MSME Sector Now Rising Star in Indian Defence Ecosystem
“Orders worth 50K Crores opened for domestic defence manufacturing” . This was revealed by Shri Sanjay Jaju, Additional Secretary, Defence Production in a recent webinar titled “Opportunities for MSMEs in Defence Manufacturing and Exports”.
The webinar was organized by the PHDCCI Defence & HLS Committee, in association with the Department of Defence Production, Govt. of India, TIDCO and CODISSIA. The webinar was focused on several initiatives of the government to indigenise and encourage innovation in the sectors and also to shed light on the plethora of opportunities for MSMEs.
Jaju said how MSMEs were becoming the rising stars of production manufacturing ecosystem in the defence sector. He added that more than 12000 MSMEs are fuelling the growth of aerospace and defence sector towards making an Atmanirbhar Bharat.
He applauded that the industry and the industry associations are attaching to the enhancement of defence manufacturing capabilities in the country. He insisted that the impetus is being given by the Government in procuring through domestic sources. The Government through the various innovation projects and iDex is committed to promoting the interest of MSMEs in the sector.
Shri Anurag Bajpai, Joint Secretary (DIP), Ministry of Defence, Government of India also addressed at the Conference. He said that the Government of India is laying down policies to strengthen the defence production as well as R&D ecosystem in the country; simultaneously creating a level playing field for the private sector. In line with the mission of Aatm Nirbhar Bharat, it has given a push to realize the goal of self-reliance with MSMEs playing a vital role.
Shri Praveen Kumar, DDG-DOMW, Department Defence Production, Government of India highlighted that the key objective of the defence offset policy is to develop the Indian defence industry at large. The development of the Indian MSME is by leveraging capital acquisitions and technologies is crucial for the development of the defence sector in India.
Mr. M.K. Gupta, Chairman, PHDCCI Defence & HLS Committee in his welcome address mentioned that the government has been able to drive key programs with speed to bridge the critical asset gaps for the Armed Forces, which is the ‘primary objective’. However, much more is desired from the Indian Government to address the ‘secondary objective’ of building indigenous defence industrial capability in India and towards reducing dependence on imports.
Shri Pankaj Kumar Bansal, Chairman & Managing Director, TIDCO informed that the major opportunities for MSMEs in the defence sector are Revenue Budget of Armed Forces, Innovations for Defense Excellence, Technology Development Fund, Transfer of Technology from DRDO, International Collaboration due to negative import list, Make in India opportunities – Srijan Portal and Export Opportunities.
Mr. M V Ramesh Babu, President, CODISSIA mentioned that the new policies are focusing on the institutionalisation, streamlining and simplification of defence procurement procedures to boost the make in India initiative for promoting indigenous design and development as well as manufacturing of defence equipment platforms, systems and subsystems. The policy reforms such as the draft DPP 2020, defence corridors and tax initiatives are expected to boost private participation in the defence sector.
Mr. Ashish Saraf, VP & Country Director-India, Thales highlighted that it is important to acknowledge that MSME’s of the world today provide an incredible amount of agility, innovation and cost-benefit in an ever-changing world. MSMEs having a small structural cost base, smaller workforce and agile management controlled by a small number of people, is able to make quick decisions and adapt to changes quite early in the supply chain situation.
Mr. Ashwani Bhargava, Director, Supply Chain Management, Boeing India mentioned that significant success has been observed in standards and machining sheet metal as well as other parts that are newly being produced. There is a width of sourcing opportunities coming from India and a wide variety of trade opportunities for MSMEs. India’s becoming more relevant in the Boeing supply chain because of a bigger supply base; there is also a stark focus on new technologies and the notion of industry 4.0.
Mr. Partha P Roy Chowdhury, Director-Commercial & Industrial Dev. Lockheed Martin said that, India is expected to emerge as one of the leading economies in the world. India’s MSME sector is also expected to play a significant role in this emergence of the Indian economy. The development of this segment is extremely critical to meet the national imperatives of the financial inclusion and generation of high-level employment; this is for both the urban and semi-urban sectors.
Cmde (Retd.) Mukesh Bhargava, VP & Board Member L&T Defense mentioned that MSMEs are an integral part of the supply chain for the OEMs and large industries because they are mainly the creator of niche technologies. The foreign OEMs look at them for design technologies, EMRs, Deep-Tech and disruptive technologies as well as building blocks of industry 4.0
Mr. Vikas Balani, AGM, SIDBI shared about the various schemes which SIDBI is offering to the MSMEs especially with respect to the Defence and Aerospace sector.
