CHENNAI: In a bid to woo investments for the defence industrial corridor, the State government is planning to tweak the Aerospace and Defence Industrial Policy, which was unveiled at the second edition of the Global Investors Meet, according to Chairperson and Managing Director of Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Usha Kakarala. She was speaking at the fifth edition of the virtual conference on aerospace & defence manufacturing technologies with the theme of empowering India with ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Mission’ organised by the Tamil Nadu Technology Development and Promotion Centre of Confederation of Indian Industry in partnership with Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers.
The policy, which was unveiled by then Defence Minister Nirmala Seetharaman a year ago, will include more incentive packages to woo investment in the defence corridor, a top official in the industry department told Express. It is learnt that the state is targeting investments worth $10 billion in the next five to 10 years in the six clusters identified in the state - Chennai, Coimbatore, Kancheepuram, Krishnagiri, Salem and Trichy. The policy aims to create an end-to-end ecosystem for aerospace sector development covering design, engineering and manufacturing of aircraft for the civil and defence sector.
The plan is also to attract Original Equipment Manufacturers and tier-1 suppliers and India majors as anchor units, by providing required facilities and support at competitive rates, the official said. Dr G Satheesh Reddy, Secretary, Department of Defence, Research and Development, and Chairman, Defence Research and Development Organisation, highlighted that DRDO is filtering out patents which are promising for the industry. He said 87 per cent of Akaash Missile System, where subsystems and technology came from the industry, highlights the success of public-private partnership.
There are a lot of schemes available to support and handhold industries to undertake in-house production. Shripad Yesso Naik, Minister of State for Defence, said Covid has given an opportunity for State to attract new investment from companies in countries like Germany, Finland, Taiwan, France, Korea, Japan, China, the US, Australia, the UK and The Netherlands. The government is focusing on developing a strong domestic capability in defence to give greater impetus for economic growth, skilled job creation and to support growth of domestic manufacturers and MSMEs.