From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Feb 5: With a view to encourage manufacturing of defence and aeronautical equipment in Karnataka, the State Government is proposing to develop a defence manufacturing cluster, said Jagadish Shettar, Minister for Large and Medium Industries, at the DefExpo 2020 in Lucknow, today.
"This will boost indigenous manufacturing of defence and aeronautical equipment.’’ he said.
The Minister inaugurated the Invest Karnataka Pavilion at DefExpo 2020, a flagship biennial event of the Ministry of Defence. He said that DefExpo is a good opportunity to showcase its prowess when it comes to defence manufacturing in Karnataka.
Speaking later at DefExpo 2020 CEO Conference, he said that Karnataka is focussing at manufacturing defence equipment.
The state, which is one of the biggest aerospace hubs, is also home to HAL and other major aerospace and defence companies. It has also set up a Centre for Excellence in Aerospace and Defence in partnership with Dassault Systems, he said.
In order to boost the indigenisation of defence equipment in the state, the state government is also focussing on building domestic defence industrial base.
About 65% of aerospace-related investments in India and about 70% of the supplier base is in Karnataka, he added.
He further said that large engineering and R&D centres of international aerospace companies such as Airbus, Boeing, Honeywell, UTC (Collins), GE, and Rolls Royce are operating in Karnataka.
Karnataka is in great demand when it comes to aerospace and defence sectors and is globally recognised for the same, the minister added. Shettar said that Karnataka also attracted several investors at the annual meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos.
Shettar also said that the state government aims to develop Bengaluru as MRO hub with world-class MRO infrastructure or defence locomotion and high-value equipment including missiles.
The Minister informed that Invest Karnataka Hubballi is being organised on Feb 14 to attract investors to tier II and III cities in the state and to shed light on industrial opportunities in North Karnataka as well as Hubballi Dharwad regions.
He extended the invitation to industrialists at the DefExpo to participate in Invest Karnataka Hubballi Conference 2020 as well as the ‘Invest Karnataka 2020’ (Global Investor Meet) and assured State Government’s complete support and corporation.
Meetings with industrialists:
The Minister also held series of meetings with MD of Pratt and Whitney Ashmita Sethi, Pierre Dickeli, CEO, Safran India, PBS Aerospace Zdenek Liska, sales manager, CEO Rolls Royce Kishore Rajaram, Madhu S Nair, CMD, Cochin Shipyard, Anand E Stanley, CEO and MD, Airbus India, Ola Rignell, MD, Saab India, Vice President of TVS Sundaram Motors Arnab Chatterjee and others.
Gaurav Gupta, Principal Secretary, Commerce and Industry, Gunjan Krishna, Commissioner, Industrial Development, CII Karnataka President Alan Chaudhury, COO of Invest Karnataka Forum Swaroppa TK and others were present.