Defence Industrial Corridors

The Finance Minister of India had, in his budget speech (2018-2019), announced the setting up of two Defence Industrial Corridors in the country. A review of the progress on the same was carried by the various stakeholders including the Defense Minister and various other bureaucrats.

What are the Defence Industrial Corridors?

• India currently imports over 70% of the defense equipment used by the Armed Forces including all the big items like aircraft, ships, tanks and guns.
• To indigenize and improve the defense equipment used for the Indian Armed Forces, the Central Government decided to establish two Defence Industrial Corridors in the country.
• A defense corridor refers to a route (road, rail, waterway etc) along which domestic manufacturers manufacture defence equipment. These may be the public sector, private sector and MSMEs.
• The government has also opened up for private investment in defense production by allowing foreign direct investment.
• It was then decided to establish one of these Corridors in Uttar Pradesh and another in Tamil Nadu.
• For this, six nodes were identified for Uttar Pradesh Corridor and five in Tamil Nadu Corridor.

What will happen now?

The defense minister has ordered the officials to speed up the setting up of the defense corridors.

The officials will also have to hire key resource personnel in advance as the defense sector is highly complex and there is a lack of skilled workforce.

To ensure adequate investments, assured orders of defense items would be provided.