Said “Make in India neither isolationist nor meant for us alone”
By Vikas Gupta
Defence News of India, 10 January 23
With Aero India 2023 – India’s biennial aerospace exhibition – just a month away, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh has invited Delhi-based defense attachés from over 80 countries to encourage their respective defense industries to attend it.
Addressing an “ambassadors’ roundtable” in New Delhi on Monday, Rajnath said the 14e Aero India, Asia’s largest air show, would be held in Bangalore from February 13-17.
He said Aero India 2023 would “provide an opportunity for the Indian aerospace industry to showcase its products, technologies and solutions”.
As the Covid-19 pandemic has hit India’s last two defense expos – Aero India 2021 and DefExpo 2022 – by discouraging foreign defense companies from sending representatives, the defense minister is optimistic about strong turnout this time around.
He said the five-day event, themed “The Trail to a Billion Opportunities” would cover more than 108,000 square meters. Participation had already been confirmed by more than 645 exhibitors from 80 countries.
Speaking about the success of Aero India 2021, Rajnath said he brought together over 600 exhibitors physically and another 108 virtually. He added that 63 countries had participated and around 3,000 Business-2-Business meetings had taken place.
He also called DefExpo 2022 a huge success, with the “unprecedented participation of more than 1,340 exhibitors…” with 451 memorandums of understanding (MoU), technology transfer agreements (ToT), product launches and orders to domestic enterprises, worth Rs 1.5 lakh crore.
Describing India’s defense industrial capabilities, Rajnath said manufacturing capabilities were increasing, “especially in the emerging fields of drones, cyber-technology, artificial intelligence, radars, etc.”
This has led India to become one of the leading defense exporters, with exports increasing eightfold over the past five years and India now exporting defense goods to more than 75 countries, it said. he declares.
The Defense Minister stressed that the “Make in India” policy was neither isolationist nor meant for India alone.
“Our self-reliance initiative is the start of a new partnership paradigm with our partner countries. Partnerships are being forged with global defense industry giants,” he said.
Rajnath cited the recent contract between Tata Advanced Systems Ltd and Airbus Defense and Space, Spain to manufacture C-295 aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF).
Rajnath Singh said, “We are a major defense materiel buyer as well as a major defense materiel exporter. When we purchase defense equipment from our valued partner countries, they very often share technical know-how, establish manufacturing plants in India and work with our local companies for various sub-systems. And when we export our defense equipment, we offer our full support for the buyer’s capacity development through technology sharing, training, co-production, etc. “, did he declare.
