Battered Adityapur MSMEs hail ban on defence import

Jamshedpur: The Union defence ministry’s announcement on August 9 of a negative arms imports list, under which acquisition of 101 weapon systems and platforms from abroad will be progressively banned from December 2020 to December 2025, has resonated with the MSMEs in Adityapur industrial area.
Already battered owing to the lockdown, the Union ministry’s announcement has come at an opportune time and the automobile ancillaries industry is looking at the defence sector and the railways for new orders, the entrepreneurs said. “In the past few months, the Union government came out with several measures to ensure financial support to the MSME sector, when in reality we are looking for new markets to make fresh investments. The embargo on the import of 101 weapon systems and platforms comes at the right time as it will give manufacturing opportunities to the domestic SMEs,” Adityapur Small Industries Association (ASIA) president Inder Kumar Agarwal said on Friday. He added that about 30% of the items used in defence have the potential to be developed in Adityapur.
The Adityapur entrepreneurs are expected to meet this month to work out the roadmap for consultation with the defence officials to generate new business orders, industry sources said. An ASIA functionary on condition of anonymity said, “We will soon write to chief minister Hemant Soren to hold dialogues with the defence minister and work out the modalities for business-to-business meet with the local vendors.”
Industrialist Ashok Bihany said, “Presently, around 15 companies in Adityapur manufacture defence-related items but with the ban on the import of 101 weapon systems, the local industry is likely to flourish with the advent of new opportunities.”
Bihany, who is also a consultant for the Rs 138-crore Electronic Manufacturing Cluster project of Jharkhand Infrastructure Development Authority, further said, “In 2018, a team of officials from the defence and railway ministries had visited Adityapur to meet the vendors for exploring new business opportunities which resulted in a breakthrough for some entrepreneurs who started manufacturing items for the railways and the defence sectors.”
Entrepreneur Ashok Bhalotia, who is the president of Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce and Industry, also welcomed the move and said it will help in generating employment opportunities for the migrant returnees. “Along with new business opportunities, generating jobs is equally important for us to employ the large number of skilled migrants who have returned to their native places amid the lockdown,” he added.
Entrepreneur Santosh Khetan said some of the equipment that are required in the defence such as early alarm system, body armour, ballistic panel, ballistic helmet and night vision goggles can be manufactured in Adityapur itself.