Set up defence park to give impetus to region: Bizmen

Coimbatore: While the defence innovation hub in the city, launched on Sunday, would help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) enter defence manufacturing scenario, the region needs solid infrastructure such as defence parks and big defence industries for there to be real progress, industrialists say.
While there have been consistent calls from the industries to bring in more defence-related manufacturing opportunities such as defence parks, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who visited the city in January 2018, announced that a defence innovation centre would be started under Codissia as a preliminary measure. Following that, a defence indigenisation expo was held at Codissia Trade Fair Complex in March, where MSMEs from the region expressed interest and ability to manufacture components displayed by the armed forces and defence PSUs.

In a detailed project report, Codissia representatives had enlisted 75 defence components that could be manufactured by them. Now that the innovation centre has been officially launched, the works to set it up would be finished in eight weeks and they would focus on manufacturing 50 components.

While a few MSMEs from the city have already been catering to the defence sector, industrialists feel the presence of a defence innovation hub would expand the scope for them to engage in defence manufacturing. While such facilities would help MSMEs try out defence manufacturing, it would help MSMEs, which already cater to the defence sector, expand their production, says T Kalimuthu of Shri Venkateswara Hi-tech Machineries Private Limited from the city, which has been making ground systems for the Indian Space Research Organisation.

P Murugesan, CEO of Saarc Cases, which has been manufacturing military grade cases, says MSMEs should equip themselves when it comes to manufacturing for defence as it would take at least five years for firms to find a foothold in the sector.

However, representatives of micro industry associations say while the defence innovation hub was a welcome addition to the city’s industrial scene, the need of the hour was a defence park with major defence manufacturing players, which would provide opportunity to small firms to be vendors.

“While the setting up of a defence innovation centre is welcome, we need a mother defence manufacturing industry in the region to handhold small firms. This would help the region’s manufacturing scene, which is disturbed right now,” says G Krithika of Laghu Udyog Bharati.

There also should be clear roadmaps to facilitate micro and job-works industry to get orders from the defence sector, says J James, district president of the Tamil Nadu Association of Cottage and Micro Enterprises. “There should be easy procedures for micro job-works firms to avail the 25% procurement quota from defence PSUs.”