While the latter is yet to start, the logic not only remains but has been reinforced with the advent of advanced technologies like AIP, lithium-ion batteries, vertical launch and electronic warfare systems.
Naturally, the IN's core objective now is to integrate the latest technologies of P-75I with indigenous SSK construction, which makes the MDL an ideal player for P-76. The first submarine to be constructed under the P-75I will have at least 45 percent indigenous content, which would progressively be increased to 60 percent by the sixth platform. Moreover, the argument that MDL's involvement (in addition to DRDO) will stretch available resources remains superficial. MDL has not planned any project-specific additional funding from the Ministry of Defense and is reliant on its existing budgetary support.
The company's portfolio and facilities for submarine construction, besides the workforce, exemplify MDL as the most viable industrial option.
First, MDL has been involved in building submarines since 1984. It possesses a distinctive legacy as the only yard to build (in foreign collaboration) two different types of submarines – the Shishumar class and Kalvari class. The collaboration between MDL and its German partner Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW) in the 1980s to build six Shishumar-class submarines, wherein four submarines were constructed in MDL's yard, laid the foundation of India's indigenous submarine construction journey. Notwithstanding the corruption allegations by HDW, the partnership was a major milestone as it provided MDL with the required exposure to the technical aspects of submarine construction.
Today, with the P-75I, MLD-TKMS collaboration represents a more substantive joint venture. All six submarines would be constructed indigenously, with India gaining full transfer of technology of the hull design and AIP technology. This collaboration would not only boost MDL's technical and industrial capabilities for developing SSKs but also supplement IN's standing as a 'builder's navy.'
Second, MDL's status as a submarine construction hub is undergirded by its specialized facilities. MDL houses several specialized workshops, including for series construction and sub-section assembly, besides a weapon integration facility for submarine construction. It is also in the process of setting up a state-of-the-art design and engineering center for the design of submarines, which would be indispensable for the indigenous design of SSKs going forward. With its augmented infrastructure, the construction capacity of MDL has increased from 6 to 11 submarines with parallel construction lines. The submarine assembly workshop, in addition to the various infrastructure facilities created under the Mazdock Modernization Project, makes MDL a reliable partner for meeting the IN's long-term needs of submarine construction.
Third, lessons have been learned from the suspension of the Shishumar program, resulting in the loss of knowledge and skills. In recent years, MDL has made conscious efforts toward effective utilization and retention of the indispensable hard-acquired submarine construction skills of the workforce. To preserve the capabilities gained during the construction of the Kalvari-class submarine, MDL has gainfully employed the workforce on similar jobs to the extent feasible. That factor also underpins MDL's involvement in P-76.
The writing was on the wall for MDL to enter the fray of P-76. For a project that aims for 90 to 95 percent indigenous content, the competition generated by MDL's entry is welcome news for the growth of India's indigenous defense industry, and a much-needed impetus to the laggard procurement.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Japan Today
a day ago
- Japan Today
Asian shares mostly slip as focus shifts to US talks with China
A person stands in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm on Tuesday in Tokyo. By YURI KAGEYAMA Asian shares mostly declined Tuesday as some of the euphoria fizzled out over a tariff deal with Japan as proposed by President Donald Trump, which was followed by a similar deal with the European Union. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 slipped nearly 0.7% to 40,725.23. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.3% to 8,670.50. South Korea's Kospi was little changed after reversing earlier losses, edging less than 0.1% higher to 3,212.59. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.1% to 25,276.36, while the Shanghai Composite shed 0.3% to 3,586.93. Analysts said markets were watching for the latest from Trump, which are now focused on the talks with China. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng were meeting in Sweden. Bessent has said the negotiations will likely lead to an extension of current tariff levels. There was no significant new information after the first day of talks. 