Defence Minister addresses CEOs Roundtable at Aero India 2025

• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh exhorts global OEMs to use the opportunities offered by the Indian defence ecosystem to find solutions to today’s challenges

• Stresses on the need to adopt & improve solutions constantly amidst the fragile global security situation

• “Govt is taking all steps to equip the Armed Forces & make the nation ‘Aatmanirbhar’ in defence”

Bengaluru, February 10. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has invited the global Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to utilise the opportunities offered by the expanding Indian defence ecosystem and find targeted solutions & counter measures to the challenges emerging due to the volatile geopolitical landscape of today. He was addressing the CEOs Roundtable organised as part of Aero India 2025 in Bengaluru, Karnataka on February 10, 2025. Defence Minister stated that amidst the fragile global security situation, where rules-based order is being challenged and technologies are creating new opportunities & vulnerabilities, there is a need to adopt & improve solutions constantly.

“Today, the nature of communication and data sharing in military operations is getting much more complex. The reliance on space-based navigation systems, communication and surveillance implies that such assets would have to be integrated in our operational plans. The use of drones in recent conflicts indicate that the future would depend on the integrated efforts of manned, unmanned and autonomous warfare systems. Hence, our defence manufacturing has to focus on creating counter measures for these emerging challenges,” said Mr. Rajnath Singh.

Citing great Indian strategist Kautilya, Defence Minister said: “We have the moral responsibility to protect our people and territory in a hostile atmosphere. To achieve this, we are taking all necessary steps to equip our Armed Forces and making the country self-reliant in defence manufacturing through the establishment of a strong, efficient, resilient and future-ready defence industrial ecosystem,” he said.

Mr. Rajnath Singh asserted that the Government of India, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has put in place transparent & industry-friendly regulations, processes and policies. He emphasised that the opportunities provided by the Indian defence ecosystem are driven by the policies of self-reliance in defence production, facilitated by a conducive policy regime.

Defence Minister enumerated the transformative steps taken by the Government to make the domestic defence industry an important component of the national economy in order to facilitate India’s transition from a developing to a developed country by 2047. “We have allowed FDI upto 75% through the Automatic Route for companies seeking new defence license, while upto 100% is also allowed under Government approval route. A total of 46 Joint Ventures and Companies have been given foreign investment approval in the defence sector till date,” he said.

Mr. Rajnath Singh added that more than 250 MoUs have, so far, been signed for the establishment of industrial units in the Defence Industrial Corridors set-up in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. He mentioned about the Defence Testing Infrastructure Scheme introduced to provide financial assistance to the Aerospace and Defence sector for setting up 6-8 greenfield Testing and Certification facilities. The Defence Exim Portal has made the export authorisation process seamless. “As a testimony to the emergence of India as a defence export nucleus, India has seen 31 times growth in the export of products in the last 10 years as compared to Financial Year 2013-14,” he said.

Defence Minister described the issuance of Positive Indigenisation Lists as a clear indicator to the Government’s intent to support the industry in its self-reliance pursuit. He added that for innovation projects in the defence sector, over 500 start-ups & MSMEs are presently working under the aegis of Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX). “Our overall ease of doing business environment has improved tremendously. This is showing great results as India has the 3^rd largest start-up ecosystem in the world today; this is expected to witness Year on Year growth of 10-12%. We possess a young generation of highly-skilled workforce, which constantly updates itself in the face of the fast-changing ecosystem of the world. You must not miss the opportunity to leverage the advantages of this ecosystem,” he told the over 100 CEOs, both domestic and foreign, present on the occasion.

Mr. Rajnath Singh described the CEOs Roundtable as a platform where the idea of making India self-reliant in defence production would take root, germinate and blossom into full scale reality. It reflects the serious intent of the Government to team with the best organisations around the world in the spirit of cooperation. The essence of this conclave is to explore how to join hands to make India a leading defence manufacturer and service provider at the global scale, he said.

The theme of the Roundtable was ‘Enabling Defence Cooperation through Global Engagement (EDGE)’. OEMs from 19 countries (USA, France, Russia, South Korea, UK, Japan, Israel & Brazil etc), 35 Indian (Larsen & Toubro, Bharat Forge Ltd, Adani Defence & Aerospace, Mahindra Defence Systems Ltd, BrahMos Aerospace & Ashok Leyland Defence) and 16 Defence DPSUs attended the event.

Major foreign OEMs including Airbus (France), Ultra Maritime (USA), GNT (South Korea), John Cockerill Defence (UK), Mitsubishi (Japan), Rafael Advanced Defense System (Israel), Safran (France) and Liebherr Aerospace (France) highlighted their future plans, Joint Ventures, collaborations, partnerships with Indian companies for production of spares parts, development of aero-engines, setting up of Maintenance, Repair and Operations facilities and establishment of R&D facilities.

Minister of State for Defence Sanjay Seth, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan, Chief of the Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi, Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi, Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal AP Singh, Defence Secretary Mr. Rajesh Kumar Singh, Secretary (Defence Production) Mr. Sanjeev Kumar, Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman DRDO Dr Samir V Kamat were among those who attended the CEOs Roundtable.