Virendra Singh Rawat / Lucknow
Yogi Adityanath government 2.0 will focus bigtime on promoting the defence manufacturing sector, a top Uttar Pradesh government official has said.
UP additional chief secretary and UP Expressway Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) CEO Awanish Kumar Awasthi said the industry-friendly defence policy of UP has attracted noteworthy anchor units such as Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) in Jhansi and Brahmos supersonic missile project in Lucknow.
“UP Defence Corridor is being talked about with reference to the national Infrastructure upgradation and a budget allocation for the same is being worked out by the Yogi government 2.0,” he added.
Awasthi informed that on March 15, the state government had renewed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Corridor knowledge partner, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur for another three years.
Meanwhile, he urged the private sector partners, who have acquired land in the Corridor, to start construction of the units at the earliest to benefit from the existing incentive schemes.
He was speaking virtually at a session organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Wednesday (Mar 23).
Concurrent to the CII Annual Regional Meet, a dedicated conference on Defence & Aerospace was held in partnership with the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM) and UPEIDA.
SIDM president and Mahindra Group president S P Shukla said India essentially has been a defence importer till recently but a slew of progressive reforms were helping the country emerge as a manufacturing base.
He stated expertise in technology coupled with design capability and competitive pricing will help Indian enterprises emerge as global players. At the same time, the Northern part of the country is poised to present tough competition to the West & South of India in this context.
Sachin Agarwal, State Chair, SIDM UP & CMD, PTC Industries mentioned the current trade sanctions on Russia could be a huge window of opportunity for India to become part of the global defence supply chain since many leading manufacturers are re-orienting their resource procurement.
Manoj Gupta, Chairman, CII Northern Region Committee on Defence & Aerospace & Chairman, MKU Ltd shared the capital outlay for 2021-22 is an increase of 19 percent compared to last year’s allocation.
The recent announcements – such as Defence Acquisitions Council (DAC) and also Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) approval for signing a contract for indigenously designed LCA aircrafts – reflect the Indian government resolve to develop a self-reliant military-industrial complex with strategic choice of action.
IIT Kanpur to groom military hardware industry
Industry leaders from banking segment, defence, academic and other renowned research institutions were also part of the CII conference.