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VIF organised a round table discussion among Dr G Satheesh Reddy, the Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation), the strategic community and representatives from the private Indian defence manufacturers and included L&T’s Defence, Tata Advanced Systems, Bharat Forge, Godrej, Mahindra Defence etc.

The round table provided an opportunity for the Chairman DRDO to speak on “Self Reliance in Defence Technologies” presenting his perspective on indigenous defence R&D, production, expectations from and opportunities for the Indian private defence manufacturers. The representatives from the private industry aired their expectations from the Ministry of Defence, the Defence R&D establishment, as also apprehensions and challenges faced as private defence manufacturers. During his talk, the DRDO Chairman highlighted various weapon systems, sensors and platforms in which self-sufficiency had been achieved in terms of design and development. He also provided a scan of the futuristic fields that are opening up for disruptive research and development of capabilities.

He detailed the industry collaboration mechanisms being pursued actively by DRDO to engage the private industry including joint development, Government Owned Company Operated (GOCO) model, Transfer of Technology, Tech Development Fund (TDF), Development cum Production Partnership (DCPP) etc and the scale of private industry engagement and involvement with the Defence R&D establishment. He highlighted various national efforts towards enablement of the industry like budget announcements prioritising and allocating funds for domestic procurement of defence equipment, mechanisms for promoting design and development by industry, opening of the Defence R&D for private industry and schemes for engaging academic institutions and promoting academic research through Centres of Excellence, Research Boards etc and developing all round R&D ecosystem in India etc.

It was decided to take forward the discussions and interactions in the future to evolve objective recommendations/ changes in the mechanism for developing a robust defence industry ecosystem in India.