Hyderabad, Dec 19 (KNN) Telangana Industries Minister KT Rama Rao has said that the state has a strong public sector undertaking and private defence manufacturing ecosystem which has seen ‘unprecedented growth’ in the last five years.

Rao was speaking at the US-India Defence Ties Conference on Wednesday, where he said that aerospace and defence sectors have great potential.

“Hyderabad has been a strong defence manufacturing ecosystem with over a dozen major DRDO labs and defence PSU establishments. We also have a private sector industry with 25 large companies and over 1,000 Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in aerospace and the defence sector.''

''The Aerospace and defence ecosystem in Telangana has witnessed unprecedented growth in the past five years and the US OEMs have contributed significantly to this growth,'' Rao added.

He further said that Tata Lockeed Martin is looking at doubling its capacity and expanding further in Hyderabad. The entire manufacturing is export-oriented and not linked to any offset or supply to India’s armed forces. This shows how Hyderabad has evolved as a preferred low cost manufacturing ecosystem for global production.

The Minister also pointed out that there are four aerospace parks in the city and more than four dozen general engineering parks.

“We have leading OEMs sourcing critical components, and subsystems from Hyderabad based local industries. Global aviation majors have also established their Technology development, engineering and R&D centres in Hyderabad,” he added.

“I urge US government agencies to directly engage with progressive state governments like Telangana,” he said.

Later, Rao highlighted the presence of four dedicated aerospace parks in Hyderabad and 50 general-engineering parks with quality infrastructure for precision industry. Two more aerospace parks are proposed in the State.

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