MSMEs to Strengthen India’s Defence Sector

India accounts for 3.7% of the global military expenditure making it world’s third highest military spender. In the view to position India amongst the leading countries of the world in defence and aerospace sector, Ministry of Defence has formulated a draft Defence Production and Export Promotion Policy 2020 (DPEPP). India’s proactive approach towards rising joint agreements and mutual trade with various countries offer huge potential and opportunities to boost defence manufacturing in India. Moreover, Government of India has opened the industry for private sector participation to uplift indigenous manufacturing.

On the occasion of ‘Vijay Diwas’, World Trade Center Bhubaneswar collaborated with KPMG & Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to organize an informative session on ‘Business Opportunities in Manufacturing of Products for Newly Formed Defence PSUs & SIDBI Finance Schemes’ on a virtual platform.  The session aimed to give an introduction about various business opportunities opened up by the PSUs in the Aerospace and Defence Sector. In addition to that the session aimed to develop connections between MSMEs and SIDBI for potential loan requirements and also to familiarise them with various banking schemes offered by SIDBI.

Mr. P.K. Gupta, IEDS, Joint Director & HOO, MSME-DI Cuttack, in his inaugural address spoke about the measuresCentral Government has introduced to incentivize private sector manufacturing. He also explained how these developments aim at making the defence industry ecosystem optimistic as the restructuring will enhance the productivity, cost effectiveness, product range and product quality in the sector.

Cdr. Gautam Nanda, Associate Partner, Aerospace and Defence, KPMGmade a detailed presentation on the business opportunities for the MSMEs in the Aerospace and Defence Sector. He presented an analysis of the defence budget further explaining about the regulatory provisions for the MSMEs in the sector, challenges met. He also gave an introduction to the upcoming SIDBI’s web portal for the MSMEs in A&D Sector.

Sqn. Ldr. Priyanka Verma, IAF (Retd.), Assistant Manager, KPMG delivered a detailed presentation on the finance schemes offered by SIDBI for the MSMEs. She further gave an elaborate introduction about SIDBI and how SIDBI can assist the MSMEs through its newly launched banking products ‘ARISE –Assistance to Re-Energize Capital Investments by SMEs’ and ‘STHAPAN –Thematic Assistance for Purchase of capital Assets in New Enterprises’.

Mr. SmarajitMohanty, President, Odisha Small Scale Industries Association (OSSIA) in his address spoke about the major challenges faced by the MSMEs in availing financial assistance. He also spoke about the major bottlenecks in the ease of doing business such as lack of financial expertise, lack of access and awareness to financial solutions etc.

Mr.NandikiGangadhar Reddy, Vice President, Juggernaut Association of Entrepreneurs delivered the closing remarks and summarized the takeaways from the session. He also spoke about the easing of the technology transfer process and cost to be simplified in order to make it more accessible and feasible for the MSMEs.

Earlier Ms. Nimeshika Natarajan, Assistant Director, World Trade Center Bhubaneswar in her welcome address spoke about the increasing importance of MSMEs with local procurement getting accelerated specially in the wake of COVID 19 pandemic. She also spoke about the initiatives of the Center for handholding the MSMEs in order to make India Atmanirbhar. She moderated the sessionand proposed the vote of thanks.

The webinar was followed by a highly interactive Q&A session taken up by Mr.Girish Kumar, AGM, Bhubaneswar Branch, SIDBI and Ashish Avasthy, Manager, Direct Credit Vertical, SIDBI.