Defence Electronics policy likely to be rolled out soon

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Final Draft Recommendations Unveiled at Deftronics Event
The country’s first Defence Electronics and System Design Policy, which has been on the anvil since December 2014, is now a few steps away from being approved.


The draft recommendations for the Policy, which were put together by the India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) along with Nasscom and submitted to the Secretary, Defence Production last May, went through several iterations over the last 18 months, both at the government and industry level.


In addition, Roland Berger, a leading global strategy consulting firm with expertise in defence, was roped in 18 months ago — in an advisory capacity — to further fine tune the recommendations based on the feedback of the Defence Ministry and other industry stakeholders.


The recommendations, which are based on current aerospace, defence, internal security trends and happenings, will provide guidance to the formulation of the Defence Electronics policy by the Union Ministry.
“We submitted the final draft recommendations for the Policy on July 25 in a meeting chaired by the Defence Minister that lasted one hour and 15 minutes in New Delhi. It has taken three meetings with the government and 12-15 meetings with the defence PSUs and other industry stakeholders over the last 18 months to prepare the final draft recommendations,” Krishna Moorthy, Chairman-IESA, told BusinessLine on the sidelines of Deftronics 2016, the annual flagship Aerospace & Defence event organised by IESA and NASSCOM.


“From the precision with which questions were asked and from the seriousness of intent, I am sure the Policy will be approved. However, it may take some more time for this to happen, as different recommendations that we have made have to go to the relevant Ministries that handle it, such as Commerce and IT.”


Equipment Import
Stating that nearly 70 per cent of the defence budget goes towards importing capital equipment, of which electronics constitutes a significant part, he said it therefore makes business sense to come up with a policy that promotes indigenous manufacturing capabilities and helps to create millions of jobs.


The final draft recommendations of the Policy, which was launched at Deftronics, pointed out various opportunities, issues and risks that will play a significant role in the formation of the aerospace & defence electronics market.


The total market opportunity for aerospace & defence electronics for India is estimated to be $70-72 billion by 2029.


To tap this, the country needs 2 million engineers with deep understanding of defence electronics.
However, the country can produce just 72,000-1,00,000 engineers at best, observed Rahul Gangal, Partner, Roland Berger.
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