Prime Minister inaugurates Defence Expo in Chennai

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday inaugurated the 10th edition of Defence Expo 2018 in Chennai. The four-day defence expo (April 11 to 14) would focus on India as an emerging manufacturing power for defence equipment. Besides India, 47 other countries are participating in the exhibition.

While addressing the gathering at the inauguration of the Defence Expo, Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked the people of Tamil Nadu for their enthusiastic participation in the historic region of Kanchipuram. He said over 500 Indian companies and around 150 foreign companies were participating in the Defence Expo, 2018. “More than 40 countries have sent their official delegations as well,” the Prime Minister said.

He said that his government was committed to protecting the country’s territory and for this, the country would equip the armed forces with modern arms. He said the government would establish a strategically independent defence industrial complex.

“The defence corridors will become engines of economic development and growth of defence industrial base,” he said.

He said the government in recent years took many steps in the field of defence manufacturing licenses, defence offsets, defence exports clearances and on Foreign Direct Investment in defence manufacturing along with reforming India’s defence procurement.

“The Defence Procurement Procedure has been revised with many specific provisions for stimulating the growth of domestic defence industry. We have also de-notified some items earlier made exclusively by Ordnance Factories, so that private sector, esp. MSMEs can enter this space,” Modi said.

He said the government was committed to establishing two Defence Industrial Corridors: One in Tamil Nadu and another in UP. These will utilise defence manufacturing ecosystems in the regions and further build upon it. “The corridors will become engines of economic development and growth of defence industrial base,” the PM said.