As many as 60 of the 61 warships of the Indian Navy are being built in India with a great amount of indigenous content, noted Rear Admiral Sarath Aashirvad, VSM, Asst. Chief of Material (IT&S) of the Indian Navy on the second day of the Invest Kerala Global Summit, being held in Kochi, Kerala, underscoring the increased self-reliance that the defence sector has been witnessing.
The key thrust of a session titled 'Strategic Advantage for Aerospace and Defense Innovation and Collaboration', attended by Rear Admiral Aashirvad, NPOL director Duvvuri Seshagiri, BEL director Rajnish Sharma, Pavuluri Subba Rao, founder and director of Ananth Technologies Ltd, Commodore A Madhavarao (Retd.), chairman and managing director of BDL, and Jasbir Singh Solanki, CEO-Naval Systems, Homeland & Cyber Security, Mahindra Defence Systems Ltd, and moderated by G Levin, CEO of Kerala Space Park, at the two-day summit was making India a self-reliant nation, in line with the Union government's push for achieving Atmanirbharta in defence.
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India, being the fourth-largest defence spender, has immense opportunity for growth, with the government giving a greater focus to reducing imports in the sector as it seeks to make the Indian military totally indigenous. The panellists at the session reiterated that India has the potential to become a global leader in defence technologies. There has been a dramatic shift in the defence equipment import—the country that once used to import 65-70 per cent of defence equipment has reduced reliance on imports, with nearly 70 per cent of the defence equipment being made in India.
One of the key factors driving the expansion of the Indian aerospace and defence industry is the increase in defence spending by the Union government.
Rear Admiral Aashirvad pointed out that India has the most ambitious shipbuilding programme anywhere in the world and urged the defence industry stakeholders and MSMEs to play a major role in supporting the Indian Navy in this regard.
India is looking at adding nearly 1,000 indigenously developed aircraft to its defence fleet in the next 20 years, including around 200 fifth-generation AMCAs (Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft), NPOL director Seshagiri said, highlighting how India's reliance on foreign fighter jets is expected to drastically come down in the near future. He noted that the radars systems made in India are some of the best in the world and said this is indeed a proud moment for the Indian industry. Seshagiri cited the example of Virupaksha Radar—an advanced Active Electronically Scanned Array radar—developed by DRDO as part of the move to upgrade Indian Air Force's Su-30MKI fighter jets, and said this is going to be the largest radar in the world.
The speakers emphasised how Kerala's strategic location, highly educated, skilled and entrepreneurial workforce, thriving IT sector, and of course the long coastline, have the potential to make the state a prominent defence sector hub. They expressed hopes that in the coming days, Kerala will play a much bigger part in making the sector fully developed.
Commodore Madhavarao called for greater synergy between MSMEs and bigger companies like BDL and also urged youngsters in the state to come up with original ideas, assuring BDL and others will back them and their innovative ideas.
Solanki, who is also an Indian Navy veteran, called for increased participation between the private and public sectors to make India's defence sector more vibrant. “If we have to compete with the global markets, we have to bring the best in us,” he said, adding, “a space exists for private, PSUs and industry startups to work together.”
Pavuluri Subba Rao urged the Kerala government to have a counterpart to 'Make in India' in the state to leverage the state's unique geographic location and other resources to position it as a major defence industry hub, while Rajnish Sharma called up on MSMEs and industries in Kerala to join hands with BEL to further enhance the sector.
