Ordnance Factory Board

The Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) is the world’s largest government-owned and operated defense production organization.

About the Ordnance Factory Board

• The Ordnance Factory Board is the oldest organization run by the Government of India.
• It is an industrial organization which functions under the Department of Defence Production of Ministry of Defence, Government of India.
• The OFB is engaged in the research & development of weapons, their production & testing, marketing and logistics.
• The OFB provides a comprehensive weapons portfolio range which includes air, land and sea defense systems.
• Currently, the OFB consists of 3 Regional Marketing Centres, 4 Regional Controllerates of Safety, 9 training institutes and 41 Ordnance Factories.
• These OFB associates are spread all over the country and it employs nearly 90,000 people.

Why is OFB in the news?

• The Employees of the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) had been on a strike since August 14.
• This strike was called against the alleged instances of privatization.
• However, after the leaders of the federations and the Secretary of DPP met and discussed all points of contention, the employees called off their protests.
• It has been decided that a high-level committee be established to interact with the employees? federations to ascertain their concerns and other aspects of the proposed entity.