Army offers MSMEs “handholding”

Chief of the Army Staff, General Bipin Rawat, said the Army would take up solutions provided by Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) as a follow up to the identification of problem statements.

General Rawat was speaking at the FICCI Session on ‘Defence Industrial Corridors: Unleashing the Start-ups and MSMEs Ecosystem’ organized during the Defexpo 2018 on 12 April 2018.

He encouraged Indian MSMEs to support the Armed Forces with successful solutions to the identified 132 problems, and told the MSMEs that even if they are able to provide 60-70% solutions to the problems, the Army will be ready to provide further handholding in the effort towards encouraging indigenization of arms, weapons and ammunitions.

General Rawat said that steps to encourage knowledge management in various Commands have been initiated so that the solutions provided by MSMEs could be disseminated among the different divisions of the Army.

In addition, he mentioned that the upcoming defence corridors in the country can bring foreign as well as domestic investments and this could support the development of MSMEs and indigenization of defence products.

Responding to the suggestions made by start-ups and MSME representatives, including Ankit Mehta, CEO, Ideaforge Technologies and Abhishek Jain, Vice President, Zeus Numerix, he said that the Army could consider opening up the workshops and access to equipment to enable MSMEs develop solutions.

J D Patil, Chairman, FICCI Defence Committee and Whole Time Director and Member of the Board, Larsen & Toubro Ltd, said that setting up defence corridors is a welcome move by the Government and there is a huge potential for growth of Indian Defence Industry.

To enhance the investment viability of the upcoming defence corridors, he suggested to the government to focus on setting up infrastructure such as testing facilities, labs etc. in the corridors, said Patil.

The defence industrial corridors are to be developed in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh to develop a strong and thriving defence & aerospace industry in the country, with a significant contribution from start-ups and MSMEs. fii-news.com