Defence Minister Rajnath Singh addresses the aerospace and defence industry leaders at the CEOs Roundtable on the sidelines of Aero India 2025, in Bengaluru on February 10, 2025. | Photo Credit: ANI
Stating that the Indian defence ecosystem is driven by policies of self-reliance in defence production, facilitated by a conducive policy regime, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday (February 10, 2025) asked Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of global defence companies to utilise the opportunities offered by the domestic defence ecosystem.
Listing out measures taken in this regard, he said the portal, Defence Exim, had made the export authorisation process seamless and 46 joint ventures and companies were given foreign investment approval in the defence sector till date.
Mr. Singh was addressing a “CEO Round Table” at Aero India 2025 with the theme “Enabling Defence Cooperation through Global Engagement” (EDGE), which saw Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) from 19 countries, including 35 Indian private companies and 16 defence public sector undertakings.
Elaborating on steps taken by the government to “make the domestic defence industry an important component” of the national economy in order to facilitate India’s transition from a developing to a developed country by 2047, the Minister said, “We have allowed FDI up to 75% through the Automatic Route for companies seeking new defence licence, while 100% is allowed under government approval route.”
Mr. Singh told the audience that more than 250 MoUs were signed for the establishment of industrial units in the Defence Industrial Corridors set up in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The Defence Testing Infrastructure Scheme was introduced to provide financial assistance to the aerospace and defence sector for setting up six-eight greenfield testing and certification facilities. As a testimony to the emergence of India as a defence export nucleus, India has seen 31-fold growth “in the export of products in the last 10 years as compared to Financial Year 2013-14”, he said.
He further said over 500 start-ups and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) were working under the aegis of Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX), with focus on innovative projects in defence sector.
“Our overall ease-of-doing-business environment has improved tremendously. This is showing great results as India has the third largest start-up ecosystem in the world today. This is expected to witness Year on Year growth of 10-12%. We possess a young generation of highly-skilled workforce, which constantly updates itself in the face of the fast-changing ecosystem of the world. You must not miss the opportunity to leverage the advantages of this ecosystem,” Mr. Singh added.
The nature of communication and data sharing in military operations is getting much more complex, the Minister said, adding that reliance on space-based navigation systems, communication and surveillance implies that such assets would have to be integrated into operational plans. “The use of drones in recent conflicts indicates that the future would depend on the integrated efforts of manned, unmanned and autonomous warfare systems. Hence, our defence manufacturing has to focus on creating counter measures for these emerging challenges,” he stated.
Published – February 10, 2025 10:20 pm IST
