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In addition to two defence industrial corridors in the country, Karnataka has pitched for setting up a Defence Technology Hub in the State to promote aerospace and defence manufacturing ecosystem.
In a letter to Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh, Karnataka Industries Minister Jagadish Shettar said: “Karnataka is best suited for setting up defence technology hubs given its R&D, IT and technical innovation culture, presence of leading DPSUs such as HAL, BEL and laboratories such as DARE and ADE of DRDO.”
He further said the presence of global majors such as Airbus, Boeing and GE Aviation in Karnataka makes it a natural leader in India’s aerospace and defence industry.”
The Central government has set up two defence industrial corridors and has been aggressively promoting it. The corridors – one each in Uttar Pradesh with six nodes and in Tamil Nadu with five nodes.
Listing out advantages of setting up defence technology hubs in the State, the Minister said currently, more than 25 per cent of the country’s aircraft and spacecraft industry are located in Karnataka and nearly 67 per cent of all aircraft and helicopter manufacturing for defence services are done here.
Also over 65 per cent of the country’s aerospace related exports are from the state. with over 2,000 MSMEs capable of carrying out niche sub-contracting work operate from here.
Bengaluru is the only Indian city to feature in the top 10 global aerospace cities of the future ranked by FDI intelligence, he pointed out.
Shettar also pointed out suitable places in the State to set up the hub, said “Bengaluru, Mysuru, Tumkuru and Chamarajanagar in particular are four nodes/hubs that provides readily available robust infrastructure along with a strong aerospace and defence ecosystem to offer an enhanced value proposition to investors.”
In view of these reasons, it is imperative that Karnataka continues to play an active role in contributing to the country’s aerospace and defence ambitions to accelerate domestic production, he added.
Atmanirbhar Bharat vision
Requesting for setting up the hubs and offer investment sops, Shettar said, “Establishment of defence technology hubs in Karnataka should receive the same benefits as defence corridors such as enhanced multipliers under the Defence Offset Policy, support for supporting infrastructure like testing, certification of defence platforms and products etc shall further catalyse the growth of aerospace and defence sector in the State and provide catalytic impetus to Central government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat vision.”
“Also such an initiative would be logical acknowledgement of the scientific leadership of the state and the contribution of its people in the field of defence R&D,” he explained.
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