Highlighting the vast opportunities that the defence sector presents to the private sector Vice Admiral Rajesh Pendharkar, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Naval Command, Visakhapatnam recently addressed CII’s Southern Regional Council Meeting.
Speaking to a select gathering of industrialists he said that the Indian Navy has surged ahead in enhancing the indigenous content in ship and submarine design, construction material, machinery, equipment, and systems.
“And in order to ensure that more industry partners join the journey of atmanirbharta, the Navy has initiated “Industry Yatras”, where in multidis- ciplinary teams visit various industrial corridors to match existing industrial capabilities with Navy’s requirements”, said VADM Pendharkar.
He further added that as IN strives towards acquiring a force level of about 170 ships and submarines by 2035 and its thrust remains steadfastly on indigenous design and construction, as also, progressive increase in the indigenous content of systems on board these platforms.
Presently, 67 ships are under construction of which 65 are in Indian shipyards, he said. In order to support the Atmanirbharta campaign a dedicated organization has been put in place in the Navy, to support atmanirbharta, wherein the Directorate of Indigenisation (DoI) at NHQ, and Indigenisation Units at Command level are steering a large number of indigenisation projects for import substitution, he added.
It was informed that the DoI has linked 5,629 items in inventory as import substitutes that have been indigenously developed and that it is currently steering 107 projects amounting to Rs.3218.5 Cr. Of these, 52 contracts amounting to Rs.680 Cr, have already been concluded, noted the VADM.
The Navy is also progressing projects with more than 160 MSMEs, Startups and Large industry, and is at the forefront with 100 projects under iDEX Scheme, 25 projects under the TDF scheme, and 37 projects under MAKE Scheme, he said.
At the Eastern Naval Command, we have been continuously engaging with MSMEs at various levels.
Discussions are in progress with firms located in Andhra Pradesh Medtech Zone (AMTZ) towards harnessing the expertise available in common fields of interest like 3D Printing and Scanning, said the VADM. CII Southern Region Council Meeting was attended by over 60 leading CEOs and captain of Industry from 6 southern states including Mr Kamal Bali, Chairman, CII Southern Region and President & Managing Director, Volvo Group India.
