Bengal entrepreneurs flock for a slice of defence budget pie

defencekolkata11nov2016

Kolkata :

A few months ago when the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) made an effort to introduce Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) in West Bengal to the defence sector, there were few takers. On Friday, there was overwhelming response at the CII’s 7th Industry Defence Linkage in the city with entrepreneurs aiming at a slice of the huge defence budget pie.

“The Army is best suited as its relatively easier to meet our requirements. Our requirements are simply humongous. Of the 130-140 schemes at any time, nearly 40% are below Rs 150 crore. This makes wider participation possible.

Even big ticket items like armour and artillery are integrated systems of sub-systems. There are over 100 vendors for the T-90 tank and at one point it has to come down to MSMEs. We are looking for new technology dozers and other equipment. There is great potential in eastern India where there are a number of mines,” Lt Gen Subrata Saha, deputy chief of Army staff (planning and system) said during the event.

According to him, the Army is already interacting with academic institutions like the Indian Institute if Science and IITs to enable technology development. MSMEs can easily participate for supply of equipment worth more than $ 9.6 billion that is now imported.

“There is no reason why this kind of money should be allowed to leave the country. We took industrialists and scientists to the Line of Control (LOC) in Kashmir so they may form their own opinions and come up with suggestions. After the Uri attack, two persons came up with very good suggestions that have been forwarded. We also plan to take industrialists and scientists from the east to Sikkim for a similar experience,” Lt Gen Saha said.
Among the others who spoke at the conference were V S Noronha, vice president, Tata Motors, Rajib Chakraborty, general manager, Gun & Shell Factory, Cossipore, K R Nautiyal, IG and commander, Coast Guard Region (North East), Rear Admiral S P Lal, assistant chief of material, Indian Navy and Air Commodore H S Basra, principal director (plans), Air Force Headquarters.

Noronha appreciated Lt Gen Saha’s efforts to move from city to city in a bid to encourage Indian entrepreneurs. There has been a lot of effort in promoting Make in India in the last two years and this has provided long term opportunities for entrepreneurs, he said. He felt that defence clusters can be set up at several locations and funding can be arranged by CII’s SME Finance Facilitation Centre. Commander Nautiyal said that entrepreneurs can look towards participating during maintenance of ships and refits.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Kolkata News / by Jayanta Gupta / TNN / November 09th, 2016

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