Expo aimed at creating vibrant industrial base held

Aimed at creating a vibrant industrial base with focus on private industry, National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC) on Thursday held the fourth edition of MSME DEFEXPO 2015.

"India, till recent past, relied heavily on the foreign manufacturers for the procurement of defense related equipment. However, there was always, a need for self-reliance," said Kalraj Mishra, union minister for MSMEs, in a statement.

"Our focus now is on enabling SME sector for the supply of equipment, machineries and general consumables, adding SMEs in the supply chain of high technology products and services related to defense sector, as SMEs are real component of indigenization," added Mishra.

The expo facilitated linkages between MSMEs and large global defence equipment suppliers and producers.

Nearly 200 MSMEs and global giants, including Boeing, Airbus, Honewell and Zen Air Defence Canada participated in the expo.

According to the statement, Indian aerospace and defence expenditure on capital acquisition is estimated to reach around $120-150 billion in the next 10 years.

MSME DEFEXPO 2015 was designed from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet project 'Make in India' initiative point of view.

By next decade, India aims to double its defence equipment procurement value to 75 percent through Indian vendors, the statement added.