India will not remain an assembly workshop, but will be a manufacturing hub, said Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday, during a roundtable conference for CEOs, who have come from various countries, on Day One of Aero India 2023, a biennial air show and aviation exhibition. The conference was attended by 70 CEOs of local and global Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).
Singh also called upon the Indian and global industry leaders to support the government’s endeavour to design, develop and manufacture cutting-edge products, using critical technologies, within the country to attain complete ‘atmanirbharta’ in defence, with the overall objective of achieving shared global peace and prosperity.
“India does not want to remain an assembly workshop. Manufacturing cutting-edge products are the need of the hour to attain ‘atmanirbharta’,” Singh said.
India is becoming a hub for startup as well and Indian companies are trying to cope up with global challenges. India is working to manufacture the engine of LCA Tejas, which is currently US-made.
ATMANIRBHARTA
The CEO roundtable conference was attended by Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan, Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari, Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral R Hari Kumar, Chief of the Army Staff General Manoj Pande and Defence Secretary Shri Giridhar Aramane.
“The Raksha Mantri asserted that India does not want to remain just an assembly workshop and is looking to engage with friendly countries in defence and security based on sharing expertise and capabilities under the ‘Make in India, Make for the World’ vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He assured industry leaders that the government is open to new ideas and is committed to fully harness the energy, entrepreneurial spirit and capability of private sector partners in the area of defence production,” the Defence Ministry said.
India is also setting up defence corridors in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and simplifying industrial licensing processes; hike in cap on FDI in defence; opening of government trial and testing facilities for the private sector; increase in capital outlay for defence in Budget 2023-24 and launch of Technology Development Fund and Innovations for Defence Excellence.
The participating companies included Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Israel Aerospace Industries, General Atomics, Liebherr Group, Raytheon Technologies, Safran, General Authority of Military Industries, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bharat Electronics Limited, Bharat Dynamics Limited, BEML Limited, Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited, Larsen & Toubro, Bharat Forge, Dynamatic Technologies and BrahMos Aerospace.
INDIGENISATION
The government believes these reforms will enable Indian defence products to compete with established global defence and aerospace companies.
While talking about indigenisation, Singh said that indigenisation is the mantra for India today, unlike in the past when import was the default option. He stated that the partnership between the Government and Industry is based on equality and mutual trust.
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