FICCI, November 3

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), jointly with the Ministry of Defence, Government of India, will be leading a 50-member industry delegation to Russia from November 5–6, 2019. The objective of the delegation is to explore ways to jointly manufacture spares and components with Russian OEMs under Make in India.

Mr Rajnath Singh, Defence Minister, Government of India, and Mr. Denis Manturov, Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, will address senior representatives of the defence industry from India and Russia at the ‘India–Russia Defence Industry Cooperation Conference’ to be held on November 5, 2019, at Moscow.  

The delegation to Russia is a follow-up to the Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) signed on September 4, 2019 by India and Russia to operationalize a mechanism for collaboration on joint manufacturing of spare parts, components, aggregates and other products for the maintenance of Russian-origin arms and defence equipment in India under the Make in India program through the transfer of technology and setting up of joint ventures. 

The IGA framework gives the assurance of business order for a minimum of five years. Russian platforms identified for cooperation to manufacture spares and components include Sukhoi Su-30, MIG 29, Mi-17 helicopters, MIG 29 K/KUB, INS Vikramaditya, T-72 and T-90.

The team from the Indian defence industry includes CMDs from public sector companies like BDL, BEML, and GSL, and senior industry leaders from nearly 35 private sector companies like L&T Defence, Bharat Forge Limited, Adani Defence, Texmaco Defence, Alpha Design Technologies, Ananth Technologies, MKU, SMPP, Zen Technologies and others.

Senior officials associated with the Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh defence corridors will be reaching out to potential investors to set up manufacturing facilities in these industrial corridors.