The Minister of State (MoS) for Defence, Shripad Naik, inaugurated the 5th edition of the conference on Aerospace and Defence Manufacturing Technologies in Delhi Wednesday. Theme of the conference is ‘Empowering India with Aatmanirbhar Bharat Mission’.
At the inauguration, Naik said, “Indian defence and aerospace industry today is on the threshold of transformation, under the several initiatives of Government of India to promote ‘Make in India’ and ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ Abhiyaan.” He exhorted that the Indian aerospace and defence (A&D) industry has to rise to the occasion to shoulder greater responsibility in making the nation self-reliant in defence production and achieve $26 billion domestic production by 2025, which is the stated objective of the defence production policy.
Speaking about the challenge posed by Covid-19, he said, “Covidhas caused, across the globe, severe economic and social challenges… In our national efforts over the last four months, we have been successful to first create high awareness among our large population, build adequate capacity for testing and providing health care, and manage the rate of spread of virus.”
In recent years, the defence sector has grown extensively. It has increased at a Compound Annual Growth Rate(CAGR) of 9.7 per cent from 2008 to 2016, reaching current levels of $42.83 billion in the year 2017-18. The A&D industry in India is estimated to reach around $70 billion by 2030.
Naik emphasised, “India’s aerospace and defence market has tremendous growth potential and strong fundamentals to be globally competitive and further develop into a leading hub and net exporter for design, manufacturing, engineering, technology development and services.”
The Indian civil aviation market is one of the fastest growing markets in the world with tourist footfall increasing at 20 per cent every year and the growth is expected to continue with the plan of investments of about $1.83 billion in the development of airport infrastructure by 2026.
Speaking about global aircraft Maintenance, Repair, Overhaul (MRO), Naik said, “Indian market is yet to catch up. The Indian MRO market is estimated at $800 million and is growing at about eight per cent annually against a four per cent world average.”
The Indian civil Aviation MRO market, at present, stands at around $900 million and is anticipated to grow to $4.33 billion by 2025 increasing at a CAGR of about 14-15 per cent.
