Defsys Solutions: “Turning ‘Make in India’ into reality”

Defsys Solutions Pvt Ltd (Defsys) is a private Indian company, manufacturing complex and sophisticated defence electronic systems for Indian military customers one of the greatest success stories of the ‘ Make in India’ initiative in the defence sector. The company has not only created a modern manufacturing infrastructure but also developed and achieved indigenous capabilities enabling it to deliver world class products to Indian Armed Forces.

Vayu spoke with Mr. Dmitry Bernadiner, Executive Director of Defsys ( in photograph) on the success of his company and the changing business environment in the country.

: ‘ Make in India’ is the new ‘mantra’. What are critical aspects in the creation of a favorable ecosystem in defence manufacturing?

DB: The Government of India has given very clear and refreshingly unambiguous positive indications. There is now a discernible shift in the mindset of MoD which is a laudable achievement. Enthused by this, an increasing number of Indian private sector companies are looking to enter defence production and the local ecosystem is ripe for foreign partnerships.

In order to invigorate the manufacturing sector, the Government of India launched the ‘Make in India’ initiative in September 2014. The investment climate in the country since then has undergone a sea change which is evident in a 46 per cent growth in the defence FDI. The seriousness of the Government can also be gauged from the fact that almost 90 per cent of the new capital acquisition programmes sanctioned thereafter have been under the ‘Make in India’ categories, thus ensuring a high level of indigenous content. It is clear from these two facts that both, the foreign investors as well as the Government of India, are very confident and optimistic about the future of defence production in India.

: Which areas did you focus on the most in your journey towards self-reliance under ‘Make in India’ ?

DB: Human resources development was one aspect we concentrated the most and we continue to do so. As you are aware, we are located in high-tech zone of Gurugram, where Defsys competes on its talent with the most reputed best global companies like Google, Microsoft, IBM, Samsung, Honda, Maruti, etc. Our skill development and training includes: basic and highly skilled competences, certification courses, job related technical trainings within the country, and specialised training in foreign countries. Second area of focus is development and optimisation of our production processes and PLM systems, which mainly include: warehouse automation, computerised assembly systems, automated test equipment in our production lines, quality assurance and configuration management.

: Which are your defining partnerships under the initiative of ‘Make in India’?

DB: We are in collaboration with leading global defence manufacturers for various high technology mission critical systems. Our partnership with Controp Precision Technologies Ltd ( Controp) of Israel for manufacturing of ElectroOptical systems is one amongst the few very important partnerships of Defsys. Controp is a world renowned privately owned company that specialises in design, development and production of electrooptical and precision motion control systems for defence and homeland security applications. Controp product range include high performance gyro stabilised E/O payloads and sensors used for day and night surveillance onboard UAVs, small UAVs, VTOLs, helicopters, light aircraft, maritime boats, ships, hovercraft and all ground based applications including mobile applications. Controp also provides some of the most innovative solutions for surveillance and reconnaissance applications used in the world today and their products are operationally proven in many of the most challenging security and defence programmes worldwide. There are other foreign partnerships for manufacture of cutting edge technology electro- optical airborne systems for Indian defence forces, which we shall unveil at an appropriate time.