'Aside from addressing economic imbalances, tariffs are also now well entrenched in the geo-political arena,' Tan Boon Heng of the Asia & Oceania Treasury Department at Mizuho Bank said in a commentary. Last week, Trump announced a trade framework, placing a 15% tax on goods imported from Japan, a level far lower than the earlier 25% rate that the president had indicated. Trump also said Japan would invest $550 billion into the U.S. and open up to U.S. autos and rice. Details are still unclear, but the accord set off some momentary relief. U.S. stock indexes drifted through a quiet Monday after the United States agreed to tax cars and other products coming from the European Union at a 15% rate, lower than Trump had threatened. Many details of the trade deal are still to be worked out, and Wall Street is heading into a week full of potential flashpoints that could shake markets, including an interest rate decision Wednesday by the Federal Reserve. The widespread expectation on Wall Street is that Fed officials will wait until September to resume cutting interest rates, though a couple of Trump's appointees could dissent in the vote. The Fed has been on hold with interest rates this year since cutting them several times at the end of 2024. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 was nearly flat, edging up by less than 0.1% to 6,389.77 and setting an all-time high for a sixth straight day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.1% to 44,837.56, while the Nasdaq composite added 0.3% to its own record, closing at 21,178.58. Tesla rose 3% after its CEO, Elon Musk, said it had signed a deal with Samsung Electronics that could be worth more than $16.5 billion to provide computer chips for the electric-vehicle company. Samsung's stock in South Korea jumped 6.8%. Other companies in the chip and artificial-intelligence industries were strong, continuing their run from last week after Alphabet said it was increasing its spending on AI chips and other investments to $85 billion this year. Chip company Advanced Micro Devices rose 4.3%, and server-maker Super Micro Computer climbed 10.2%. But an 8.3% drop for Revvity helped to keep the market in check. The company in the life sciences and diagnostics businesses reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than Wall Street expected, but its forecast for full year profit disappointed analysts. Companies are broadly under pressure to deliver solid growth in profits following big jumps in their stock prices the last few months. Much of the gain was due to hopes that Trump would walk back some of his stiff proposed tariffs, and critics say the U.S. stock market looks expensive unless companies will produce bigger profits. Hundreds of U.S. companies are lined up to report how much profit they made during the spring, with nearly a third of the businesses in the S&P 500 index scheduled to deliver updates. In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude inched up 1 cent to $66.72 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, added 6 cents to $70.10 a barrel. In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 148.56 Japanse yen from 148.54 yen. The euro cost $1.1600, up from $1.1593. AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
The Diplomat
2 days ago
- The Diplomat
India Closes Landmark Trade Pact With UK
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his U.K. counterpart Keir Starmer during Modi's two-day visit to the U.K. on July 23-24, 2025, when the two sides signed a key trade pact. India and the United Kingdom signed a landmark trade pact, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit on July 23-24. The pact opens a new chapter in bilateral economic relations against the backdrop of rising geopolitical uncertainty and economic flux stemming from the U.S. announcement of unilateral tariffs. The agreement, which contains almost 30 chapters, has been described as 'forward-looking' and the 'largest' India has negotiated in terms of complexity and depth. It covers trade in goods and services, telecommunications, digital trade, financial and professional services, labor mobility, environment, and social issues like labor rights and development cooperation, as well as support for small and medium enterprises. Hailing the agreement as a 'blueprint for shared prosperity,' Modi said that it would reduce the 'cost of doing business' and enhance 'confidence of doing business' between the two economies, even as it strengthens the global economy. U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the CETA as 'historic' and pointed out that it would 'boost wages and living standards' in the two countries. 'It will bring down the prices of Indian clothes, shoes, foods for British citizens,' he said. The agreement with the U.K., the world's sixth-largest economy, is particularly significant for India as its pacts with two other major developed economies, the U.S. and the European Union (EU), are still under negotiation. The CETA could therefore serve as the template in these negotiations. In addition, India's deal with the U.K. would help undercut arguments that paint India — the world's fourth largest economy — as isolationist or obstructive when it comes to trade matters. U.S. President Donald Trump has frequently called India a 'tariff king' – a scathing commentary on what he views as India's high tariffs protecting its domestic markets and industries. Days after the CETA was signed, Indian Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal pointedly said that India was capable of facing competition and was not a 'tariff king,' with average tariffs for the U.K. set to drop to 3 percent from the current 15 percent. With India's economic profile rising, the Indian government would like to be seen as trade-friendly, welcoming of investors, and an easier place to do business. India's budget 2025-26 contained a slew of measures, including the setting up of a new committee to review regulatory reforms in the non-financial