Several pacts to be signed at Lucknow Defexpo: Rajnath Singh

Several Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Request For Proposals (RFP) will be signed with several countries during the Defexpo 2020 in Lucknow, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday. The expo is expected to see the conclusion of several cooperative agreements between Indian and foreign companies to manufacture defence equipment and components in India.

Key role

“Our target is to make India a $5 trillion dollar economy by 2024 and the defence sector will play a major role in that… We are working to make India a defence manufacturing hub and the Defexpo 2020 will help in that,” Mr. Singh said addressing the curtain raiser to the event. He said the Defexpo provided a platform to work with U.S., Russia and South Korea and other countries to build India’s defence capabilities.

In this regard, several agreements are expected between Indian and Russian companies for term supply of spares and components. This flows from an India and Russia agreement for long term supply of spares in India for Russian military platform with Indian military. The agreements are expected on the sidelines of the fifth India Russia Military Industry Conference to be held on February 6. Over 100 Russian and over 200 Indian industry leaders are expected to participate in that. In addition, some progressive announcements are expected on Ka-226T helicopters and AK-203 deals which are very big deals with ‘Make in India’ through technology transfer and in advanced stages on conclusion.

Sharing of info

Agreements are also expected between Indian and U.S. companies following the conclusion of the Industrial Security Annex (ISA) recently which allows sharing of classified information by U.S. companies with Indian industry.

The 11th edition of Defexpo is scheduled to be held from February 5 to 9 which will see participation of over 60 countries and 40 Ministers apart from service chiefs and senior officials. In all, over 1,000 companies have registered for participation in the expo, which has substantially gone up from 702 companies in Defexpo 2018 in Chennai. These include 856 Indian companies and 172 foreign companies. The exhibition area has gone up from 27,000 square metres in 2018 to 53,000 sq m this year. The expo is scheduled to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday.

An India-Africa Defence Ministers conclave is scheduled on February 6 in which over 30 countries are expected to take part. Over 24 Defence Ministers have indicated willingness to participate and 14 Ministers have confirmed participation so far.

China not to attend

However, a Chinese delegation, which confirmed its participation, cancelled its participation in the last minute following India’s decision to cancel all e-visas from China due to the scare of coronavirus.

The Ministry had announced two defence industrial corridors in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.

Speaking at the curtain raiser, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said his government had identified six nodes for the corridor which include Lucknow, Kanpur, Chitrakoot, Jhansi and Agra.

He said they had already an aerospace and defence policy and identified large land banks to be given to companies interested in investing here. Mr. Adityanath also announced ambitious efforts to build 11 domestic airports and the largest expressway from Meerut to Prayagraj to boost connectivity.