India's Ordnance Factory Board gets order from the US to supply ammo

India's state-run Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) has got an order from the US to supply ammunition. The OFB, one of the country's oldest defence establishments, has received an export order for 5.56X45 mm NATO M193 Ball bullets from the US. "The ammunition will be manufactured at Ordnance Factory Varangaon in Maharashtra and will be supplied in the current fiscal year," OFB Deputy Director General Gagan Chaturvedi told IANS. He also said that the ordnance factories have been exporting ammunition to foreign nations and have been fulfilling the commitments within the given time. India had inherited 18 ordnance factories established by the British at the time of Independence. Currently, the OFB oversees 41 factories, 13 development centres and nine institutes of learning. The government is pushing for the corporatisation of the OFB, citing that it has been an ailing intuition and they want to make it at par with other defence public sector undertakings managed by its own board of directors with broad guidelines from the government. The government has envisioned growth of the OFB post corporatisation, expecting it to raise its turnover to Rs 30,000 crore by 2024-25 annually against existing Rs 12,000 crore, and has set up a high-level panel to work out a roadmap to achieve the same. The corporatisation of OFB will improve its autonomy, accountability and efficiency in Ordnance Supplies, it had stated. (IANS)