Local industry told to interact with Defexpo participants

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met over 200 representatives from the industry for the Tamil Nadu Defence Corridor, which along with one in Uttar Pradesh, was announced in the current budget.

Representatives from Defence Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited and Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) attended the meeting at Tiruchirappalli held 16 Mar 2018.

The minister gave an overview of the importance of the defence sector in the overall growth and development of the country and highlighted the importance of the proposed Defence Corridor.

She sought the active support of all the stakeholders to make the project successful.

Sitharaman also invited the local manufacturers to showcase their products related to defence supplies so as to attract the attention of more than 300 manufacturers expected to be present in the DefExpo 2018, scheduled between 11 to 14 April 2018 in Chennai.

Several presentations were made ranging from measures taken to promote indigenisation and self-reliance in defence production, the industry friendly measures taken by the Tamil Nadu government, the envisaged role of the Public Sector Enterprises in the proposed Defence Corridor and the capabilities and expectations of the local industry.

The Tamil Nadu Defence Corridor, also called the Tamil Nadu Defence Production Quad as the nodal cities form a quadrilateral, will include Chennai, Hosur, Salem and Coimbatore, Tiruchirappalli as nodes.

These nodal cities have existing defence ecosystem in the form of OFBs, vendors working with Defence PSUs, and other allied industries.

The Tamil Nadu Defence Corridor aims to bolster interaction between all industry players in order to create long-term synergy and eventual development of the area into a Defence Production powerhouse. fii-news.com