SIDM, Sept 24

SIDM, in partnership with the Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), is organising a series of 'Global Outreach Webinars & Expo' in the period of 24 September – 15 November 2020 (Exhibition will extend till Dec 2020), to promote defence exports and global partnership for Indian Defence Industry.

The series will cover 15 countries in the first phase: Australia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Israel, Malaysia, Nepal, Nigeria, Oman, Seychelles, South Africa, Thailand, UAE, UK, USA and Uzbekistan.

The first webinar of the series focused on Israel and was organized in collaboration with SIBAT, the International Cooperation Directorate of the Israeli Ministry of Defence on 24th September 2020 from 1300 – 1600 hrs IST. In his opening remarks, Mr Jayant D Patil, President, SIDM highlighted that CII mounted the first Defence Industry delegation to Tel Aviv in 2002. “From the visit, multiple things have happened which have matured our defence Industrial ties”, he said. He conveyed that more than 100 Exhibitors, from both the Indian and Israeli Industry, have set up Virtual Stalls to identify and collaborate for future opportunities as part the Outreach Series.

H.E Mr Sanjeev Singla, Ambassador of India to Israel, in his address, highlighted that Israeli defence companies have major linkages with India and are very keen to expand these linkages through special product development & manufacturing with a vision of using India as a hub for its exports to other countries. He dwelt upon India and Israel’s strategic partnership and said that this relationship has been in a qualitatively different trajectory ever since the historic visit by PM Modi in 2017 and PM Netanyahu in 2018.

During his address, H.E Dr Ron Malka, Ambassador of Israel to India, said “ The vision of Make in India, With India, For India and For the world feeds very well with Israeli defence companies, we are looking at genuine friends like India to develop and manufacture equipment together”. He conveyed that an MoU was signed with India recently to foster Innovation between the Industries from both sides.

“We are trying to explore more formulas, avenues and new ways of collaboration”, he said. The Chief Guest for the event, Dr Ajay Kumar, Defence Secretary, Ministry of Defence illustrated that several policy initiatives have been taken by the Government to initiate the collaboration under Make in India and Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. He stressed upon the initiative to enhance FDI through automatic routes from 49% to 74% which can enable a higher controlling stake for Israeli companies looking to invest in India.

"We are confident that our partnership with Israel will, especially, be championed by the Industries from both sides and we look forward to their growing partnership in the future", he said.

Dr Kumar also announced the formation of a Sub Working Group on Defence Industry Cooperation.

The objective of the Sub Working Group is given below:  Joint Export to friendly foreign countries  Co-development & Co-production  Transfer of Technology  Artificial Intelligence  Innovation  Technology Security The Sub Working Group will be chaired by the Sanjay Jaju, Joint Secretary (DIP), Ministry of Defence from India and Mr Eyal Calif, Acting Director, Strategy and Planning and Director Asia & Pacific, SIBAT from Israel. Maj Gen(Res) Amir Eshel, Director-General, Israeli Ministry of Defence as the Guest of Honour appreciated the announcement on Sub working group to deepen the cooperation between the respective Industries.

"Our strategic partnership has been known for many years and this partnership has enhanced national security for both countries, he said. He highlighted that Israel’s cooperation with India is unique where both countries have achieved unprecedented goals and have a lot of expectations from current and future endeavours.

Brig Gen (Res.) Yair Kulas, Director-General, SIBAT, in his address spoke of how this webinar can lead to future beginnings and collaborations to enhance defence Industrial cooperation which can create more jobs for the two countries. He also reiterated the importance of India being not just a friend but a close strategic partner.

"It has been almost two decades that SIBAT has been leading the Israeli effort to enhance industrial cooperation with India in the Defence sector for meeting mutual requirements’, he said.

In his Special Address, Mr Raj Kumar, Secretary (Defence Production), Ministry of Defence said that in Post COVID-19 world, there is immense potential for the two countries to contribute to the world in scientific, technological, innovation, commercial and strategic ways.

“Currently India’s domestic industrial production is at $12 billion. We want our defence Industries to achieve an annual turnover of $25 billion by 2025. To achieve this goal, we have introduced the draft of Defence Production and Export Promotion Policy 2020, which elaborates strategies to double defence production and promote exports”, he said.

He highlighted that Israeli OEMs have offset discharge liability of more than $1.1 billion where a few of these of offset discharge proposals involve Investment and Transfer of Technology to Indian industries.

“During the last decade and a half, 23 defence contracts have been awarded to Israel’s major industries such as IAI, Rafale Advanced Systems, Elbit System and Elta Systems. In addition, 7 Joint-Ventures have been formed with Indian companies like Kalyani Group, Astra Group, HAL, Adani Defence and Punj Llyod; a number of MoUs have also been signed during DefExpo 2020 and AeroIndia 2019”, he conveyed.

In his concluding remarks, Mr SP Shukla, Vice-President, SIDM dwelt that there is a distinct possibility to explore cooperation by increasing interoperability between the two armed forces of India and Israel. He stressed that this can enable closer defence cooperation and can lead to increased collaboration between the Industries from both sides.

An MoU was signed during the Session between the Kalyani Group and Rafael Advanced Systems. On Signing the MoU, Col Rajinder Bhatia, President and CEO - Defence, Bharat Forge Ltd said “ Today’s MoU is an extension of the Joint Venture agreement between Rafael Advanced Systems and Kalyani Group which in line with the pillars of the Atma Nirbhar Abhiyan”

A Knowledge Paper by SIDM-KPMG on India-Israel Defence Cooperation was released by Dr Ajay Kumar during the Session. The paper highlights rules and regulations around defence exports and defence production and suggests ways for Israeli companies to partner with Indian Defence companies.

The Session was attended by over 300+ participants.

A Virtual Exhibition to showcase the capability of the Indian and Israeli Industry was concomitantly organized along with the Webinar. 100+ Exhibitors are taking part in the virtual Exhibition.