Chennai is gearing as much as host a three-day Defense and Technology Expo 2023, geared toward boosting the involvement of medium, small, and micro enterprises (MSMEs) within the Indian aerospace and protection sector.

This occasion, dubbed the ‘Transforming India Edition 2.0‘ is scheduled to run from September 3 to five.

Organised by the Swatantra Foundation, a Chennai-based think-tank, in affiliation with the Federation of Industry and Management Association (FIMA), this marks the second version of the first-ever private sector defense expo within the nation, which was held in Chennai final 12 months.

Minister of State for Defense, Ajay Bhatt, would be the chief visitor on the expo, organised in collaboration with the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) and the Department of Defense Production (Ministry of Defense).

According to the organizers, the key objectives of this expo are to assist MSMEs in coming into the aerospace and protection sector of the nation and promote the indigenization of protection gear.

Additionally, this expo goals to assist the event of the Tamil Nadu Defense Corridor and discover alternatives for Indian corporations to have interaction in joint ventures and investments with overseas corporations.

It can even help overseas corporations to find potential three way partnership and collaboration companions in India.

The upcoming occasion guarantees to unite quite a few MSMEs and main Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), such because the Defence Research and Development Organisation, below one platform, fostering significant interactions.

In addition to the exhibition and seminars, the occasion will facilitate quite a few Business-to-Business conferences geared toward fostering collaborations. These conferences will present MSMEs with the chance to achieve insights into the particular wants of OEMs and current their merchandise as viable options.

In the earlier version of the expo, roughly 500 such conferences passed off, and this 12 months, it’s anticipated that this quantity will double, reaching a formidable 1000 conferences.

Representatives from Defense Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), the Armed Forces, ISRO, and DRDO are anticipated to attend this expo.

The current emphasis by the Government of India on Atmanirbharta or self-reliance in protection manufacturing has created important alternatives for personal sector corporations within the protection R&D and manufacturing sector.

In reality, on this 12 months’s capital procurement funds of 1.63 lakh crore, the central authorities allotted greater than 75 per cent to native industries, up from 68 p.c final 12 months.

Various reforms and schemes launched by the Ministry of Defense (MoD), such because the Technology Development Fund (TDF) and the iDEX (Innovations for Defence Excellence) problem, have enabled small startups and MSMEs to develop superior high-tech merchandise.

The 4 constructive indigenisation lists launched since 2021 are additionally contributing to the creation and strengthening of native provide chains for numerous high-tech gear.

This intense push by the federal government for Atmanirbharta has lastly began to yield outcomes. This 12 months, the worth of protection manufacturing by Indian native industries crossed the 1 lakh crore mark for the primary time.

It stands at 106,800 crore, marking an increase of 12 per cent over FY 2021-22.

Moreover, contracts value greater than 7,000 crore had been signed with native industries by the Indian Army alone to counter the Chinese, utilising the emergency powers of Rs 300 crore granted to the Vice Chief of the three providers.

The organizers state that this upcoming second version will “motivate Industry—Academia—DRDO—Armed Forces—Financial Institutions to collaborate to expedite indigenization, and with support from the end users (Armed Forces), engage in innovation.”

“This will be a unique partnership with financial Institutions like banks coming in and support a consortium of MSMEs with Research & Proto Type support from Academic Institutions, DRDO providing Technology and other support, Armed Forces providing usage details to help go in for innovation and Industries can form a consortium to meet up not just sub-system but system level development,” they added.