MSMEs to climb on defence manufacturing bandwagon

Coimbatore: In a maiden move to jump on the defence manufacturing bandwagon, the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) from the city would get an opportunity to interact with the representatives of eight defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs) at the defence indigenisation exhibition to be held on March 5 and 6 at the Codissia trade fair complex.
“The event would provide an opportunity for MSMEs to get to know the product requirements of DPSUs,” president of Codissia V Sundaram said. The expo will be an initial step of the plan to make the city a defence manufacturing hub in the next 10 years, Sundaram said.

Representatives from Codissia had visited several DPSUs such as Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bharat Earth Movers Limited and Bharat Electronics Limited, among others, in the past 15 days, Sundaram said. “We have identified products which could be manufactured in the city. About 300 products will be exhibited in the expo,” he added.

Bharat Dynamics Limited, MIDHANI, Goa Shipyard Limited, Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited and Mazagon Dock Limited are among the DPSUs to take part in the exhibition, said a release from Codissia. Along with these, Ordnance Factory Board, DRDO and Indian Army, Navy and Air force would also participate, it added.

Besides, members of Codissia had visited the defence-industry development meet held in Chennai in January and had selected products that could suit the manufacturing scene in the city, said Sundaram. “The expo would be a production-based one as we have asked only for products for production, not for maintenance,” he said.

Sundaram added that the event would provide an opportunity for representatives of city-based firms to have one-to-one meetings with representatives of DPSUs. “If a company thinks it could manufacture a product that has been exhibited, its representatives could have a discussion with the DPSUs staff,” he said.

The interest in defence manufacturing becomes important in anticipation that the automotive manufacturing sector would be made redundant by the advent of electric vehicles, said Sundaram. “Automotive components manufacturing sector, which forms almost half of industrial production in the city, would be phased out in the future by electric vehicles which have less number of components,” he said. He added that this was the right time to shift to industries such as defence supply, which has a continuous demand.

The expo comes in the backdrop of Union defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman announcing Rs 20 crore initial grants to set up a defence innovation centre at Codissia and also Coimbatore being announced part of the defence corridor along with Chennai, Trichy, Salem, Hosur, Bengaluru and Mysore.