Rajnath to chair roundtable with top defence, aerospace manufacturers

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will interact with top defence and aerospace industry leaders at Vigyan Bhawan on August 9, the Defence Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

"With the objective to promote 'Make in India' in the Defence sector, Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh will interact with top Defence and Aerospace Industry leaders at Vigyan Bhawan Annexe, here tomorrow. 'Make in India in Defence Industry Roundtable' is orgsed by Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence (MoD)," the statement read.

It aims to explore ways to attract investment, address the concerns of the industry and promote innovations in the Defence sector, it said.

Defence Ministry in its statement highlighted that it has taken several steps to ease licensing, promote exports and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the Defence sector.

"The process of acquiring defence industrial licence has been eased to significantly enhance 'Ease of Doing Defence Business'. Applications have been received from various compes and 63 of them were disposed off within the time-frame in 2018-19."

A total of 668 No Objection Certificates were issued to compes during 2018-19 to promote defence exports.

"Steps have been taken to rationalise the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for reducing the time taken for granting permission for exports. The average time taken has reduced by 100 per cent to 32 days now. Defence exports have recorded a substantial rise to Rs 10,745 crore in 2018-19 from Rs 4,682 crore in 2017-18," the Ministry said.

The Defence Ministry also claimed that 'Make in India' portal for Defence Production has been revamped and re-launched.

"A new portal, www.defenceexim.gov.in has been created for end-to-end processing and communication of export license applications and generating and disseminating export market leads," it said.

The Ministry has also launched a dashboard to keep track of the major components of Defence Production, including defence exports, defence offsets, defence projects under 'Make in India', start-ups in the defence sector, investments in defence corridors in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and artificial intelligence projects in defence.

"The interaction of industry leaders with Raksha Mantri will provide an opportunity to discuss new and innovative proposals in defence production and exports," it said.

( With inputs from ANI )