DefExpo:UP attractive place for investment in defence sector
The 11th Defence Expo (DefExpo) held at Lucknow from February 5 to 9 offered an excellent opportunity for the Indian defence industry to showcase its capabilities and promote its export potential. The main theme of the DefExpo was; ‘India: The Emerging Defence Manufacturing Hub’ and focus was on ‘Digital Transformation of Defence’.
The show was conducted at an international level, which not only facilitated business-to-business (B2B) interaction with senior foreign delegations but also government-to-government (G2G) meetings and signing of memorandums of understanding (MoUs). The exhibitions held as a part of the event also highlighted the emergence of UP as an attractive destination for investment in the defence sector. To note, UP has been selected to house the second defence industrial corridor. The nodes in this corridor will come up at Chitrakoot, Jhansi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Agra and Aligarh. The corridor will encourage micro small and medium enterprises (MSME) in the domain of military industrial complex.
This DefExpo brought new and frontier technologies and solutions on a single platform for defence manufacturing from the firms located in India and abroad with a view to provide an opportunity to the Indian defence industry to collaborate with the major foreign original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and help promote ‘Make in India’ initiative of the Government of India. A large number of official delegations from the foreign countries, and visitors from all over the country as well as abroad visited the DefExpo and witnessed the growth of India as a major manufacturing hub providing attractive opportunities for co-development and co-production of defence equipment and systems not only for Indian defence forces but also for making India a hub for export.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi who inaugurated the DefExpo set the tone when he said, “DefExpo will provide the opportunity to professionals and the industry to find new meeting grounds for developing military industrial enterprises”.
As many as 162 International exhibitors, 284 foreign/ official delegates from 70 countries and more than 350,000 visitors participated in the event. Approximately 856 Indian defence manufacturing firms also displayed their products. With the emphasis on encouraging startups, 492 applications were received for an open challenge. One of the central themes of the 11th Defence Expo was digital transformation. The fifth India-Russia military industry conference was also held on the sidelines of the DefExpo with over 100 Russian and over 200 Indian industry leaders. Similar conferences with other major powers will be the norm during the subsequent editions of the DefExpo.
During the inaugural ceremony of the DefExpo-2020, the prowess of the Indian Army and Indian Air force (IAF) was on the display in the form of live demonstrations. The Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard also presented live demonstration of their prowess at the Gomti Riverfront. The expo showcased a large number of military equipment currently used by the Indian Armed Forces across the complete range including the recently added equipment like K-9 Vajra Gun System and Ultra Light Howitzer: M-777 and many others. The DRDO also displayed some of the latest equipment developed by them like battle tank Arjun, modular bridges and unexploded ordnance handling robot.