CHENNAI: The data in terms of the country’s capability and skillsets has not been mapped properly for the defence sector, said Lieutenant General Subrata Saha, director-general of NGO Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers, at the TN Defence Corridor meet on Saturday.
“The Defence Expo will provide us with an opportunity to get an idea of where we stand in this regard,” said Lt Gen Saha. About 42 countries have confirmed their participation in the expo, which will be held in Chennai from April 11 to 14. India is expected to showcase a range of indigenously developed military helicopters and aircraft, missiles and rockets and its capabilities to manufacture submarines, frigates, corvettes and other ships. The revision of the theme for the expo is the most significant change that has taken place this year,” he said.
“Generally, the expo is viewed as a platform for other countries to display and sell their weapons. This time around, things will be different because they will come here and see what India has to offer. It is an opportunity for India to show that it has the potential to be a defence manufacturing hub,” he said.
Saha said the expo would be the best time to collate and collect data relating to the capability of the country in terms of manufacturing. He added that validation of capability would be carried out to ensure that the weapons are of global standards. For those that fall short, he said guidance would be provided to ensure that they are brought up to global standards. Further, panel discussions would be held to analyse where the sector is suffering.
“Despite liberalisation of the Foreign Direct Investment regime in defence, it is not catching up the way it should have,” he said. “Focussed discussions and seminars on issues like this will help us find pain points in the sector. That in turn will help to address a number of the issues brought up by stakeholders in this discussion.”
Saturday’s meeting was held to get suggestions from stakeholders on how to go about creation of the proposed defence corridor in Tamil Nadu.
Rajib Sen, Economic Advisor, Department of Defence Production, Rajendra Prasad, Principal Secretary/Industries Commissioner and Director of Industries and Commerce, Dharmendra Pratap Yadav, Principal Secretary, State Department of MSME, and Commodore S Shekhar, Director, Centre for Advancement of Science, Technology, Law & Engineering (CASTLE), were also present.