Firms to push for more FDI in defence sector
CHENNAI: As the draft Defence Production Policy 2018 is set to be implemented with the ambitious vision of catapulting India into the world’s top five defence producers, the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM) will chalk out strategies to ensure that the country gets more foreign direct investment in defence.Addressing reporters, president of SIDM Baba Kalyani and director-general of SIDM Lt Gen Subrata Saha said the new defence policy has fixed a target of Rs 35,000 crore of exports by 2025 while the current export is only Rs 1,995 crore.
in the city on Tuesday | sunish P Surendran
Interestingly, foreign direct investment is not happening despite the current regime allowing 100 per cent foreign direct investment in defence, the industry said. A session at Defexpo on “Changing Headwinds to Tailwinds: Enablers for Enhancing Foreign Direct Investment”, organised by SIDM will come out with recommendations in this regard.Kalyani said the new defence policy stipulates 13 areas where India must achieve self-reliance by 2025.
These include manufacturing fighter aircraft, medium lift and utility helicopters, warships, land combat vehicles, autonomous weapon systems, missile systems, gun systems, small arms, ammunition and explosives, surveillance systems, electronic warfare (EW) systems, communication systems, and night fighting enablers. Hailing Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s initiative of Defence Corridor for Tamil Nadu, Kalyani felt that the share of private sector will increase in the coming days.
He said the defence corridor being set up in Tamil Nadu, which links Chennai, Salem, Coimbatore, Tiruchy and Hosur and the one in Uttar Pradesh, will have an initial Union government investment of Rs 3,000 crore and the rest will be contributed by the State and private sector through a special purpose vehicle.He said the biggest issue micro, small and medium enterprises face is trial, testing and certification.