Rajnath Singh invites global OEMs to set up manufacturing in India

New Delhi: Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday invited global original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to co-develop, co-produce, integrate and strengthen supply chains, form joint ventures, set up manufacturing in India and make for the world.

During an interaction with top executives of OEMs on the sidelines of Aero India in Bengaluru, Singh said India offers significant advantages of competitive land costs, skilled human capital, a vibrant start-up ecosystem and a huge domestic defence market to the global defence industry.

He described this as a win-win situation where defence manufacturing companies from across the world can become a part of the Indian growth story.

Singh emphasised the importance of the defence sector for India saying, “Defence production meets the twin goals of becoming self-reliant in a critical sector as well as generating jobs for our people.”

The minister also mentioned the incentives given by Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu governments for investment in Defence Industrial Corridors, central government policies promoting FDI and defence manufacturing in India, the strong legal system protecting stakeholders‘ interests and improvements in ease of doing business.

“There are opportunities to co-develop, co-produce, integrate and strengthen supply chains, from Joint Ventures, set up manufacturing in India and make for the world,” he said.

The CEOs gave their suggestions to facilitate global investment in Indian defence manufacturing and Rajnath Singh assured them of government efforts to remove regulatory hurdles for private industry.

Chief executive of General Atomics Vivek Lall, senior executive VP of Safran Alexander Ziegler, business development Boeing President Heidi grant, vice president of Embraer Caetano Spuldaro Neto and president and CEO of Rafael Advanced Systems Major General Yoav Har Even were present in the meeting.