Spotlight on ‘Make in India’ at Defence Expo in Goa

Gearing up to showcase India’s sophisticated military systems and technologies, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will promote ‘Make in India’ programme to attract foreign investments in the defence sector at the Defence Expo to be held in Goa. The ninth edition of Defence Expo, which is a biennial event, will be held in Goa from March 28-31. India’s Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar will inaugurate the land, naval and internal security systems exposition on March 28. More than a 1000 defence firms are expected to showcase their latest products into land, naval and homeland security systems. With the aim of ‘Make in India’, DRDO is participating in this event for fruitful collaboration with various industry and research institutes towards indigenous development of defence systems and platforms. The design theme of DRDO is ‘Rise of futurism’. The Indian government is going all out to promote its flagship ‘Make in India’ initiative to bolster manufacturing in India especially in the defence sector. India has been wooing foreign investors to step up defence manufacturing in India. It has already entered into agreements with US, Russia and Israel, which are its top three weapons suppliers, to set up manufacturing units in India. The DRDO will highlight some of its products for the first the time at the Defence Expo. These products include Airborne Early Warning and Control System, Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, Arjun MBT MK II and I, Wheeled Armoured Platform and Akash Air Defence System, among others. As India seeks to strengthen manufacturing in the defence sector, it has already received huge investments under the ‘Make in India’ initiative. During the ‘Make in India’ week held in Mumbai, Investment commitments worth Rs 15.2 trillion ($222 billion) had been reached. Around 2,500 international and 8,000 domestic companies had participated in the week-long industrial event.