sector with the aim of strengthening trust-based economic governance to improve ease of doing business. Discussions for a pact between India and the EU began in 2007. But they floundered in 2013, and it was only in 2022 that negotiations were resumed. Meanwhile, India began trade discussions with the U.S. during Trump's first term in office (2017-2021). Talks resumed after Trump returned to the White House in January 2025. India's trade with the U.S. in 2024 totaled almost $130 billion; trade with the EU was $155 billion (132 billion euros) during the same period. With the U.K., India's bilateral trade is about $56 billion, with both countries pledging to double this number by 2030. With the deal with the U.K. in the bag, India now has 16 trade agreements in place, including those with Australia and the United Arab Emirates. A closer look at the CETA reveals that India has managed to protect its interests while exhibiting flexibility to accommodate demands from the U.K. An Indian government statement said that the CETA provides for the elimination of almost 99 percent of tariff lines, accounting for almost the entire value of Indian exports to the U.K. It will significantly enhance market access and boost the competitiveness of Indian textiles, marine products, leather, footwear, sports goods, toys, gems and jewelry, besides fast-growing sectors like engineering goods, auto components, and organic chemicals. Most of these sectors are labor-intensive, employing millions of workers. By securing zero duties in these areas, India has ensured its exports remain competitive. For instance, in the case of textiles, the CETA guarantees that Indian exports retain their advantage vis-à-vis those from other textile-exporting nations like Bangladesh or Vietnam. Analysts have pointed out that finding an alternative market for Indian marine products, including shrimps, in the U.K. through the CETA means that India is ringfencing this sector from future economic and political shocks that could come its way from markets like China. Given India's mostly tense ties with Beijing, finding alternative markets is an imperative that the CETA addresses. Dairy products and edible oils have been kept out of the ambit of the pact, while almost all of Indian agricultural products and processed food items will now have zero import duties when entering the U.K. market. This protects India's sensitive farm sector — agriculture and allied activities that contribute to 16 percent of India's GDP and support 46 percent of the population, according to Indian Finance Ministry data. A second key feature of the CETA is that India has agreed to loosen controls that will allow U.K. firms into its previously closely guarded government procurement market. British companies will be free to bid for 40,000 Indian government contracts worth about $40 billion, provided the firms fulfil a 20 percent local content sourcing criterion. This move aligns India with global norms on public procurement. However, certain sectors like defense and agriculture remain outside the ambit of the CETA. India has also committed to greater transparency by agreeing to publish information related to procurement on government portals. Some strategic sectors, like defense, are out of the purview of this, but still, the move is seen as a significant gesture toward the United Kingdom. The CETA does not exempt India from the U.K.'s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which aims to tax carbon-intensive products. This could affect India's exports of iron, steel and fertilizers. India has said it would retaliate should the U.K. impose this measure from early 2027. The pact also provides for increased mobility of Indian professionals by simplifying access requirements and allowing easier movement of contractual service providers, business visitors and independent professionals. A separate Double Contributions Convention that was signed alongside the CETA will eliminate the need for Indians in the U.K. to pay social security contributions in both countries, simultaneously, for a period of three years. This is expected to benefit some 75,000 Indians working in the U.K. Analysts Nisha Taneja and Nirlipta Rath of the New Delhi-based Indian Council for Research on International Economic Research have said that CETA sets 'a progressive benchmark for the country's future trade negotiations.' According to Bidisha Bhattacharya, a senior research consultant at the Chintan Research Foundation, the signing of the CETA is 'not a retreat from protectionism but a recalibration of India's trade strategy.' It involved using strategies like phased liberalization, minimum pricing thresholds, and value addition rules. By doing so, 'India is carefully walking the line between global integration and domestic resilience,' Bhattacharya wrote in a recent article. This was not India embracing multilateralism offered on unfavorable terms but India seeking bilateral agreements with high-income economies that offered reciprocal access, she pointed out. With the World Trade Organization looking increasingly irrelevant and dysfunctional, it's natural for countries to look for bilateral or regional arrangements that secure their access to key global markets. Though it is a late entrant, India seems to be learning to play the game, albeit slowly.
SoraNews24
4 days ago
- SoraNews24
Why does Häagen-Dazs Japan have two different types of green tea ice cream, and do we need both?
