Wednesday, May 08, 2024 | Last Update : 04:46 PM IST
PM Modi to inaugurate DefExpo April 12
India to showcase its defence manufacturing prowess.
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate Defence Expo 2018 — one of the largest events of its kind in the world in the last 10 years — in Chennai on April 12.
With the tagline “India: The Emerging Defence Manufacturing Hub”, this year’s expo to be held from April 11 to 14, will seek to brand India, for the first time, as an exporter of defence systems and components besides showcasing the country’s defence manufacturing capabilities to the world.
However, this year has seen a more than one-third cut in participation by foreign Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and component makers as compared with last year. While 232 foreign companies took part in the Expo last year, this year only 154 such companies will participate.
As on March 30, 671 exhibitors include 517 Indian exhibitors and 154 international exhibitors have confirmed their space booking in DefExpo while nearly 15 percent of the total exhibition space has been booked by MSMEs.
A defence ministry release said: “Indian participation include majors like Tata, L&T, Kalyani, Bharat Forge, Mahindra, MKU, DRDO, HAL, BEL, BDL, BEML, MDL, GRSE, GSL, HSL, MIDHANI, Ordnance Factories, and many others”.
The major international companies will include Lockheed Martin, Boeing (USA), Saab (Sweden), Airbus, Rafael (France), Rosonboron Exports, United Shipbuilding (Russia), BAE Systems (UK), Sibat (Israel), Wartsila (Finland), Rhode and Schwarz (Germany) among many others.
The formal inauguration on April 12 will be followed by live demonstration of naval systems, aero systems and land systems. Live demonstration will be done for systems which are designed/built in India.
In another significant development during a briefing on the upcoming Def Expo 2018 on Wednesday, additional secretary of defence production Subhash Chandra indicated that the government was mulling to rope in defence public sector undertakings under the Strategic Partnership model. “There are issues relating to our policy on defence manufacturing. We are considering how to involve the DPSUs. We are working on certain issues.”
