Defence Industry leaders appreciated Prime Minister Modi’s policies for the turnaround in the defence sector and charted out strategies to take forward the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat in terms of defence production.

Under the NDA – II Government at the Centre, the defence industry registered some groundbreaking statistics in the past seven years. India’s defence exports have grown by over 334 per cent in the last five years. In these seven years, India has exported military hardware and equipment worth over Rs. 38,500 crore. At present, India is the twenty-fourth largest exporter of major arms and simultaneously there has been a dip of 33 per cent in India’s weapon imports.

Several defence industry leaders while speaking at BW Aerospace & Defence Conclave 2021 in New Delhi on Thursday lauded government’s policies and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership for this turnaround in the defence sector and also shared their vision and deep insights on some emerging trends to boost this flourishing industry.

Vaibhav Gupta, Director, MKU Ltd said that both the Ministry of Defence and the Government of India deserve all the appreciation for this turnaround of the industry. “Under this leadership, our defence budget is likely to grow over USD 100 billion which presents a great opportunity for the Indian industry to innovate and forge partnerships with foreign OEMS,” he added.

Salil Gupte, President, Boeing India also appreciated PM Modi’s vision and said that his vision has been very well articulated in terms of clear production and export goals for India’s defence industry. “We in the industry are committed to delivering the goals of capability and capacity to take forward the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat,” Gupte stated.

Ashish Saraf Vice President & Country Director, Thales in India noted that India has shown the will and muscle to become a global manufacturing and innovation hub and is really increasing its efforts to boost, research, development and manufacturing by facilitating global industry players to partner with the Indian industry.

Gupte acknowledged that the vision to make India self-reliant will require continuation of policies which encourage global competitiveness. This competitiveness, according to Gupte, can be achieved through technology investments in the Indian supply chain. He also emphasised on strong strategic partnerships and partnerships between the companies.

Saraf on the other hand, highlighted digitisation as a major concern for governments in the post Covid era and stressed on investments in digital connectivity, big data, aritifical intelligence, cyber security and quantaum computing.

Gupta lauded initiatives by the Army Design Bureau which provides industry the platform to engage with the forces to explain the challenges being faced by them. These challenges, according to Gupta, are the stepping stones for defence manufacturing companies and encourages innovation by the industry while developing solutions to address these challenges.