Defence Minister Rajnath Singh exhorts for robust investments in UP & Tamil Nadu Industrial Corridors

Lucknow, Feb 11 (KNN) The Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday called for more investments in Uttar Pradesh & Tamil Nadu Defence Industrial Corridors (DICs) to achieve ‘Make in India, Make for the World’.

Addressing a session organised as part of Uttar Pradesh Global Investors’ Summit, he urged the defence sector companies to increase their investment and emphasis more on R&D to take the defence industry to newer heights and ensure overall growth of the country.

He described fool-proof security as the strongest pillar of a prosperous nation, asserting that the Government is leaving no stone unturned to build a self-reliant defence industry which provides state-of-the-art weapons & technologies to the Armed Forces, crucial to make the nation ‘Aatmanirbhar’. 

The Defence Minister pointed out that after centuries of foreign rule and imports dependency for decades post-independence, the country is witnessing the rise of a self-reliant defence sector due to the collaborative efforts of the Government and the industry, especially the private sector in the last few years.

“Today, along with all other sectors, defence is moving ahead at a fast pace to achieve self-reliance while contributing to the economic progress of the country. Major steps, including setting up of two DICs are adding to that momentum,” he said.

He added that the DICs have been conceptualised to help in providing basic facilities to the defence industry, exuding confidence that they will soon become the backbone of the sector. 

On the UPDIC, he mentioned that the corridor nodes (Agra, Aligarh, Chitrakoot, Jhansi, Kanpur and Lucknow) are historically-important industrial areas, connected not only with the state but the entire country. 

This corridor has the potential to provide to the defence industry an ecosystem which is crucial for any organisation involved in R&D and production, said the minister.

The Raksha Mantri highlighted that following the establishment of the UPDIC, MoUs have been signed with more than 100 investors within a short span of time. 

So far, more than 550 hectares of land has been allotted to over 30 organisations and an investment of about Rs 2,500 crore has been made. These statistics will increase, he said, hoping that the UPDIC will prove to be a runway for the state’s defence industry to touch greater heights.  (KNN Bureau)