Thursday, July 26, 2012:
The Indian defence and aerospace sectors are growing at an unprecedented rate and India is emerging as one of the largest markets for this sector globally.
With India being one of the world's largest military spenders in the world, there is an exponentially high degree of attention on India which has one of the largest defence procurement budgets in Asia.
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The key drivers of the Indian aerospace and defence industry is the high domestic demand, offset policy, cost advantages, talent base and the opportunity to leverage IT competitiveness.
The seminar, jointly hosted by the India Semiconductor Association (ISA) and ELCINA was inaugurated at the HAL Convention Centre, by M. M. Pallam Raju, minister of State for Defence.
Today, the strategic electronics sector presents an unprecedented opportunity as well as challenge. Modern warfare systems including fly by wire, avionics, telecommunications, sonar systems, navigation and surveillance depend heavily on electronic systems. The production of strategic electronics in India has been growing steadily from Rs. 5,700 crores in 2007-08 to Rs. 9,000 crores during 2009-10.
As per expected growth rates, electronics production in defence sector in India is likely to reach Rs.15,000 crores during the current financial year. We could safely say that the value of electronics will rise faster than the total value of strategic equipment and thus become increasingly important strategically as well as commercially.
PVG Menon, president, ISA, said: "The growth in strategic electronics is fuelled by the expanding budgetary allocation for the defence sector, which grew by 12 per cent from Rs. 147,344 crores in 2010-11 to Rs. 164,415 crores in 2011-12. Of this, capital expenditure, which mostly caters for modernization requirements, accounts for Rs. 69, 199 crores. As per the projected estimates, India is likely to spend nearly $100 billion on military procurement during the current five year plan (2007-12) and $120 billion in the next plan period (2012-17), the latter coinciding with the last phase of India’s ambitious military modernization plan. This represents a huge opportunity for Indian electronics companies to develop innovative technologies and products for this sector."
T. Vasu, president, ELCINA, said: "As envisioned by the industry, strategic electronics segment refers to electronic systems used for defence of the country and are of tactical and long term importance. This would cover equipment used for land, air and naval forces as well as para military forces. Strategic electronics is also being widely applied for internal security applications such as by civil and crime-control police forces."
As is well known, India's dependence on imported technology and equipment continues to grow and we now have the unenviable distinction of being the largest importer of defence equipment. There is an urgent need to address this situation and we have to find ways to enable our own industry to play a greater role in development and manufacture of defence equipment.
A number of public as well as private companies like, C-DOT, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., Vittal Innovation City Tata Power, L&T and Mahindra Defence Systems supported the summit. Top officials of Army, Navy, Air Force, DRDO, and Directorate General for Quality Assurance (DGQA) were also present at the summit.
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