New Delhi, May 21 (KNN) Acknowledging the hardships faced by the defence industry including the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector, Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh said manufacturing sector has been affected the most due to lockdown and disruption in existing supply chains and the defence sector is no exception to this.

Rather, it can be said that the defence sector is more aggravated than other sectors as the only buyer of defence products is the government, he said.

Via video conference, he was addressing MSMEs E-conclave, jointly organised by SIDM, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Department of Defence Production here today.

Singh appreciated the role played by Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM) and other Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nation's fight against global Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

He said, "There are more than 8,000 MSMEs, tiered partners of many of our organisations - Ordnance factories, DPSUs and service organisations. They contribute more than 20 per cent of the total production of these organisations."

Pointing the problems faced by the industry, he pointed that the MoD has taken several steps for industries, especially MSMEs. Such as: extension of response dates of RFP/RFI, early clearance of pending payments, etc. In this crisis, several financial support measures have been announced by the Government and RBI to reduce the financial burden of the industries. These will provide some relief due to the availability of additional working capital, deferment in interest payments.

Raksha Mantri assured that the 'Aatma Nirbhar Bharat' campaign, inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will provide many opportunities to Indian industry and will help in restoring millions of jobs.

Theme of the E-conclave was 'Business Continuity for MSMEs in Defence & Aerospace Sector' in which more than 800 Defence MSMEs participated.

Citing the example of United States where domestic defence industry developed within a short span of two years during the World War-II, Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat said India should have its own defence industry. He urged the MSMEs to work for placing India among the top ten nations in defence technologies.

Secretary (Defence Production) Raj Kumar said the DPSUs have been asked to clear payments of MSMEs, and also announced that their production targets have not been scaled down.