Bringing Out The Big Guns

The government pushes its flagging Make in India initiative with a new defence production policy and by showcasing India’s defence manufacturing potential at the biennial DefExpo-2018

- Sandeep Unnithan

The Union ministry for defence (MoD) is keen on making a splash this year at the 10th edition of the biennial DefExpo, a land, naval and homeland security exhibition which begins near Chennai on April 15. So very keen, that (according to a story doing the rounds of South Block), it prepared a live fire demonstration of a prototype Indian howitzer at the venue, shooting into the Bay of Bengal. The proposal was nixed after sensible advice prevailed. The exhibition, traditionally a show window for arms and men tie-ups for the armed forces and industry, has veered closer to the government’s goal of making defence hardware indigenously. Its tagline showcases India as an ‘emerging defence and manufacturing hub’ and comes after a three-month policy barrage from Union minister for defence Nirmala Sitharaman aimed at reviving a comatose Make in India defence policy. In January, the government relea­sed a list of Make­II projects aimed at boosting private sector participation by offering 50 projects where private industries can come up with solutions the MoD guarantees it will buy. This is meant to allay a key industry fear—that the government does not buy products the industry spends time and money on to develop. The MoD also created a defence investor cell under the Department of Defence Production as a single­point interface with investors.