Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said that over 250 MoUs have been signed so far for the establishment of industrial units in the defence industrial corridors in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
Addressing the CEOs roundtable organised as part of Aero India 2025 at Yelahanka Air Force Station, Rajnath Singh also mentioned the introduction of the Defence Testing Infrastructure Scheme to provide financial assistance to set up 6-8 greenfield testing and certification facilities in the two corridors.
Inviting global original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to utilise the opportunities offered by the expanding Indian defence ecosystem, Singh lauded the Defence Exim Portal for making export authorisation process seamless. “As a testimony to the emergence of India as a defence export nucleus, India has seen 31-times growth in the export of products in the last 10 years as compared to financial year 2013-14,” he said.
Push for developed country status
The Defence Minister said the government has taken transformative steps to make the domestic defence industry an important component of the national economy in a bid to facilitate India’s transition from a developing to a developed country by 2047.
“We have allowed FDI up to 75 per cent through the Automatic Route for companies seeking new defence license, while up to 100 per cent is also allowed under the government approval route. A total of 46 joint ventures and companies have been given foreign investment approval so far in the defence sector,” he said.
He described the issuance of positive indigenisation lists, which is meant to reduce import dependence, as a clear indicator to the government’s intent to support the industry in its self-reliance pursuit.
According to him, over 500 start-ups and MSMEs are presently working under the aegis of Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX). “Our overall ease of doing business environment has improved tremendously. This is showing great results as India has the 3rd largest start-up ecosystem in the world today; this is expected to witness year-on-year growth of 10-12 per cent. We possess a young generation of highly-skilled workforce, which constantly updates itself in the face of the fast-changing ecosystem of the world. You must not miss the opportunity to leverage the advantages of this ecosystem,” he told the over 100 CEOs, both domestic and foreign, present on the occasion.
The theme of the roundtable was ‘Enabling Defence Cooperation through Global Engagement (EDGE)’. OEMs from 19 countries, including from the US, France, Russia, South Korea, UK, Japan, Israel and Brazil, 35 Indian CEOs, from Larsen & Toubro, Bharat Forge Ltd, Adani Defence & Aerospace, Mahindra Defence Systems Ltd, BrahMos Aerospace and Ashok Leyland Defence, and 16 Defence DPSUs attended the event.