Green Tea isn't the only green tea ice cream Häagen-Dazs makes these days. Like many of Japan's sweets suppliers, Häagen-Dazs Japan is continually rotating special limited-time flavors into its lineup. Their newest, which went on sale July 22, is Gyokuro, named after the green tea of the same name. Now if you're thinking 'Wait a second, I could have sworn I'd seen green tea Häagen-Dazs in Japan before this,' don't worry, you haven't been having dessert delusions. Not only does Häagen-Dazs Japan already have a green tea flavor, Green Tea (or 'Guriin Tii,' as it's pronounced in its official in-Japanese rendering) is one of their permanent flavors. In other words, the new Gyokuro flavor hasn't pushed Green Tea out of convenience store/supermarket freezer cases. Right now, Häagen-Dazs Japan has two different green tea flavors on sale, and that made us curious as to just how different they actually are. First, though, just what is gyokuro? As defined by the Japan Tea Central Association, gyokuro is a green tea made using leaves harvested from plants grown under covers to shade it from the sun for roughly 20 days, with the covers made of materials such as reeds or cloth and put in place when the ichibancha (first-harvest) buds begin to show. As you can probably guess, this delicate cultivation adds time and expense to the production process, but the smaller, pricier yields are worth it to green tea enthusiasts, who hold gyokuro's extra-deep flavor in high esteem. ▼ A cup of gyokuro tea Gyokuro's premium status is reflected in Häagen-Dazs' ice cream version. Whereas our local 7-Eleven branch was selling the brand's regular Green Tea flavor for 325 yen (US$2.25), the Gyokuro set us back 370 yen, and that's actually less than the suggested retail price of 400 yen. Oh, and the Gyokuro Häagen-Dazs is slightly smaller too, with its tub containing 100 milliliters (3.4 ounces) of ice cream, 10 fewer than the Standard Green Tea's. We started with a visual check. It's a little hard to see in camera-captured images, but when viewed with the naked, tea-loving eye, the Gyokuro Häagen-Dazs is a brighter shade of green than the Green Tea. Since neither ice cream uses any artificial coloring or aromas, we think it's safe to credit the difference to the quality of the powdered gyokuro leaves and gyokuro extract that Häagen-Dazs puts into the new flavor. ▼ Green Tea on the left, Gyokuro on the right Sliding a spoon into each, we didn't notice any contrast in consistency between the too, suggesting that they contain similar ratios of cream as well, so this was feeling like it really was going to come down to a matter of the two types of tea themselves in terms of any differences in flavor . We stared with the Green Tea to establish a baseline, and it tasted like ordinary, average matcha ice cream. To be clear, that's not a criticism. Japan has high standards for sweets across the board, and especially so for green tea desserts, so an ordinary, middle-of-the-pack green tea ice cream is still very, very tasty. However, we wouldn't say that the Häagen-Dazs Green Tea dramatically distinguishes itself from most other authentic matcha ice creams in Japan. But the Häagen-Dazs Gyokuro? Ah, now this was something special! While the difference in flavor is noticeable when drinking a cup of gyokuro compared to standard green tea, we weren't sure if that would carry over to their ice cream forms. It definitely does, though, and the Gyokuro Häagen-Dazs has much stronger tea notes. With the Green Tea, there's an element of sweetness that sticks with you all the way through the flavor profile and lingers into the aftertaste. The Gyokuro, though, gives you just a quick initial sensation of sweetness on the tongue, but by the time you swallow, it's just the rich tea notes that are lighting up your taste buds, with even a touch of umami, we wrote while in our taste-testing notes while nodding in satisfaction. So yes, it turns out there's a reason for the Häagen-Dazs Green Tea and Gyokuro to both exist, since they're both delicious, but in different ways. However, we should note that if green tea desserts don't make up as major a part of your diet as they do ours, the flavor of the Gyokuro isn't going to beat you over the head with its characteristic charms, so you might want to arrange a little green tea ice cream ceremony for yourself and try them both in the same sitting to really appreciate their differences. After all, double desserts are perfectly acceptable if they're part of a cultural experience, right? Photos ©SoraNews24 ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter! [ Read in Japanese ]
