Mr Manohar Parrikar, hon’ble Raksha Mantri said that Defence Offsets a Catalyst to kick-start Defence Manufacturing. He was speaking during the Interactive Session on Defence Offsets organized by Confederation of Indian Industry. Mr Parrikar also said that there is a need to effectively implement the existing policies and procedures. He also emphasized on the fact that there is a need to compress the procurement time frames. Mr. Parikar also said that the interactive session has brought to light many issues particularly the time line, lack of flexibility of selecting a partner and of no proper grievance redressal platform. The Defense Minister gave an assurance that he will try and sort out majority of these problems as soon as possible.
Mr Baba N Kalyani, Chairman CII National Committee on Defence & Chairman, Bharat Forge said that Defence Offsets are the means to kick start defence manufacturing in any given country in the present context. In India, defence offsets are one of the lowest in the world at 30 percent of the contract value. Offset banking is a good idea. Offset banking can be utilized to engage with the foreign OEMs well in advance.
Mr Phil Shaw, Co-Chairman CII Defence International Cooperation Sub-committee and Chief Executive, Lockheed Martin India said that LM has USD 40 billion worth of defence offset obligations globally. Defence offsets should be a win-win situation for both sides and not a zero sum game. He also mentioned about Indian companies becoming single source suppliers to the foreign OEMs. It has advantage for both sides.
Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General CII congratulated Rakha Mantri for biggest ever Aero India 2015. He said that We are hopeful that private sector companies would graduate from Tier 4 & Tier 3 level to Tier 2 & Tier 1 levels and become part of the Global Supply Chain. We are also hopeful to see Indian private sector companies as the System Integrators in the years to come. He assured that CII will support Governments initiatives including “Make in India.”
Hon’ble Rakha Mantri also released a CII publication on Indian Defence Aero Platforms Production & Procurement Compendium 2015-16.
Following MoUs were also signed during the programme:
1. CII-Aerospace Venture MoU on providing a range of services to the new entrants particularly MSMEs
2. Kalyani Group’s Joint Venture with Rafael Advanced Defence Systems
3. Kalyani Group is signing a JV with Premier explosives Ltd for manufacture of High Energy propellants, Rocket motors and selected grade of ammunition that is currently imported.
4. Handing Over of Major Airframe Assemblies Manufactured by Dynamatics to Bell Helicopters and exchange of documents.
Over 300 CEOs/MDS and top ranking officials of various Indian and foreign companies attended the interactive session with Mr Manohar Parrikar, Hon’ble Defence Minister. The Session gave an opportunity to leaders of the Indian industry to make valuable suggestion and put forward their issues directly to the Hon’ble Defence Minister.
New Delhi
19th February, 2015