Strategic Electronics Summit 2016 inaugurated at BIEC will revolve around public private partnerships in defense sector to accelerate pace of “Make in India Campaign”
The 7th Strategic Electronics Summit 2016 got underway today with record participation at Bangalore International Exhibition Centre( BIEC) where Manohar Parrikar, Hon’ble Minister for Defense, GoI was the chief guest along with Dr. G Satheesh Reddy, DS & SA to RM and Dr. Ajay Kumar, IAS, Addl. Secretary, DeitY, JD Patil, Senior VP, Defense & Aerospace, L&T, S. K. Sharma, CMD, BEL, T Suvarna Raju, CMD, HAL as the guests of honor and Dr. Padmanabhan, CEO Rangsons and MV Apparao, CMD, Centum Electronics as the distinguished guests at the event.
Recognizing Strategic Electronics as a key area where Defense Production Policy and Offset Policies have created immense scope for growth of domestic manufacturing, Electronic Industries Association of India had launched the Strategic Electronics Summit in 2010 to offer a platform for the Indian industry to explore opportunities to work together with the defense establishment, bring all stakeholders including the government, defense organizations, private and public sector together and share information.
Addressing the large industry gathering, Honorable Raksha Mantri Shri Manohar Parikkar said “In today’s dynamic times, we feel RFPs (request for proposals) cannot be fool proof from day one; they need to be open to changes in requirements. Through the “Make in India” campaign, the government wants to promote the larger Industry and help them develop its design and manufacturing capabilities in India. I urge the industry experts to tell me what needs to be done in a simple format, share your pain points and bottlenecks. The assurance from our end is that the government will support your initiatives to grow and mushroom.”
Vikram Desai, President ELCINA stated that, “The objective of hosting SES is to bring all stakeholders on one platform to enable better communication and understanding of requirements of the defense establishment. We aim to create awareness about opportunities in the Strategic Electronics sector through the interactive sessions planned during this 2 day event which is witnessing growing participation with every passing year”.
Dr. Ajay Kumar, Additional Secretary, Dept of Electronics & IT, Government of India, who has played a key role in the formulation and implementation of the National Policy on Electronics, was optimistic about the future of the Electronic System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) Industry and the positive impact of the numerous Schemes launched for overall development of the electronics eco-system in the country.
Dr. Kumar said “The minister’s participation here today is a symbolic message to us all from the industry that the Government of India is full heartedly supporting the Make in India in defense initiative in the country.”
Secretary General, Rajoo Goel informed that ELCINA was actively conducting research for Defense Electronics sector and had prepared three reports to inform and encourage investments in the country. ELCINA was also working with BEL and DeitY to try and establish a Defense Electronics Lab in Bangalore in BEL Ancillary complex to support the Small and Medium enterprises. This would be a one of a kind project for the industry, he said.
Some of the highlight sessions during the course of the 2 days would be topics such as Opportunities for Defense Industries under “Make in India Program”, Indigenization, Role of Academia & Electronic SME’s Clusters, Strategic Partners for Defense & Aerospace Programs to name a few.
The sessions would be chaired by current and former dignitaries from Ministry of Defense, Dept. of Electronics, Govt of India, C-DOT, DRDO, DEAL, HAL, BEL, and IIT Madras.
SES is a timely initiative as government has made its intention amply clear to enhance domestic value addition in this sector by active participation and investments by foreign as well as domestic companies. The role of Indian Companies & MNC’s is vital to achieve this objective and one of the goals of SES is to encourage the same by Policy advocacy and enabling closer cooperation between Indian and Foreign companies
