Khushi Bhuta, Pune
Minister of Industries Uday Samant announced that the state of Maharashtra is set to have 4 defence manufacturing hubs in the near future on Saturday. The statement was made at MSME (Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) Defence Expo, held in Pune at the Pune Exhibition and Convention Centre.
The Minister stated that, “over the last few days, I have seen the impact of the defence sector MSMEs in Maharashtra. We want to make Maharashtra a hub of defence manufacturing.” Furthermore, he elaborated on the future vision of creating four defence clusters across the state, through the cities of Pune, Nagpur, Shirdi, and Ratnagiri.
The expo has been organised by the Government of Maharashtra to highlight the capabilities of numerous MSMEs, private companies, Defence Public Sector Units (DPSU) and laboratories of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in the state. Held at a grand scale, the three-day expo brought in registrations from over 500 startups and enterprises, as well as over a lakh attendees. These attendees included over 20,000 students from the city of Pune.
Samant’s statement was made in light of a corresponding statement by the Deputy Chief Devendra Fadnavis Minister at the same Expo. In his statement, Fadnavis discussed a potential revision of Maharashtra’s aerospace and defence manufacturing policy. The state’s manufacturing policy was the first of its kind when formulated in the year 2017 post the implementation of the policy of Atmanirbhar Bharat under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In the present day, Maharashtra is home to about 600 defence MSMEs that have in turn contributed to a value and assets valued at 12,000-15,000 crores.
He also explained the reason for focusing on the city of Pune “Since defence equipment requires a lot of advanced technologies, Pune being a technology hub is an ideal location for forging partnerships between MSMEs and PSUs (Public Sector Undertakings).”
Highlighting the role of India in a geopolitical context, Fadnavis emphasizes on the importance of the decision to revise the policy. Specifically focusing on the defence industry, he stated that several countries across the globe have been looking forward to working more with Indian entities. The new policy is expected to focus on the role of MSMEs in the larger context of the policy.