Defence Industrial Corridors: In its bid to push indigenous manufacturing of defence equipment, the government is working towards early development of two defence industrial corridors. In last year’s budget, the government has announced its proposal to set up two defence industrial corridors, one each in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh Tuesday reviewed the progress of work on these two corridors.
The government has identified a series of six places in Uttar Pradesh and five in Tamil Nadu to be a part of their respective defence corridors.
Senior defence officials made the presentation about the size of Indian defence market, introduction of defence corridors, Uttar Pradesh & Tamil Nadu Defence Corridors & its ecosystem, stakeholders interaction, policy support for defence industry.
The high level meeting also discussed the investment opportunities in these two states, appointment of consultant for preparation of detailed project reports (DPRs) for these corridors and initiatives taken by Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh governments.
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Defence minister Rajnath Singh directed the officials to speed up the process of setting up of the corridors.
According to defence think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Initiative (SIPRI) India has been the world’s largest arms importer for several years. However, after coming to power in New Delhi in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched his flagship scheme Make in India with the aim to make India a manufacturing hub. Boosting indigenous defence production is one of the most important component of Make in India policy.
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India has 41 government companies under the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) for producing arms and equipments for its security forces. However, these companies are not able to meet the ever increasing requirement of latest weapons of Indian forces.
During the meeting, it was also suggested to hire resource persons as the defence sector is highly complex. It was also discussed that for investments to materialise in the defence corridors, assured order for defence items was the primary driving force.
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Ajay Kumar, secretary defence production, additional secretary defence production, economic advisor of the department of defence production and concerned directors of the ministry were present in the high-level meeting.
