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The Tamil Nadu Defence Industrial Corridor (TNDIC) has managed memorandum of understandings (MoUs) from 53 industries and organisations for a potential investment of ₹11,794 crore and of that ₹3,861 crore have already been invested in the Corridor, the Ministry of Defence told Parliament on Monday.
Through the TNDIC, spread over five nodes of Chennai, Coimbatore, Hosur, Salem and Tiruchirappalli, the government expects that it would generate opportunities for direct and indirect employment, Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt in a written reply to Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) MP Dr Anbumani Ramadoss in Rajya Sabha. The Centre stated that “support sought by Government of Tamil Nadu from time to time for the development of TNDIC are appropriately addressed”.
In another question, the Centre asserted that the actual defence expenditure has only been on the rise even as a percentage of it to overall government spending has come down. For instance, the gross expenditure for defence for BE 2022-23 was ₹5,55,484 crore while the Central government expenditure was ₹30,44,909, which meant a 14.08 percentage of defence spending on central spending. This was slightly higher than previous fiscal of RE2021-22 where it was 14.20 percentage.
Sharing spending details from 2014-15 till 2022-23, Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt said data showed “defence expenditure as a percentage of Central Government Expenditure may appear to be decreasing due to increasing trend in the growth of Central Government Expenditure. However, Defence Expenditure is increasing in absolute terms, implying higher spending”. His reply was to a query posed by MP Binoy Viswam in Rajya Sabha.
The junior minister also told the parliament that post corporatisation of erstwhile Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), the government financial assistance provided to Troop Comforts Limited (TCL) during the FY 2021-22 and FY 2022-23 is ₹550.64 crore.
The process of fabric manufacturing of newly designed digital combat uniform includes wet processing (chemical refining of fabric), dyeing (application of colour/shades) and printing (of design), the Minister told MP Visam in response to his another query. Garmenting is the final stage where the stitched apparel is manufactured.
“The Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) has been obtained for Digital Camouflage Pattern and it starts from wet processing onwards. Thus, this particular qualifying criterion was included in the Request for Proposal (RFP) to increase accountability of the manufacturers and minimise unauthorised proliferation,” the minister stated. Further, the procurement is through an Open Tender Enquiry (OTE) and to ensure compliance to the tender conditions, adequate time was awarded to all bidders, including TCL, before opening of the bid, he added.
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