Bharat Chamber to hold seminar and exhibition on Defence to involve larger number of MSMEs

New Delhi, Sept 5 (KNN) Though there are large number of MSMEs in West Bengal, their participation in domestic defence industry is almost nil. Thus to increase the involvement of MSMEs in defence manufacturing, Bharat Chamber of Commerce will be organizing a seminar and exhibition on 'Defence Production: Public-Private Partnership - Focus Eastern India'.

The seminar will be held from September 14-16 in Kolkata, said Sitar Sharma, Chairman of the Chamber.

He said “India's USD 620 billion defence market is attracting many major global business houses.”

However, the mandatory offset requirement of a minimum 30 per cent for procurement of defence equipment has created an opportunity for the development of defence industry in India, which the MSMEs in West Bengal should take advantage, he added.

Further, he said that the 13th Consolidated Defence Five Year Plan from 2017-22 has been pegged at Rs 26.84 lakh crores, and the cumulative value of India's defence market for the next five years is also estimated at Rs 1, 80,000 crore, making it an opportune moment for defence PSUs and private industries to participate in defence production.

Also, he said that recently, gpvernment of India has de-notified 250 items and open them to private sector which was earlier exclusively reserved for the Ordnance Factory Boards.

At least 6000 MSME's in the country are contributing to defence manufacturing with around 10,000 products which proved there is huge scope and opportunity for this sector, he pointed.

Besides, Bharat Chamber is also planning to set up a defence production facilitation centre within its fold to educate and impart knowledge to the MSMEs about how they could enter, compete and survive in the industry, Sharma added.

The Chamber, he said, is also looking for active support from the state government to promote articulation of MSMEs in the defence sector.

"I would like to suggest the government of West Bengal, to set up a Defence Production Cell under the Commerce & Industry Department and also work on developing cluster for defence production," Sharma added.

About the exhibition, Sharma said that using the platform the manufactures will be able to showcase their needs that they want to outsource and the participating MSMEs based on their expertise and capabilities will be able to grab available opportunities which would boost the involvement of MSMEs in the eastern India in defence manufacturing.

Towards this goal, Air Chief Marshal(retd) Arup Raha, Vice-Admiral(retd) Pradip Kumar Chatterjee and Lt General (retd) Aniruddha Chakravarty are advising the Chamber on the seminar and exhibition, Sharma informed.

He said this exhibition and seminar will not only be attended by MSMEs from Bengal but also be attended by all the defence public sector units, including DRDO, Ordnance Factory Board (OFBs), HAL, DRDO, MDL, GRSE.

Private sector industries like SREI, Texmaco, Titagarh Wagons Limited, Patton International Ltd., Nally Bharat and a large number of MSMEs associated with engineering, leather, textile will also be taking part, Sharma informed.