'Immediate need to announce a market oriented Defence Export Policy' - SG, FICCI
FICCI Unveils Agenda for Export of Indian Defence Products
New Delhi, Friday, 8 Feb 2014: On the sidelines of DefExpo–2014, FICCI in association with Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDO) organized a Panel Discussion & Industry Interaction Meet on "Challenges and Opportunities in Export of Indian Defence Products" World defence industries and countries that control the defence market in the rest of the world look at India as a market and therefore, Indian efforts to enter the market to export are expected to face many challenges.At the same time, it is believed that by synergizing the efforts of all stakeholders i.e. DPSUs, OFs, PSUs andIndian private sector industries, we should be able to overcome those challenges and convert them into opportunities and make it a Win – Win for all those who participate in these efforts. It was in this background and to understand the issues better the panel discussions and industry meet was organised by FICCI.
Opening the panel discussions, Shri Avinash Chnader, Secretary Department of Defence R&D, DG R&D and SA to RM said, “Our technologies have matured and we should look forward to export defence products.”
Participating in the discussion, Dr A. Didar Singh, Secretary General, FICCI emphasized on immediate need to announce a market oriented Defence Export Policy curtailing procedural delays and providing EXIM credit at reasonable terms. Dr Singh said, “Under DRDO-FICCI ATAC Programme we have been closely working with DRDO to commercialise various spin-off technologies developed by different DRDO labs. The results are very encouraging and very recently a DRDO developed technology to detect explosive material was licensed to a US based firm. We can think of extending such kinds of handholding mechanism where Government of India can promote Defence Exports through the Indian embassies and Defence Attaché’s”. Dr Singh further pointed out that considering the competitive market scenario we are a lateentrant and hence it becomes imperative for the govt. to gear up and diffuse the bottlenecks so that the industry may find entry into exports.
Air Marshal M Matheswaran said, “Unless quality is benchmarked internationally, there is no driver for growth & consequently exports.” Air Marshall Matheswaran further said that Tejas is excellent candidate to explore export market.
Shri Amandeep Singh Gill, JS (D&ISA), MEA said, “Export of defence products is a quality issue, capacity issue, and production issue.”
Sharing the idea Smt. Shobana Joshi, Financial Adviser (Acquisition) & Addl. Secretary, MoDsaid’ “We're looking at things from a long term perspective which wasn't there 4-5 years back –
Putting forward the industry views, representatives of Indian industries e.g. L&T, Godrej Precision Engineering and TATA Power SED said, very recently Indian defence industries along with DRDO have participated in international defence exhibition at Seoul and Bahrain. Fundamentally, there isn't any export policy for defence products exist in India and the same should be addresses at the earliest.
The panellists were agreed that nowhere in the world defense industry survived solely on domestic market.Considering the fact that India is the largest importer of defence products exports can happen when we create an ecosystem for capacity & production. Panellists were of considered opinion that the Government must allow private sector to come into every segment of defence sector
Useful views and suggestions were put forward by other eminent panellists including Shri Sartaj Singh,DGOF and Chairman, OFB, Ministry of Defence, Lt General (Retd) J P Singh, former Deputy Chief of Army Staff, Cmde Udai Bhasker, Mr H. K. Mittal, Secretary, TDB, Mr Baba Kalyani, CMD, Bharat Forge.
The event was attended by top leadership of Ministry of Defence, Govt. of India, DRDO, Defence PSUS,Ordinance Factories and senior representatives of leading Indian & foreign defence industries and Chamberof Commerce.