NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Defence is likely to hold the biennial defence exhibition DefExpo 2022 at Gandhinagar in October for which invites are likely to be sent out in the first week of June. Though the event was originally planned to be held in March, the Russia-Ukraine war had made it difficult for a large number of foreign participants to arrive with their equipment in India.
Sources said with reopening of flight routes and resumption of normal traffic, the Ministry is likely to announce new dates and send out invites for the five-day exhibition. They added close to a thousand companies, including the world’s biggest defence manufacturers, are likely to take part in the event.
The expo will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is likely to spend a couple of days in the capital city of his home state Gujarat and meet the chiefs of top defence companies. If the plan falls in place this time, Gujarat sky will be buzzing with choppers and transport planes on the eve of the state assembly elections with hundreds of foreign participants bringing in their wares including helicopters, missiles, radars, tanks, armoured vehicles, heavy artillery for display at the marquee event.
The Ministry has had a fixed format for the event. Apart from the global and local defence companies hawking their wares, seminars are held through the day on technology transfer and indigenisation, business and investment meetings are facilitated, and Indian states vie with each other to attract investments that the big sellers are required to make under the offset policy.
The Ministry, meanwhile, has decided to launch a new initiative at DefExpo 2022 called Invest4iDex to promote innovations for defence excellence. This programme will be managed by an MoD wing called the Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO). The Invest4iDex initiative will provide a platform to startups to pitch their ideas to venture capitalists and other investors and get their feedback. The idea is to help startups leverage DefExpo 2022 to generate investments and leads for future operations.
The growing hostility between the United States and Russia may cause friction over participation of Russian defence companies. India has so far managed to walk the middle path. DefExpo 2022 would test South Block’s diplomatic skills as it would have to balance the demands of the two big global players.