Funds, facilities or Panchayats? Prof. Prodyut Das Any discussion on our track record of weapons development is always explained away by blaming inadequate funding of Defence R&D. Some point out the massive defence R&D funding of China and the US. I hold that given our inefficient Defence R&D structure even if we spent the same amount as the US on Defence R&D we would still be importing weapons. This is because we are structured wrong. One of the several wrongs is a focus on developing in isolation, the fashionable rather than the needed e.g. one does not design a fighter by deciding it must have this or that technology. One designs a fighter by the “Panchayati” approach: listening and arguing with the customer, absorbing what they want, and then deciding what is the minimum needed to be done. A Panchayat is a traditional village meeting held literally between five i.e many people in colloquia